Baltimore Reservation Project

In the mid-twentieth century, thousands of American Indians migrated to Baltimore City, seeking jobs and a better quality of life. They created a vibrant, urban, intertribal American Indian community and affectionately referred to it as their “reservation.” Today, most Baltimoreans are surprised to learn the reservation ever existed, but this is changing. An intergenerational team is reconstructing the reservation and reactivating heritage through oral history, archival research, mapping, and walking. Three free, public resources have been released to that end: the Illustrated Guide to East Baltimore's Historic American Indian "Reservation," baltimorereservation.com, and the Guide to Indigenous Baltimore mobile walking tour apps. The work is ongoing.