Draft · version 0.5.2
Project Homeland One map of the trails that joined Native nations before settlement reached each place, melded from every historic trail map traced so far. Where maps agree the line firms up; where only one map shows a trail it is dashed.
A draft, built from colonial-era maps. These sources are outsiders’ views; names, lines and dates are theirs, and the map has not yet been reviewed by the nations it shows. How it was made, and where it may be wrong . Corrections: [email protected]
On the map Layers The lands nations proved before the Indian Claims Commission (1946–78) they held when the United States took them. With the period slider set, land still held then shows strongly and land already taken fades. Click one for the nation and when it was taken; all 176 areas .
1784 1894 Coloured by the year the United States took title; with the period slider set, areas already ceded by then fade. Click one for its treaty and the nations it was taken from.
Base map Period: all periods How it is made Trails are traced from each georeferenced map on Native Routes, then melded: traces of the same trail from different maps are averaged, weighted by each map’s accuracy, and the spread between them becomes the corridor shown. Every line keeps its sources. The sources, every step and the known limits: how this map was made .
This version: 47,773 km of trail (8,078 km seen on more than one map), from 63 sources · 90 historic towns.
The 25 named trails , each with its maps and how well they agree · 266 nations and the lands ceded by each · 176 areas of nations’ lands at the time of settlement .
Sources so far Southeastern trail system, 1928 — William Edward Myer, 1928Wilderness trails of Pennsylvania and Ohio, 1910 — Hanna, Charles A. (Charles Augustus), 1863-1950, 1911Black Hawk's village trails, 1921 — John H. Hauberg, 1921Indian paths of Greater New York, 1912 — Reginald Pelham Bolton, 1912Native Routes documented route corridors — Native Routes, 2026Ives’s Colorado River and the Hopi mesas, 1858 — Lieut. Joseph C. Ives; drawn by F. W. von Egloffstein, 1858Connecticut trails, c. 1625 — Mathias Spiess, 1930Kaʻū and Puna trails, 1922–24 (USGS) — U.S. Geological Survey, 1924Kohala to Hilo trails, 1913–17 (USGS) — U.S. Geological Survey, 1917Indian trails of Chicago, 1804 — Albert F. Scharf, 1901Indiana's Indian history map, 1933 — E. Y. Guernsey; Indiana Department of Conservation, Publication 122, 1933Buffalo Trace, Pike–Dubois, 1919 — George R. Wilson, 1919Buffalo Trace, Orange County, 1919 — George R. Wilson, 1919Kentucke, 1784 — John Filson, 1784Aboriginal trails of Missouri, 1908 — Louis Houck, 1908North Carolina, 1770 — John Collet, 1770New Jersey Indian Path, 1747 — Bill in Chancery of New-Jersey, 1747Territory of New Mexico, 1867 — U.S. Topographical Engineers, 1867Guy Johnson's map of the Six Nations, 1771 — Guy Johnson (1851 engraving), 1851Northwestern New York paths, c. 1765 — Unknown, 1768Province of New York, 1779 (Sauthier) — Claude Joseph Sauthier, 1779Heckewelder’s Ohio paths, 1796 — John Heckewelder, 1796Williamson & Abbot’s Oregon routes, 1855 — Lieut. R. S. Williamson and Lieut. H. L. Abbot, U.S. Topographical Engineers; drawn by John Young, 1859Pennsylvania, 1792 (Howell) — Reading Howell, 1792Improved part of Pennsylvania, 1759 — Nicholas Scull, 1759Province of Pennsylvania, 1770 — William Scull, 1770North and South Carolina, 1775 — Henry Mouzon and others, 1775Brazos and Big Wichita, 1854 (Marcy) — Capt. Randolph B. Marcy, 1854Texas and New