Wilson ~ Indian Land Tenure, Economic Status, and Population Trends

"Indian Land Tenure, Economic Status, and Population Trends," published in 1935, is one of the most detailed studies of American Indian land loss ever conducted. The report documents how U.S. allotment policies reduced Native land holdings from about 138 million acres in 1887 to 52 million by the 1930s.

The report pays special attention to land that moved from trust status to fee simple—a process that resulted in the loss of approximately 23 million acres of individually allotted land and left many Native Americans landless or with parcels too small or encumbered to use productively. It analyzes problems such as "checkerboarding" from land sales to non-Indians, the complexities of heirship that divide allotments into uneconomic fractions, the high administrative costs of managing these lands, and the widespread leasing of Indian land to white operators.

The report profiles extreme poverty among both enrolled and unenrolled landless Indians, outlines the inadequacy of agricultural credit and extension services, and tracks a modest but steady population increase. It recommends halting further alienation, consolidating fragmented lands into tribal or corporate ownership, reforming inheritance laws, promoting cooperative land use (especially for grazing and forestry), and ensuring Indian participation in land policy to build a secure, self-sustaining economic base.