What happened and why?

Population of aboriginal lands north of Rio Grand River:

    Pre-contact:  10 million, representing over 400 language families

    1910: 300,000, of which there are only some 40 viable languages

Land Base:

    Pre-contact:  sovereignty over aboriginal lands north of Rio Grand River

            Pre-contact: some 5 billion acres

                Schitsu'umsh (Coeur d'Alene): 5 million acres

                Nimíipuu (Nez Perce): 13 million acres

     Assault:

            Jackson's Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the Cherokee Trail of Tears

            Oregon Trail 1830s and Mullan Trail 1870s - gold rushes and homesteading

            Treaties - 400 made between 1778 and 1902

                    reduction of land base to 140 million acres

                              Coeur d'Alene: 345,000 acres  Executive Orders 1889

                          Nez Perce: 750,000 acres  Treaties of 1855 and 1863

                    "plenary powers"

            Dawes Act 1887

                    reduction of land base to 50 million acres

                            Coeur d'Alene: 70,000 acres

                            Nez Perce: 86,000 acres

Education and Behavioral  Regulations:

   Missionaries and Boarding Schools

   Indian Dances Regulations of 1923