Mexico, 1857 — U.S. Topographical Engineers, 1857Middle British Colonies, 1755 — Lewis Evans, 1755The Ohio country, 1778 — Thomas Hutchins, 1778Southern Indian trade paths, c. 1770 — Joseph Purcell and J. R. Swanton, 1922Whipple’s 35th-parallel survey, 1853–54 — Lieut. A. W. Whipple, Topl. Engrs., assisted by Lieut. J. C. Ives and A. H. Campbell, 1855Virginia and Maryland, 1755 — Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson, 1755Wisconsin Indian trails, 1930 — Charles E. Brown, 1930Eastern Wisconsin, c. 1830 — U.S. War Department, 1830Sierra Nevada by Yosemite, 1868 — Charles F. Hoffmann and James T. Gardner, 1868Nez Perce campaign map, 1877 — Robert H. Fletcher (Department of the Columbia), 1877West Texas trails, 1867 — Engineer Bureau, War Department, 1867Trail from Mono Lake to Black’s, 1860s — U.S. Army (unsigned), 1865Western Colorado, 1877 (Hayden) — F. V. Hayden (Henry Gannett and A. D. Wilson), 1877Northern central Colorado, 1877 (Hayden) — F. V. Hayden (G. R. Bechler, S. B. Ladd and H. Gannett), 1877New Hampshire, 1761 (Blanchard and Langdon) — Joseph Blanchard and Samuel Langdon, 1761The earliest Bay Path, 1642 (Chase) — Levi B. Chase, 1901Indian trails about Springfield, 1911 (Wright) — Harry Andrew Wright, 1911Yellowstone Park, 1878 (Hayden) — F. V. Hayden (A. D. Wilson and Henry Gannett), 1878Yellowstone National Park, 1881 (Norris) — P. W. Norris, Superintendent, 1881Central Nevada, about 1864 (Office of the Chief of Engineers) — Office of the Chief of Engineers, U.S.A., 1864Northern Arizona and southern Utah, 1873 (Wheeler) — George M. Wheeler (Weyss, Herman and Lang, del.), 1873Grand Canyon, Paria to Diamond Creek, 1874 (Thompson) — Gilbert Thompson (Wheeler survey), 1874Southwest Oregon and the Klamath country, 1862 (1st Oregon Cavalry) — 1st Oregon Cavalry, 1862Kansas–Nebraska, 1855 (Gunnison) — J. W. Gunnison and E. G. Beckwith (F. W. von Egloffstein), U.S. War Department, 1855Source of the Mississippi, 1832 (Allen) — Lt. James Allen, U.S. Infantry, 1832Cherokee cessions, 1884 (Royce) — Charles C. Royce (Bureau of Ethnology), 1884Surveyed Michigan, 1836 (Farmer) — John Farmer (J. H. Colton), 1836Louisiana overland routes, 1743 (Broutin) — Ignace-François Broutin, de Vergés and Saucier (signed Demarigny), 1743Choctaw, Chickasaw and Creek, 1773 — Bernard Romans (with David Taitt and George Gauld), 1773Fort Laramie to Leavenworth, 1849 (Easton) — Capt. L. C. Easton, Quartermaster's Department, U.S. Army (base from J. C. Frémont), 1849Western Reserve, 1798 (Pease) — Seth Pease, 1798Grand Portage reservation, 1858 (Emerson) — Surveyor General’s Office, St. Paul (Charles L. Emerson, Surveyor General), 1858Georgia, 1779 (Universal Magazine) — The Universal Magazine, 1779Cumberland & Franklin, 1853 (Ramsey) — J. G. M. Ramsey, 1853Surveyed Michigan, 1825 (Risdon) — Orange Risdon (Rawdon, Clark & Co.), 1825Help trace it 50 more maps are open for tracing. Members trace a trail by clicking along it on the old map (Trace a trail on the map ); once another member confirms it, it is melded in with the next version. Traces waiting for a confirmation .
Nations’ lands at the time of settlement: “Indian Land Areas Judicially Established” (U.S. Indian Claims Commission and U.S. Geological Survey, 1978), as digitized by the National Park Service; public domain.
Lands ceded: “Tribal Lands Ceded to the United States” (USDA Forest Service, National NAGPRA Program, EPA and Claudio Saunt, 2018; CC BY 4.0 ), from Royce, Indian Land Cessions in the United States (1899).
