Early Jamestown
May 14, 1607 Jamestown is founded in Virginia by the colonists of the London Company. By the end of the year, starvation & disease reduce the original 105 settlers to just 32 survivors. Captain John Smith is captured by Native American Chief Powhatan & saved from death by the chief's daughter, Pocahontas. July 3, 1607 On July 3, Indians brought maize, beans, squash, & fresh & smoked meat to the Jamestown colony. As at Plymouth years later, the colonists & their diseases would eventually exterminate them.
July 29, 1609 Samuel de Champlain, accompanied by two other Frenchmen & 60 Algonquin & Huron Indians, defeated a band of Iroquois near the future Ticonderoga, beginning a long period of French/Iroquois hostilities. 1611 Former Dutch lawyer Adrian Block explored Manhattan Island in the ship Tiger. He returned to Europe with a cargo of furs & two kidnapped Indians, whom he named Orson & Valentine. May 13, 1614 The Viceroy of Mexico found Spanish Explorer Juan de Onate guilty of atrocities against the Indians of New Mexico. As part of his punishment, he was banned from entering New Mexico again. 1616 A smallpox epidemic decimates the Native American population in New England. May, 1616 Virginia's Deputy Governor George Yeardley & a group of men killed 20 - 40 Chickahominy Indians. It was under Yeardley’s leadership that friendly relations between the Chickahominy & the colony ended. 1621 One of the first treaties between colonists & Native Americans is signed as the Plymouth Pilgrims enact a peace pact with the Wampanoag Tribe, with the aid of Squanto, an English speaking Native American. 1622-44 Powhatan Wars - Following an initial period of peaceful relations in Virginia, a twelve year conflict left many natives & colonists dead. 1626 Peter Minuit, a Dutch colonist, buys Manhattan island from Native Americans for 60 guilders (about $24) & names the island New Amsterdam. 1636-37 Pequot War - Taking place in Connecticut & Rhode Island, the death of a colonist eventually led to the destruction of 600-700 natives. The remainder were sold into slavery in Bermuda.
May 26, 1637 Captains John Mason & John Underhill attacked & burned Pequot forts at Mystic, Connecticut, massacring 600 Indians & starting the Pequot War. June 5, 1637 English settlers in New England massacred a Pequot Indian village. 1639 Captain William Pierce of Salem, Massachusetts sailed to the West Indies & exchanged Indian slaves for black slaves. 1675-1676 King Philip's War - Sometimes called Metacom's War, was an armed conflict between Native American inhabitants of present-day southern New England & English colonists & their Native American allies.
July 30, 1676 Bacon's Rebellion - Tobacco planters led by Nathaniel Bacon ask for & are denied permission to attack the Susquehannock Indians, who have been conducting raids on colonists' settlement. Enraged at Governor Berkeley's refusal, the colonists burn Jamestown & kill many Indians before order is restored in October. 1680-92 The Pueblo Revolt occurs in Arizona & New Mexico, when Pueblo Indians led by Popé, rebelled against the Spanish. They then lived independently for 12 years until the Spanish re-conquered in them in 1692. 1689-1697 King William's War - The first of the French & Indian Wars, this conflict was fought between England, France, & their respective American Indian allies in the colonies of Canada (New France), Acadia, & New England. It was also known as the Second Indian War (the first having been King Philip's War).
1689-1763 The French & Indian War, a conflict between France & Britain for possession of North America, rages for decades. For various motivations, most Algonquian tribes allied with the French; the Iroquois with the British. 1702 French explorer Pierre Liette had a four-year sojourn in the Chicago area during which he noticed that "the sin of sodomy" prevailed among the Miami Indians, & that some men were bred from childhood for this purpose. June 23, 1704 Former Governor of South Carolina, James Moore, led a force of 50 British, & 1,000 Creek Indians against Spanish settlements. They attacked a Mission in Northwestern Florida. They took many Indians as slaves & killed Father Manuel de Mendoza. 1709 A slave market was erected at the foot of Wall Street in New York City. Here African-Americans & Indians -- men, women & children were daily declared the property of the highest cash bidder. 1711 Hostilities break out between Native Americans & settlers in North Carolina after the massacre of settlers there. The conflict, known as the Tuscarora War, under the leadership of Chief Hancock, attacked several settlements, killing settlers & destroying farms for the next two years. In 1713, James Moore & Yamasee warriors defeated the raiders.
