Migration and spatial distribution of American Indians in the twentieth century

The spatial distribution and migration behaviour of American Indians has long occupied an important place in the study of American Indian experiences in the twentieth-century United States. American Indians began the century with a distinctive spatial distribution compared to other American racial populations. In 1900, the majority of American Indians lived in rural areas west of the Mississippi River, and with a high degree of geographical isolation from other Americans. By the end of the century, the Indian population had substantially redistributed, though even at the end of the century a large segment of the Indian population continued to live in rural areas in states between the Mississippi and the Pacific coast of the United States.