University of Oklahoma College of Law Digital Commons

Title

Map Showing the Location of the Indian Reservations within the Limits of the United States and Territories, 1885.

Creator

Preview

Johnson's Bibliographic Reference

1886-246

Source Document Title

Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, showing the operations, expenditures, and condition of the Institution to July, 1885.

Creation Date

1886

Description

Compiled from official and other authentic sources, under the direction of the Hon. John D.C. Atkins, Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Paul Brodie, Draughtsman, 1885.

As non-Indians moved westward, pressures were exerted upon the Indian land base. The federal government consequently evolved a policy of restricting the tribes to specified reservations. This goal was typically accomplished by treaty, exacted with varying degrees of persuasion and coercion, in which the tribe ceded much of the land it occupied to the United States and reserved a smaller portion to itself. On other occasions, the tribe was moved entirely away from the lands it was occupying to a distant reservation. (William C. Canby, Jr. American Indian Law in a Nutshell series)