Natives throughout the West, particularly those living great distances apart, visited continuously, some more than ever before, in part because of the growing networks of intertribal correspondence and the transportation provided by new western railroads. Intertribal visits were made for social, economic, political, and religious reasons. Men and women from different backgrounds shared knowledge (often anticolonial in nature), related experiences, and exchanged aspects of their cultures. But intertribal visiting persisted only because Natives demanded it. Office of Indian Affairs agents tried to limit the movement of men and women across agency boundaries, but visiting was never outright banned. Those who could not or did not care to obtain permission to visit other reservations often traveled anyway, despite the threats of punishment that might result.