Map Showing Indian Reservations Within the Limits of the United States…

Neatly organizing the indigenous populations of the United States in the late 19th century.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has been tasked with the management and administration of land granted to Native Americans since its official inception in 1824. Originally created to control the system of factories and trading posts on the frontier, the bureau evolved into a role overseeing the removal of Indians to lands west of the Mississippi.

The tragic and steady loss of those lands is displayed on maps issued by the BIA in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This 1895 edition was created under the supervision of the Honorable D.M. Browning, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and lithographed by the Norris-Peters Company of Washington, D.C.

The map shows the organizational districts of the bureau and lists the locations of all reservations, military outposts, Indian agencies, and several types of schools. Education was a critical component of the BIA’s mission of Native American assimilation. Native children were educated in separate boarding houses where they were prevented from using indigenous languages or learning their culture and heritage. These offsite boarding schools are shown as large red stars on the map, reflecting a point of pride for the BIA.

Inset maps show Alaska (devoid of any indigenous reservations), the Mission Indian Reservations in Southern California, and the northeastern corner of Indian Territory. Five major land runs on the ostensibly indigenous property took place between 1889 and 1895 and many of the tribes who ‘sold’ their claims are labeled within the image. Just over a decade after publication, the last fragments of the Indian Territory were extinguished with Oklahoma’s statehood.