The Invasion of America
Interactive Time-Lapse Map
Shows How the U.S. Took More Than 1.5 Billion Acres
From Native Americans
See VIDEO Below 👀
See VIDEO Below 👀
Between 1776 and 1887, the United States seized over 1.5 billion acres from America's indigenous people by treaty and executive order. The Invasion of America shows how by mapping every treaty and executive order during that period. It also contains present-day federal Indian reservations.
The data are based on the maps produced by the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1899 under the guidance of Charles C. Royce. The maps themselves are available under "Source Maps."
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In treaty discussions, US troops often intimidated the negotiators, federal agents misrepresented the terms of agreement, and land speculators bribed participants. In desperate times, Indians signed away their homes in order to feed themselves and their families. In the 1850s, US presidents began using a second legal instrument to secure land, the executive order, and this prerogative grew in importance after 1871, when the federal government unilaterally stopped making treaties with native peoples. The power of the president to seize land by executive order may appear contrary to the sanctity of private property, one of the great legacies of the American Revolution, but white Americans never set Indian land title on the same footing as their own. Nor did they recognize the irony of their presumptions.
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In treaties and executive orders, the borders of each transaction are often spelled out in general terms only, making it impossible to map with any precision. That imprecision, which seems so foreign in the era of Google maps, was integral to the process of seizing the continent. Government surveyors were sent out with the vaguest of descriptions. They searched fruitlessly for headwaters, guessed which river fork they were supposed to ascend, and speculated where drainage basins began and ended. Greater legality and more precision would have made it impossible to seize so much land in so short a time.
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CREDITS
The Invasion of America is a project of eHistory.org.
Project director: Claudio Saunt, Russell Professor of History at the University of Georgia
Technical director: Sergio Bernardes, Center for Geospatial Research
Special thanks to David Holcomb and Daniel Reeves at ITOS for implementing the map on ArcGIS Server.
This interactive map, produced by University of Georgia historian Claudio Saunt to accompany his new book West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776, offers a time-lapse vision of the transfer of Indian land between 1776 and 1887. As blue “Indian homelands” disappear, small red areas appear, indicating the establishment of reservations.
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The project’s source data is a set of maps produced in 1899 by the Bureau of American Ethnology. The B.A.E. was a research unit of the Smithsonian that published and collected anthropological, archaeological, and linguistic research on the culture of North American Indians, as the nineteenth century drew to a close.
The project’s source data is a set of maps produced in 1899 by the Bureau of American Ethnology. The B.A.E. was a research unit of the Smithsonian that published and collected anthropological, archaeological, and linguistic research on the culture of North American Indians, as the nineteenth century drew to a close.
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In the site’s “About” section (reachable by clicking on the question mark), Saunt is careful to point out that the westward-moving boundaries could sometimes be vague. Asked for an example, he pointed me to the 1791 treaty with the Cherokee that ceded the land where present-day Knoxville, Tenn. stands. The treaty's language pointed to landmarks like "the mouth of Duck river," a broad approach that left a lot of room for creative implementation. When dealing with semi-nomadic tribes, Saunt added, negotiators sometimes designated a small reservation, "rather than spelling out the boundaries of the cession."
In the site’s “About” section (reachable by clicking on the question mark), Saunt is careful to point out that the westward-moving boundaries could sometimes be vague. Asked for an example, he pointed me to the 1791 treaty with the Cherokee that ceded the land where present-day Knoxville, Tenn. stands. The treaty's language pointed to landmarks like "the mouth of Duck river," a broad approach that left a lot of room for creative implementation. When dealing with semi-nomadic tribes, Saunt added, negotiators sometimes designated a small reservation, "rather than spelling out the boundaries of the cession."
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This vagueness benefited the government’s purposes in crafting treaties and executive orders. “Greater legality and more precision,” Saunt argues, “would have made it impossible to seize so much land in so short a time.”
This vagueness benefited the government’s purposes in crafting treaties and executive orders. “Greater legality and more precision,” Saunt argues, “would have made it impossible to seize so much land in so short a time.”