Changes 0.5.2 (2026-10-18): Two new maps of Pennsylvania and more traced on four already on the site. New: Nicholas Scull’s 1759 map of the improved part of the province, whose key reads “The prick’d Lines are Indian Paths” — fourteen of them, among them the Warriors Path from the Great Island, the Path to Wyoming and the Path from Chingleclamouche to Shamokin — one work with William Scull’s 1770 enlargement, which adds three dotted paths beyond it (Venango to the Canoe Place, and through Bloody Run); and Reading Howell’s 1792 state map (the 1896 facsimile), with its Snow Shoe path, the 23-mile portage between the Canoe Places, the Kittanning path and the Sheshequin path. Traced now on maps already here: the Minisink Path from Navesink to Minisink Island on the 1747 New Jersey Chancery map; Guy Johnson’s eight dotted Indian paths of 1771, from Niagara and the Allegheny to Oneida, drawn independently of no. 156; and the rest of Spiess’s Connecticut, c. 1625 — every path it names and its main and secondary trails, 41 more lines. The Universal Magazine’s 1779 Georgia is now counted with Mouzon’s 1775 map, whose Georgia section it copies.0.5.1 (2026-10-16): Twelve maps of the Midwest and the South, new on the site and traced by hand. The Midwest: Farmer’s 1836 and Risdon’s 1825 maps of surveyed Michigan, rival compilations whose dotted Indian trails agree within a few kilometres — among them the Sauk Trail (Farmer’s “Chicago Trail”), the St. Joseph’s Trail and the trails from Saginaw up the Flint; Lt. James Allen’s 1832 map of the Schoolcraft expedition, with the Ojibwe Indian routes and portages from Itasca to Leech Lake and Lac du Canard; the 1858 plat of the Grand Portage reservation, with the Grand Portage and the Indian Trail west from the bay; Pease’s 1798 survey of the Western Reserve, whose Indian Path from the Cuyahoga portage to the Mahoning agrees with Heckewelder’s; and two Pawnee maps — Gunnison’s 1855 Map No. 2 with the Pawnee Trail from the Platte to the Smoky Hill, and Easton’s 1849 manuscript with two trails from the Pawnee village to the Republican (both from Frémont’s 1845 map, one work). The South: Royce’s 1884 Cherokee map and Ramsey’s 1853 map of Tennessee (one work: Royce follows Ramsey’s Annals), with the Great Indian War Path through East Tennessee and the Cherokee paths and trading paths of the upcountry; Romans’s manuscript of about 1773 for John Stuart (one work with Purcell’s), with the traders’ road from Pensacola through the Creek towns to Augusta and the Choctaw paths to Fort Tombecbé; Broutin, de Vergés and Saucier’s 1743 French manuscript, with the Chickasaw–Choctaw path and the English traders’ passage; and the Universal Magazine’s 1779 Georgia, with the Upper Path, the Path from Oakfuskee and the Lower Trading Path.0.5.0 (2026-10-16): Nine maps, new on the site and traced by hand. New England beyond Connecticut for the first time: Blanchard and Langdon’s New Hampshire (1761), with the Indian carrying place from the Kennebec toward the Chaudière and three Abenaki routes to Odanak by Memphremagog, the Wells and Winooski rivers and the Black River; Chase’s 1901 map of the earliest Bay Path and the Nipmuc paths around Quabaug and Mendon; and Wright’s 1911 Agawam and Woronoco paths around Springfield, whose Bay Path meets Chase’s. In the West: the 1st Oregon Cavalry’s 1862 “Indian Trails in present use” through the Klamath and Modoc country; Nevada’s first, the Old Indian Trail of an Army map of about 1864, from east of Walker Lake toward Ione; the Bannack Trail across Yellowstone (Hayden’s 1878 survey and Norris’s 1881 map, one witness); and Wheeler’s 1873 Sheet 67 with Gilbert Thompson’s 1874 Grand Cañon sketch (one work): the Shivwits trail to its crossing, the Hopi trail from Moenkopi, Navajo’s Trail and a Havasupai–Hualapai foot trail. Ives’s Diamond Creek trail is traced too. The method: a stretch counts only the maps that see it, and carries a trail’s name only where a map naming it draws it; two sheets of one work cast one vote; one town name within 10 km is one town; and where the network joins trail ends it no longer folds a short last stretch back on itself (0.4.6 drew 93 such spikes). One terrain bridge on the Comanche War Trail no longer meets the network