Missouri obtained statehood and the Santa Fe Trail opened. From 1821 to 1880, the Santa Fe Trail was a major trading route that extended from Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico. U.S. government officials often framed treaties as ways to ensure that such trade could continue uninterrupted.This trail bisected the Kanza homelands paving the way for more non-Native settlement to the area and leading to an influx of squatters on Kanza land as well as to the overhunting of bison, overgrazing of grasslands, and disruption of traditional hunting patterns of the Kanza. This pattern is part of the larger story of food deprivation and colonial encroachment that allowed the U.S. to seize land and power.