1715-1718 The Yamasee War occurs in southern Carolina, which came close to exterminating white settlements in their region. 1716 South Carolina settlers & their Cherokee allies attack & defeat the Yamassee. 1721 Jesuit explorer Pierre Francois Xavier de Charlevoix recorded effeminacy & widespread homosexuality & lesbianism among the "Indian” tribes in what is now Louisiana. The most prominent tribes in the area at the time were the Iroquois & Illinois. 1725 Ten sleeping Indians were scalped by whites in New Hampshire for a bounty. 1745 Upon hearing of an impending French & Indian attack upon the Ulster county frontiers, Europeans massacred several Indian families in their wigwams at Walden in the Hudson River Valley. November 28, 1745 French military forces out of Canada, accompanied by 220 Caughnawaga Mohawk & Abenaki Indians, attacked & burned the English settlement at Saratoga. The 101 inhabitants were either killed or taken prisoner. 1752 In the 1752 census, 147 "Indian" slaves -- 87 females & 60 males -- were listed as living in French households in what would later be called Illinois. These people were from different cultural groups than the local Native American population & were often captives of war. April 9, 1754 An Indian slave trader sent a letter to South Carolina Governor J. Glenn asking for permission to use one group of Indians to fight another: "We want no pay, only what we can take & plunder, & what slaves we take to be our own."
April 8, 1756 Governor Robert Morris declared war on the Delaware & Shawnee Indians. Included in his war declaration was "The Scalp Act,” which put a bounty on the scalps of Indian men, women & boys. August 1, 1758 The first Indian reservation in North America was established by the New Jersey Colonial Assembly. 1759 Comanche Indian Attack Responding to a Comanche attack that destroyed two missions on the San Saba River in central Texas, a Spanish force of 600 marched north to the Red River where they engaged several thousand Comanche & other Plains Indians fighting behind breastworks & armed with French rifles. The Spaniards were routed, losing a cannon in their retreat, & Comanche raids became a constant threat to settlers throughout Texas. 1760-62 Cherokee Uprising - A breakdown in relations between the British & the Cherokee leads to a general uprising in present-day Tennessee, Virginia & the Carolinas. 1762 Governor Thomas Velez Cachupin had a number of Indians living at Albiquiú [La Cañada, New Mexico ] tried for witchcraft sometime after 1762. They were conveniently condemned into servitude.
1763 The Proclamation of 1763, signed by King George III of England, prohibits any English settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains & requires those already settled in those regions to return east in an attempt to ease tensions with Native Americans. May, 1763 The Ottawa Indians under Chief Pontiac begin all-out warfare against the British west of Niagara, New York, destroying several British forts & conducting a siege against the British at Detroit, Michigan. In August, Pontiac's forces are defeated by the British near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The siege of Detroit ends in November, but hostilities between the British & Chief Pontiac continue for several years. December 8, 1763 An organization compensating settlers for losses resulting from Indian raids was created by Indian Commissioner Sir William Johnson. December 14, 1763 A vigilante group called the Paxton Boys in Pennsylvania kill 20 peaceful Susquehannock in response to Pontiac's Rebellion. December 27, 1763 A troop of 50 armed men entered the Workhouse at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, & hacked to death the only 14 surviving Conestoga Indians (the rest of the tribe having been similarly dispensed with, 13 days earlier). 1775 Forced to labor in the mission fields & to worship according to the missionaries' teachings, the Indians at San Diego rebelled against the Spanish, burning every building & killing most of the inhabitants, including the mission's head priest. Thanks to a Spanish sharpshooter, the Indians were finally driven off & the Spanish retained control of their outpost.