and waits for review.0.4.6 (2026-10-12): Two sheets of F. V. Hayden’s 1877 Atlas of Colorado, new on the site, placed on their own graticules and traced by hand: the Navajo Trail across the Uncompahgre Plateau from the Uncompahgre Agency toward the San Miguel, and the Indian Trail up the North Platte through North Park toward Willow Creek Pass.0.4.5 (2026-10-09): An Army manuscript map of the trail from Mono Lake to Black’s (1860s), new on the site and traced by hand. Drawn independently of the 1868 Hoffmann–Gardner survey, it runs within a kilometre or two of that map’s Trail to Mono, so the Mono Trail across the Sierra now has two witnesses.0.4.4 (2026-10-09): The Engineer Bureau’s 1867 map of Texas, new on the site, traced by hand in West Texas: the Grand Comanche War Trail and the Comanche Trail toward the Big Bend, the Large Indian Trail across the Rio Grande, the Indian trail from the Pecos to the White Sand Hills, and the trails by the Hueco and Cornudas mountains to the salt lakes. It is compiled from the same Army surveys as the 1857 Texas map, so the two count as one witness.0.4.3 (2026-10-09): Two western maps, new on the site and traced by hand: the Hoffmann–Gardner survey of the Sierra Nevada by Yosemite (1868), whose “Trail to Mono” is the Miwok and Mono Paiute trade route over Mono Pass; and the Department of the Columbia’s 1877 Nez Perce campaign map, whose Lolo Trail — the Nimiipuu road over the Bitterroots — now has a map witness beside its corridor.0.4.2 (2026-10-09): A War Department map of eastern Wisconsin from about 1830, new on the site, traced by hand: the routes from Green Bay to the Manitowoc, up the Fox and around Lake Winnebago toward Chicago, and by the Butte des Morts to Green Lake. Drawn a century before Brown’s 1930 map, it runs within a few kilometres of his trails, so they now agree as two witnesses.0.4.1 (2026-10-09): Charles E. Brown’s 1930 Wisconsin Indian Trails Map (Wisconsin Archeological Society), new on the site, traced from its red trails: the first statewide trail network in the upper Midwest.0.4.0 (2026-10-09): Nations’ lands at the time of settlement: the 176 areas of the Indian Claims Commission’s 1978 map of Indian land areas judicially established (as digitized by the National Park Service), each joined to the Royce cessions that took it.0.3.7 (2026-10-08): Six source maps re-placed after their control points were checked against the map symbols (Myer 1928, Mills 1914, Morgan 1851, R. McNally 1894, Marcy 1854 and the 1857 Texas map): Myer’s trails, Marcy’s war trail and the 1857 Comanche Trail retraced through the corrected placements. Mills and Morgan are now stated at their measured accuracy (7 and 9 km).0.3.6 (2026-10-08): Guernsey’s 1933 Indiana sheet re-placed (overlay 1.0.1: control points re-read on each town’s symbol; leave-one-out error 3.6 km). Its Sauk Trail, Chicago-to-Detroit trail and Buffalo Trace retraced through the new placement and weighted at its stated 8 km; the Buffalo Trace, re-read at full resolution, now runs Vincennes to New Albany and is confirmed by three well-placed maps for 100 km.0.3.5 (2026-10-08): The USGS’s 1910s north Hawaiʻi sheets: the labelled trail from Waimanu over the gulches to Waipiʻo. Every remaining map on the site has now been read for Native trails: those left untraced (Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Pope, and the survey and military maps) draw roads, ranch trails or expedition routes rather than labelled Native trails, and stay open for members.0.3.4 (2026-10-08): The War Department’s 1867 map of New Mexico: its labelled Indian Trail from the Pima villages across the Salt River valley to Grape Vine Spring. Guernsey’s 1933 Indiana sheet: the Sauk Trail through Lake and Porter counties, the Chicago-to-Detroit trail through La Porte, and the Buffalo Trace from Vincennes to the Falls (on two maps for 125 km); checked against nine towns, its placement is off 10–15 km typically, so it is weighted at ±25 km and can corroborate but not confirm.0.3.3 (2026-10-08): Scharf’s Chicago about 1804: the Sauk Trail from Joliet to Dyer, the Vincennes Trail and the Chicago portage. The USGS’s 1920s Kaʻū–Puna sheets: the coastal Puna Trail (the ala loa) from near Apua Point to Kalapana — the network’s