These two maps reveal the dramatic transfer of Indian Lands in to white
hands between 1775 and 1894.  The shaded areas are Indian holdings, the
white areas those held by settlers.  Lands transferred include those given
over by treaty; purchase; unratified treaty of agreement; and those taken
without Indian consent by private seizure and executive order, usually
from the Secretary of the Interior or Congress.  The huge reserves held by
tribes before the Europeans arrived were necessary to support hunting,
agriculture, and their nomadic way of life.  White settlers, used to much
denser populations saw this as wasteful and unnecessary.  It was the
conscious desire and mission of many settlers and government officials to
rid the Indians of any title to their lands by 1900, and vest those title
rights in the U.S. government.