CLICK HERE TO SEE THE IMAGE

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE IMAGE

This is a series of maps charting the shrinkage of Native American lands over time, from 1784 to the present day.  Made because I was having trouble visualizing the sheer scale of the land loss, and reading numbers like “blah blah million acres” wasn’t really doing it for me.  The gif is based on a collection of maps by Sam B. Hilliard of Louisiana State University.  You can see the original map here.

For those who do prefer dealing in numbers, here are some:

By 1881, Indian landholdings in the United States had plummeted to 156 million acres. By 1934, only about 50 million acres remained (an area the size of Idaho and Washington) as a result of the General Allotment Act* of 1887. During World War II, the government took 500,000 more acres for military use. Over one hundred tribes, bands, and Rancherias relinquished their lands under various acts of Congress during the termination era of the 1950s.

By 1955, the indigenous land base had shrunk to just 2.3 percent of its original size.

—In the Courts of the Conqueror by Walter Echo-Hawk

* The General Allotment Act is also known as the Dawes Act.

Edit: Got rid of some of the fold lines and discoloration on the gif.  *is anal*

Edit 2: I can’t believe I didn’t think to mention this until now, but the “Present Day” map is actually from c. 1972. You can find a more recent map of Indian Reservations here, although as you can see, things haven’t changed much.

Edit 10/4/13: As you can see, the gif was deleted for… copyright violation, I assume? Since when does Tumblr care about copyright? Whatever, you can still see the gif by clicking the link up top.