May 25, 1776 The Continental Congress resolved that it was "highly expedient to engage Indians in service of the United Colonies," & authorized recruiting 2,000 paid auxiliaries. The program was a dismal failure, as virtually every tribe refused to fight for the colonists. July 21, 1776 Cherokee Indians attacked a settlement in western North Carolina. Militia forces retaliated by destroying a nearby Cherokee village. 1772-1780 Eighty percent of the Arikara died of smallpox, measles, etc. 1776-1794 Chickamauga Wars - A series of conflicts that were a continuation of the Cherokee struggle against white encroachment. Led by Dragging Canoe, who was called the Chickamauga by colonials, the Cherokee fought white settlers in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolinaa, & Georgia. 1781 Smallpox wiped out more than half the Piegan Blackfoot. March 8, 1782 Captain David Williamson & about 90 volunteer militiamen slaughtered 62 adults & 34 children of the neutral, pacifist, & Christian Delaware people at Gnadenhutten, Ohio in retaliation for raids by other Indian tribes. April 21, 1782 The Presidio, overlooking San Francisco, was erected by the Spanish to subdue Indians interfering with mail transmissions along El Camino Real. 1785-1795 Old Northwest War - Fighting occurred in Ohio & Indiana. Following two humiliating defeats at the hands of native warriors, the Americans won a decisive victory under "Mad Anthony" Wayne at the Battle of Fallen Timbers.
July 13, 1786 The Northwest Ordinance was enacted, stating "the utmost good faith shall always be observed toward the Indians . . . in their property, rights, & liberty they shall never be disturbed." 1787 First federal treaty enacted with the Delaware Indians. 1789 Indian Commerce Clause of the Constitution is added stating "The Congress shall have Power...to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, & among the several States, & with the Indian tribes." This clause is generally seen as the principal basis for the federal government's broad power over Indians. Indian affairs assignation. Indian agents, who were appointed as the federal government's liaison with tribes, fell under jurisdiction of the War Department. The Indian agents were empowered to negotiate treaties with the tribes. 1790 The Indian Trade & Intercourse Act is passed, placing nearly all interaction between Indians & non-Indians under federal, rather than state control, established the boundaries of Indian country, protected Indian lands against non-Indian aggression, subjected trading with Indians to federal regulation, & stipulated that injuries against Indians by non-Indians was a federal crime. The conduct of Indians among themselves, while in Indian country, was left entirely to the tribes. These Acts were renewed periodically until 1834.Military battle between US Army & Shawnee. The army, some 1,500 strong, invaded Shawnee territory, in what is now western Ohio. The Americans were defeated in 1791 after suffering 900 casualties, 600 of whom died.
March 1, 1790 The first U.S. Census count included slaves & free African-Americans, but Indians were not included. Pre-1795 Trading begins between Native Americans & French & Spanish merchants from St. Louis, Missouri. 1792 On November 6, George Washington, in his fourth annual address to Congress, expressed dissatisfaction that "Indian hostilities” had not stopped in the young country’s frontier, north of the Ohio River. 1795 Treaty of Greenville, OhioThe Treaty of Greenville - This treaty marked the end of an undeclared & multi-tribal war begun in the late 1770s & led by the Shawnee who fought to resist American expansion into Ohio. In 1795, over a thousand Indian delegates ceded two-thirds of present-day Ohio, part of Indiana, & the sites where the modern cities of Detroit, Toledo, & Chicago are currently situated. The Indians, in return, were promised a permanent boundary between their lands & American territory. 1802 Federal law prohibits the sale of liquor to Indians. 1803 The Louisiana Purchase adds to the United States French territory from the Gulf of Mexico to the Northwest. The Lewis & Clark expedition begins its exploration of the West. 1804 to 1806 Lewis & Clark expedition with Sacagawea. Under direction of President Jefferson, Lewis & Clark charted the western territory with the help of Sacagawea, a Shoshone Indian.
