Project Homeland › Nations’ lands at settlement

Nations’ lands at the time of settlement

Between 1946 and 1978 the U.S. Indian Claims Commission and the Court of Claims heard nations’ claims for lands taken from them. Where a nation proved it held a tract — its “original Indian title” — when the United States took it, the area was mapped. These are those 176 areas, from the Commission’s 1978 map, with the years Royce (1899) records the United States taking title.

What this does and doesn’t show. These are the boundaries litigation established, drawn for court: shared and contested lands are simplified, nations that brought no claim (or whose claims failed) are missing, and much of the East had been taken before any such case. They are a floor, not the full extent of anyone’s homeland, and the nations’ own accounts come first. Corrections: [email protected].

Areas: “Indian Land Areas Judicially Established” (U.S. Indian Claims Commission, final report 1978; compiled and published by the U.S. Geological Survey), as digitized by the National Park Service — public domain; simplified to about 0.5 km. Dates: Royce, Indian Land Cessions in the United States (1899), via the USDA Forest Service digitization (CC BY 4.0). How Project Homeland was made.