Indian Land Cessions in the United States ...

Produced by United States Forest Service (description taken from https://data.fs.usda.gov/geodata/edw/edw_resources/meta/S_USA.TRIBALCEDEDLANDS.xml)

Abstract: Sixty-seven maps from "Indian Land Cessions in the United States," compiled by Charles C. Royce and published as the second part of the two-part Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1896-1897 have been scanned, georeferenced in JPEG2000 format, and digitized to create this feature class of cession maps. The mapped cessions and reservations included in the 67 maps correspond to entries in Royce's Schedule of Indian Land Cessions (Schedule), "indicating the number and location of each cession by or reservation for the Indian tribes from the organization of the Federal Government to and including 1894, together with descriptions of the tracts so ceded or reserved, the date of the treaty, law or executive order governing the same, the name of the tribe or tribes affected thereby, and historical data and references bearing thereon," as set forth in the subtitle of the Schedule.

Purpose: For several years, the U.S. Forest Service’s Office of Tribal Relations (OTR) has explored opportunities to improve accuracy and completeness of mapping data of contemporary and historical tribal land areas through conversations with Forest Service Lands and Engineering staff. The data's utility has been demonstrated in numerous instances; for example, in support of improved decision-making surrounding both incident and resource management, meeting Forest Service treaty and trust responsibilities, defining the scope of tribal needs and interests on Forest Service lands, and identification of cooperative opportunities, such as those authorized by the Tribal Forest Protection Act. That much of the land Tribes ceded to the United States through treaties are now National Forest Service lands compels the Forest Service to try and determine the tribal interests that may still exist in those lands today, regardless of whether the Tribes are still physically on the land or were removed.