first trail in Hawaiʻi.0.3.2 (2026-10-08): The anonymous 1750s–60s manuscript of the Five Nations' country: the dotted path from the Seneca country to the Oneida castle and down the Mohawk (the Central Trail seen on two maps for 268 km, from 83). Heckewelder’s 1796 manuscript paths of north-eastern Ohio (Pittsburgh to the Tuscarawas, Kuskuski, the Cuyahoga): the Great Trail confirmed by three maps for 90 km. Whipple’s 1854 route along the Mojave trail, the Colorado to Cajon Pass (the Zuni–Mojave route seen on a second map for 359 km). Williamson and Abbot’s 1855 “Indian Trail” across Tygh Prairie. Ives’s 1858 trails from the Hopi towns to Fort Defiance and Zuni (the Zuni–Mojave route on two maps for 178 km). Marcy’s 1854 “War trail of Northern Indians” past Mount Cooper and the Salt Lakes (the Comanche War Trail on two maps for 125 km). Houck’s 1908 Missouri: the Osage Trail, the trail to the Osage village from St. Charles, and Du Tisne’s Trail (670 km of new trail). Evans’s 1755 Scioto path and the path from the Muskingum to Pickawillany. A map now counts toward “confirmed” only if it is itself placed within ±20 km, and toward “corroborated” within ±40 km, so coarse maps no longer vouch for agreement finer than their own accuracy (confirmed length 66 km, corroborated 2,834 km).0.3.1 (2026-10-08): Filson’s 1784 Warrior’s Path, Flat Lick to the Upper Blue Licks: the Warriors’ Path confirmed by three maps for 78 km. Scull’s 1770 dotted path from the Canoe Place to Franks Town: the Kittanning Path confirmed by three maps for 42 km. Sauthier’s 1779 road up the Mohawk, Fort Hunter to Fort Stanwix: the Central Trail’s first corroboration (83 km). Spiess’s Connecticut c. 1625: the Shore Path (the Pequot Path seen on two maps for 201 km) and the Woodstock branch of the Old Connecticut Path. Wilson’s 1919 plates of the Buffalo Trace (Harlin’s Ferry to the Blue River): the trace seen on two maps for 101 km. Sheets or plates of one work now count as one witness. The Army’s 1857 Comanche Trail from Horsehead Crossing toward the Big Bend (60 km seen on two maps). Hutchins’s 1778 Path to the Cuttawa Country, Scioto mouth to the Gap: a fourth map of the Warriors’ Path; where it runs 20 km and more from the others, the corridor widens accordingly. Thirty gaps inside single maps’ lines bridged over the terrain by Native Routes (dotted grey, labelled as inferred; no map draws them).0.3.0 (2026-10-08): Lands ceded by treaty, 1784–1894: the 718 cession areas of Royce’s Indian Land Cessions (1899), as digitized by the USDA Forest Service and partners, with the nations named in each treaty and the present-day nations associated with it; a page for each nation. Purcell’s Cherokee paths extended: the Valley towns to Fort Prince George, and the Middle Settlements to the Valley. Collet’s 1770 “Western or Trading Path” (Hillsborough to Salisbury and the Catawba) traced, the first independent map of the Great Trading Path. Matching now reads a trail’s direction over ±2 km and follows a witness along the network across junctions, so maps that agree are seen to agree more often (2,219 km on two or more maps). Mouzon’s 1775 Cherokee Path, Fort Prince George to Ninety Six: with Myer and Purcell, the first stretches in the South confirmed by three maps. Fry and Jefferson’s 1755 “Indian Road by the Treaty of Lancaster” up the Great Valley (Watkins Ferry to Looney’s Ferry) and the Great Road on to the Yadkin: the Great Warpath now seen on two maps for 498 km.0.2.0 (2026-10-08): Purcell’s c. 1770 map of the southern trading paths traced by hand: the Lower Creek trading path, Augusta to the Tallapoosa (confirmed by two maps for 322 km), and the Lower Cherokee paths from Tugulo and Fort Prince George to Duett’s Corner; corridor periods taken from their maps; brief touches by a second map no longer count as corroboration, and wobbles within a map’s uncertainty no longer leave stubs; 60 more maps opened for members to trace; a page for each named trail.0.1.0 (2026-10-08): First network: the red-ink trails of Myer 1928 (Southeast), Hanna 1910 (Pennsylvania–Ohio), Hauberg 1921 (Rock River) and Bolton 1912 (New York), melded with the 25 documented route corridors.Download this version: trail network (GeoJSON) · towns · source traces .