The Transcontinental Railroad in American Native LandThe Transcontinental Railroad in American Native Land

By: Elias Neuman-Donihue

In 1862, President Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act, paving the way for a railroad spanning from Nebraska to California and connecting the U.S’s holdings on either side of the Great Plains region. At the time of the Act, the United States was composed of only 34 states, with the rest of the continent inhabited largely by the native peoples of the land.This map shows the extent of the U.S. at the time of the Act, the tribes that inhabited the region where the railway was to be built, and the realized rail network in 1870.