Why do Indian Reservations still exist?

[Ban my account ffs!]

The reservations are their land.

I live near one of only two "closed" reservations in the U.S.  Non-band members cannot purchase a home there and very few whites live there despite the two other nearby reservations being full of whites.

Reservations still serve as "home base" for them.  Abolishing them would pretty much just turn them into gypsies with no place to call home.

Many will have to leave to find better opportunities off the reservations... but having that home base is very important.

[Ban my account ffs!]

If they were abolished, would they be ahead or behind the Kurds for largest ethnicity without their own proper nation?

Oh there are plenty of patriotic natives.  They are Americans as well as Native Americans.  Most are just very poor and apathetic today.