From 1776 to 1930, Native American land loss was massive and steady as the United States expanded westward. After the Revolution, tribes still held most of the continent, but a mix of broken treaties, forced removals, warfare, and government policies reduced their land base dramatically. The 1830 Indian Removal Act pushed entire nations—like the Cherokee, Creek, and Choctaw—off their ancestral homelands in the Southeast and into Indian Territory, causing the Trail of Tears. In the late 1800s, th