1804 The Sioux meet the Lewis & Clark Expedition Trading posts begin to be established in the west. Fur trading becomes an important part of Oglala life. Oglala & other Lakota tribes expand their region of influence & control to cover most of the current regions known as North & South Dakota, westward to the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming & south to the Platte River in Nebraska. On March 26, the U.S. government gave first official notice to Indians to move west of the Mississippi River. 1808 The Osage, a Sioux tribe, sign the Osage Treaty ceding their lands in what is now Missouri & Arkansas to the U. S. 1808 to 1812 Tecumseh, Chief of the Shawnee, & his brother, known as The Prophet, founded Prophetstown for the settlement of other Indian peoples who believed that signing treaties with the US government would culminate in the loss of the Indian way of life. At the same time, Tecumseh organized a defensive confederacy of Indian tribes of the Northwestern frontier who shared a common goal - making the Ohio River the permanent boundary between the United States & Indian land. Meanwhile, William Henry Harrison, governor or Ohio, began enacting treaties with various tribes. At a meeting between Tecumseh & Harrison at Vincennes in 1810, Tecumseh declared that he & the confederacy would never recognize any treaties signed with the US government. When Tecumseh was away from Prophetstown in
November 1811, Harrison led troops to the town & after the ferocious Battle of Tippicanoe, destroyed the town as well as the remnants of Tecumseh's Indian confederacy. 1809 On February 8, Russians who built a blockhouse on the Hoh River (Olympic Penninsula, Washington) were taken captive by Hoh Indians, & were held as slaves for two years. 1810 This Treaty of Fort Wayne brought the Delaware, Potawatomi, Miami, & Eel River Miami nations together to cede 3 million acres of their land along the Wabash River to the United States. Nicholas Biddle of the Lewis & Clark expedition noted that among the Minitaree Indians the effeminate boys were raised as females. Upon reaching puberty, the boys were then married to older men. The French called them Birdashes. 1811 On August 31, Fort Okanogan was established at the confluence of the Columbia & Okanogan Rivers; Indians met the Astorians with pledges of friendship & gifts of beaver. On November 7, Shawnee leader Tecumseh's dream of a pan-Indian confederation was squashed when his brother Tenskwatawa led an attack against Indiana Territory militia forces in the Battle of Tippecanoe. Tenskwatawa was defeated. 1813 to 1814 Creek Inian WarriorThe Creek War was instigated by General Andrew Jackson who sought to end Creek resistance to ceding their land to the US government. The Creek Nation was defeated & at the Treaty of Fort Jackson, the Creek lost 14 million acres, or two-thirds of their tribal lands. To count the Creek dead, whites cut off their noses, piling 557 of them. They also skinned their bodies to tan as souvenirs. This was the single largest cession of territory ever made in the southeast. 1815 Blacks & Creek Indians captured Fort Blount, Florida from Seminole & used it as a haven for escaped slaves & as a base for attacks on slave owners. An American army detachment eventually recaptured the fort.
On July 27, the Seminole Wars began. 1816 On July 27, Fort Blount, a Seminole fort on Apalachicola Bay, Florida, was attacked by U.S. troops. The fort, held by 300 fugitive slaves & 20 Indians, was taken after a siege of several days. The fort was destroyed, punishing the Seminole for harboring runaway slaves. 1817 Congress passed the Indian Country Crimes Act which provided for federal jurisdiction over crimes between non-Indians & Indians, & maintained exclusive tribal jurisdiction of all Indian crimes. 1818 On April 18, Andrew Jackson defeated a force of Indians & African Americans at the Battle of Suwanee, ending the First Seminole War. 1820 By this year, more than 20,000 Indians lived in virtual slavery in the California missions. 1821 South Carolina settlers & their Cherokee allies attack & defeat the Yamassee. The U.S. government began moving what it called the "Five Civilized Tribes" of southeast America (Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, Choctaw, & Chickasaw) to lands west of the Mississippi River. 1823 Johnson v. McIntosh Supreme Court decision - This case involved the validity of land sold by tribal chiefs to private persons in 1773 & 1775. The Court held that that Indian tribes had no power to grant lands to anyone other than the federal government. The government, in turn, held title to all Indian lands based upon the "doctrine of discovery" - the belief that initial "discovery" of lands gave title to the government responsible for the discovery. Thus, Indian "...rights to complete sovereignty, as independent nations, were necessarily diminished, & their power to dispose of the soil, at their own will, to whomsoever they pleased, was denied by the original fundamental principle, that discovery gave exclusive title to those who made it."
1824 The Indian Office federal agency was established by the Secretary of War & operated under the administration of the War Department. The Office becomes the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in 1849. 1825 Creek Chief William McIntosh signs treaty ceding Creek lands to the U.S. & agrees to vacate by 1826; other Creek repudiate the treaty & kill him. 1827 Creek Indians sign a second treaty ceding lands in western Georgia 1828 Elias Boudinot & Sequoyah begin publishing the Cherokee Phoenix, the first American newspaper published in a Native American language. 1829 Creek Indians receive orders to relocate across the Mississippi River. 1830 On April 7, President Andrew Jackson submitted a bill to Congress calling for the removal of tribes in the east to lands west of the Mississippi. On May 28th, the Indian Removal Act was passed, & from 1830 to 1840 thousands of Native Americans were forcibly removed. On September 15, the Choctaw sign a treaty exchanging 8 million acres of land east of the Mississippi for land in Oklahoma.