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Claudio Saunt is the Russell Professor of History at the University of Georgia. His most recent book, West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776 (W.W. Norton), explores the formative events that occurred across North America in 1776, far beyond the British colonies.
The Vault is Slate's history blog. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter @slatevault, and find us on Tumblr. Find out more about what this space is all about here.
Video: The Invasion of America - Watch the Indigenous Land Base Shrink Steve Russell 6/5/14
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American Indians in the United States know there was a time when we represented 100 percent of the population and owned 100 percent of the land. When we think of how we got where we are, the date that matters is 1492, because the Norse settlements that steal Columbus’s thunder were well north of the U.S.
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Of course, there was no U.S. in 1492, and there would not be for almost 300 years. Columbus kicked off the greatest treasure hunt in human history, and the Spanish royalty he represented hauled off the lion’s share of precious metals.
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Gold and silver were not the whole story. If they had been, the colonists could have been bought off with mining concessions. Europe was feudal when the Americas beckoned, and the basis of wealth in a feudal society is land. Every tract, or fief, belonged to some warlord, and the right to the labor of the actual occupants “ran with the land.”
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Land titles were derived from warlord kings, and the kings got their title by the grace of God, who must have blessed their battles with other kings. Kings ruled by Divine Right, and the wealth of the royal houses of Europe came from the vassals who owned the serfs who actually worked the land.
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In the Age of Discovery, the European royals at first funded exploration in hope of gold for the taking or a route to India around the choke points that made trade with India so expensive. Once the land was looted of portable wealth, the European warlords licensed colonization. Not colonization by individuals—who could come to style themselves kings and get too big for their britches—but rather colonization by corporations under royal charter. The charter contained rules for the distribution of the profits.
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Keep reading to watch the video of the shrinking land base on the last page.
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American Indians in the United States know there was a time when we represented 100 percent of the population and owned 100 percent of the land. When we think of how we got where we are, the date that matters is 1492, because the Norse settlements that steal Columbus’s thunder were well north of the U.S.
🪶
Of course, there was no U.S. in 1492, and there would not be for almost 300 years. Columbus kicked off the greatest treasure hunt in human history, and the Spanish royalty he represented hauled off the lion’s share of precious metals.
🪶
Gold and silver were not the whole story. If they had been, the colonists could have been bought off with mining concessions. Europe was feudal when the Americas beckoned, and the basis of wealth in a feudal society is land. Every tract, or fief, belonged to some warlord, and the right to the labor of the actual occupants “ran with the land.”
🪶
Land titles were derived from warlord kings, and the kings got their title by the grace of God, who must have blessed their battles with other kings. Kings ruled by Divine Right, and the wealth of the royal houses of Europe came from the vassals who owned the serfs who actually worked the land.
🪶
In the Age of Discovery, the European royals at first funded exploration in hope of gold for the taking or a route to India around the choke points that made trade with India so expensive. Once the land was looted of portable wealth, the European warlords licensed colonization. Not colonization by individuals—who could come to style themselves kings and get too big for their britches—but rather colonization by corporations under royal charter. The charter contained rules for the distribution of the profits.
🪶
Keep reading to watch the video of the shrinking land base on the last page.
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Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/06/05/video-invasion-america-watch-indigenous-land-base-shrink-155170
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Invasion of America
Interactive Map by Claudio Saunt
Interactive Map by Claudio Saunt
This interactive map, produced by University of Georgia historian Claudio Saunt to accompany his book West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776, offers a time-lapse vision of the transfer of Indian land between 1776 and 1887.
Indigenous Peoples' Day may refer to:
- International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, a United Nations event recognized as a public holiday in various countries observed annually on 9 August
- Indigenous Peoples' Day (United States), a day recognizing Indigenous Peoples in the United States, observed annually on the second Monday in October
- National Indigenous Peoples Day, a day recognizing First Nations in Canada, observed annually on 21 June
- Indigenous Peoples Day (Brazil), annual celebration honoring the indigenous peoples of Brazil, observed annually on April 19
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