Tracing From a Map Prepared in 1884 at the Indian Superintendency of Oregon…

The evolving boundaries of Native American reservations in the late 19th century.

“Showing the boundaries of lands in that State which were purchased by the Government from the several tribes of Indians; also the limits of he purchase from the Klamath, Modoc, and Snake Indians and the boundaries of the Klamath Reservation.” – subtitle.

This is a scarce manuscript tracing of an 1884 map outlining Native American reservations along the Cascade Range in southern Oregon. Much of the area, located near today’s Crater Lake National Park, was originally ceded in 1864 and established as the Klamath Indian Reservation. Other local tribes, like the Modoc, continued to resist forced settlement and required several additional years of violent ‘persuasion’ by U.S. Army forces.

The image notes geographic features like Pilot Rock, Mt McLoughlin and Snow Peak; as well as an approximation of Fremont’s route in 1843 and a portion of the Dalles and California Trail. Distances between points are noted in red, a feature not included on the original map, according to an annotation in the lower right.

Traced in 1886 from an 1884 original per a manuscript note in the upper right corner. “Ex.d. Dec. 8, 1886 / [illegible initials]”. As pointed out by a former map library curator, the hastily scribbled letters might possibly be GWM. In this case, a good candidate for authorship would be George Montague Wheeler, the famous explorer, cartographer, and leader of the Wheeler Survey into the American West.

Source.