On December 22, the State of Georgia made it unlawful for Cherokee to meet in council, unless it is for the purpose of giving land to whites. 1831 to 1832 Two U.S. Supreme Court cases change the nature of tribal sovereignty by ruling that Indian tribes were not foreign nations, but rather were "domestic dependent nations." As such, both cases provided the basis for the federal protection of Indian tribes, or the federal trust relationship or responsibility. 1831 Black Hawk of the Sac & Fox tribes agrees to move west of Mississippi. Cherokee Nation v. Georgia - The Cherokee Nation sued the State of Georgia for passing laws & enacting policies that not only limited their sovereignty, but which were forbidden in the Constitution. The Court's decision proclaimed that Indians were neither US citizens, nor independent nations, but rather were "domestic dependent nations" whose relationship to the US "resembles that of a ward to his guardian." In this case, the federal trust responsibility was discussed for the first time. On December 6, President Andrew Jackson, in his Third Annual Message to Congress, praised the beneficial results of Indian Removal for the States directly affected & the Union as a whole, as well as being "equally advantageous to the Indians.” On December 25, a force of Black Seminole Indians defeated U.S. troops at Okeechobee during the Second Seminole War. 1832 Worcester v. Georgia - A missionary from Vermont who was working on Cherokee territory sued the State of Georgia which had arrested him, claiming that the state had no authority over him within the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation. The Court, which ruled in Worchester's favor, held that state laws did not extend to Indian country. Such a ruling clarified that Indian tribes were under protection of the federal government, as in Cherokee v. Georgia.
On July 23, Eastern Cherokees met in Red Clay, Tennessee to discuss President Jackson's proposals for their removal to Indian Territory in present day Oklahoma. The proposal was rejected & the Cherokees refused to negotiate unless the federal government honored previous treaty promises. August 2, 1832 - Some 150 Sac & Fox men, women & children, under a flag of truce, were massacred at Bad Axe River by the Illinois militia. 1833 On January 12, a law was passed making it unlawful for any Indian to remain within the boundaries of the state of Florida. 1834 Indian Intercourse Act - Congress created Indian Territory in the west that included the land area in all of present-day Kansas, most of Oklahoma, & parts of what later became Nebraska, Colorado, & Wyoming. The area was set aside for Indians who would be removed from their ancestral lands which, in turn, would be settled by non-Indians. The area steadily decreased in size until the 1870s when Indian Territory had been reduced to what is now Oklahoma, excluding the panhandle. The Oglala Tribe becomes more centrally organized with most bands following Chief Bull Bear & rest following Chief Smoke. This was a change from their previous more loosely governed bands with many leaders of comparable influence. 1835 Treaty of New Echota - A portion of the Cherokee nation agreed to give up Cherokee lands in the Southeast in exchange for land in & removal to Indian Territory.
A larger group of the Cherokee did not accept the terms of this treaty & refused to move westward. 1835-42 Seminole War - The second & most terrible of three wars between the US government & the Seminole people was also one of the longest & most expensive wars in which the US army was ever engaged. Thousands of troops were sent, 1,500 men died, & between 40-60 million dollars were spent to force most of the Seminole to move to Indian Territory - more than the entire US government's budget for Indian Removal. 1836 In five groups, over 14,000 Creek Indians were forcibly removed by the US Army from Alabama to Oklahoma . 1837 Two thirds of the 6,000 Blackfoot died of smallpox. 1838 Trail of Tears - Despite the Supreme Court's rulings in 1831 & 1832 that the Cherokee had a right to stay on their lands, President Jackson sent federal troops to forcibly remove almost 16,000 Cherokee who had refused to move westward under the unrecognized Treaty of New Echota (1835) & had remained in Georgia. In May, American soldiers herded most into camps where they remained imprisoned throughout the summer & where at least 1,500 perished. The remainder began an 800-mile forced march to Oklahoma that fall. In all some, 4,000 Cherokee died during the removal process. On January 30, Seminole leader Osceola died from complications of malaria at Fort Moultrie, South Carolina. He led a valiant fight against removal of his people to Indian Territory, but eventually the Seminole were forcibly relocated.
