"Between the early seventeenth century and the early twentieth, nearly all the land in the United States was transferred from American Indians to whites. This dramatic transformation has been understood in two very different ways - as a series of consensual transactions, but also as a process of violent conquest. Both views cannot be correct. How did Indians actually lose their land?" "Stuart Banner provides the first comprehensive answer. He argues that neither simple coercion nor simple consent reflects the complicated legal history of land transfers. Instead, time, place, and the balance of power between Indians and settlers decided the outcome of land struggles. As the power of whites grew, they were able to establish the legal institutions and the rules by which land transactions would be made and enforced." "How the Indians Lost Their Land reveals how subtle changes in the law can determine the fate of a nation, and our understanding of the past."--Jacket.