rez

noun

ˈrez 

variants or less commonly Rez or res

plural rezzes

1

: a tract of land set aside for Indigenous people of the United States and Canada : reservation, reserve

Our grandparents and great-grandparents worked to keep our land and our rights. … If Chief Migizi or Shabashkung or whoever had called it quits and moved to White Earth we wouldn't even have a rez.

—David Treuer

On weekends or holidays, we all went to our respective parents' rezzes to visit our grandparents and extended families.

—Elaine Bomberry

We follow the sounds of people singing forty-niner songs, funny songs about rez life set to drumming.

—Angeline Boulley

—usually used with the

Although River identifies as indigenous, she has been raised in a non-indigenous community. … She is unsure of what life on the rez will be …

—Patricia Jermey

Life on the res, always hard, was made even worse by the Allotment, or Dawes, Act of 1887, which mandated that collective lands be divided into private lots.

—Christian Parenti

The last glimmers of day covered the rez roads, but the trees shrouded the path in darkness, a tunnel of never-ending night.

—Morgan Talty

2

: the people living on a rez

—usually used with the

[Nicco] Montaño grew up in eastern Arizona with her mother, who is Navajo. Many of her Native American friends and supporters were in Las Vegas to support her Friday night. "I think the whole rez is here," she said.

—Rick Wright

Examples of rez in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Powell threw a spotlight on not just the particulars of rez ball — a faster, more intense version of the game played on reservations in the Southwest — but also the hardships facing the players, whose families coped with unemployment, domestic violence, alcoholism, and suicidal ideation. —A.a. Dowd, Vulture, 27 Sep. 2024

The experience inspired her to write the song—a track about missing rez life back home. —Christian Allaire, Vogue, 22 July 2024

Awards ‘Native women are unstoppable’: Lily Gladstone’s plan to expand Indigenous inclusion Jan. 30, 2024 Jax’s teenage niece, Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olsen), is ostensibly in her care now since Roki’s mother, Tawi, a dancer at a local strip club, vanished from the rez two weeks prior. —Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times, 21 June 2024

Still, the new season reminds us that our rez dogs — and the ones that came before, and the ones that will come after — are always together in spirit. —Kristen Baldwin, EW.com, 31 July 2023

Jacob knows no one, having matriculated at the rez school, and this is Edward’s seventh time going there. —Vulture, 22 Dec. 2023

His mission is reflected in the special attention the show pays to rez elders, many of them played by celebrated Indigenous character actors. —Inkoo Kang, The New Yorker, 6 Oct. 2023

So it’s taken nearly a third of the way into this final season to have everyone together back on the rez, getting up to mischief. —Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 16 Aug. 2023

Natives & Chicanos from the streets and from the rez are who Spanto represented and advocated for. —Christian Allaire, Vogue, 11 July 2023

Word History

Etymology

short for reservation

First Known Use

1880, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing rez

• on the rez