1841 Forty-eight wagons arrive in Sacramento by way of the Oregon Trail, one of the earliest large groups to make this journey. 1843 Second Seminole War ends. 1847 Westward migration begins along the Oregon Trail through Plains Indian country. Thomas H. Hardy, Superintendant of Indian Affairs in St. Louis warns of trouble from declining buffalo herds 1849 The U.S. Government purchases Fort Laramie from the American Fur Company & begins to bring in troops. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (formerly The Indian Office) is transferred from the War Department to the newly-created Department of the Interior. Physician services were extended to Indians with the establishment of a corps of civilian field employees. January 24, 1849 James Marshall discovers gold near Sutter's Fort, California. News of the find begins the California Gold Rush of 1849. 1850 There are 20,000,000 buffalo on the plains between Montana & Texas. On September 9, California entered the Union. With miners flooding the hillsides & devastating the land, California's Indians found themselves deprived of their traditional food sources & forced by hunger to raid the mining towns & other white settlements. Miners retaliated by hunting Indians down & brutally abusing them. The California legislature responded to the situation with an Indenture Act which established a form of legal slavery for the native peoples of the state by allowing whites to declare them vagrant & auction off their services for up to four months. The law also permitted whites to indenture Indian children, with the permission of a parent or friend, which led to widespread kidnapping of Indian children, who were then sold as "apprentices."
1850-1875 Extermination of buffalo herds by sports & hide hunters severely limits Plains Indians food supply & ability to survive. 1851 Fort Laramie, Wyoming post hospitalA series of Fort Laramie treaties were signed with the Lakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho & other Plains tribes delineating the extent of their territories & allowing passage across these territories in exchange for payments to the tribes. The extent of Lakota territories were clearly described. Thus began the incursions of miners & wagon trains on the Oregon & later the Bozeman Trail, few at first but an onslaught after the end of the Civil War. Federal commissioners attempting to halt the brutal treatment of Indians in California negotiated eighteen treaties with various tribes & village groups, promising them 8.5 million acres of reservation lands. California politicians succeeded in having the treaties secretly rejected by Congress in 1852, leaving the native peoples of the state homeless within a hostile white society. On August 5, 1851, Santee Sioux Chief Little Crow signed a treaty with the federal government, ceding nearly all his people's territory in Minnesota. Though not happy with the agreement, he abided by it for many years. 1853 California began confining its remaining Indian population on harsh military reservations, but the combination of legal enslavement & near genocide has already made California the site of the worst slaughter of Native Americans in United States history. As many as 150,000 Indians lived in the state before 1849; by 1870, fewer than 30,000 will remain.
September 3, 1855 Ash Hollow Massacre - Colonel William Harney uses 1,300 soldiers to massacre an entire Brulé village in retribution for the killing of 30 soldiers, who were killed in retribution for the killing of the Brulé chief, Conquering Bear, in a dispute over a cow. January 26, 1956 In the first Battle of Seattle, settlers drove Indians from their land so that a little town of white folks could prosper. The sloop Decatur fired its cannon, routing the "Indians.” Two settlers were killed. September, 1857 In September, the Fancher Party, a group of California-bound emigrants from Arkansas & Missouri, arrived in Salt Lake City. According to Brigham Young's edict, the townspeople refused to sell supplies to the group. They headed south & camped in Mountain Meadows. On September 7, the Fancher Party suffered a coordinated joint attack by Paiute Indians & Mormon militiamen. Many were killed on both sides before the pioneers could gain a tenable defensive position. Then followed five days of siege. On September 12, the Mormons negotiated a surrender. The local Mormon leader, John D. Lee, & 54 Mormon militiamen approached the Fancher Party & offered to provide safe passage through the territory. The surviving members of the Fancher Party would hand over their livestock to the Paiute & their guns to the Mormons. In return, the pioneers were guaranteed safe passage from the area. Once the emigrants accepted the Mormon offer & laid down their weapons, the Mormons opened fire on them. The Paiute, allies of the Mormons, stormed the wagon train, & slaughtered the women & all the older children. When the bloodbath ended, 123 were dead; only 17 young children were left alive. Lee fled the area with his 17 wives & settled in Lee's Ferry, Arizona. In 1877, Lee was arrested & tried for his part in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. He was convicted & sentenced to die. On March 23, Lee was brought to Mountain Meadows, where he sat blindfolded on the coffin that was to hold his remains & was executed by a firing squad. 1858 On May 17, 1,200 Coeur d'Alene, Palouse, Spokan, & Skitswich Indians defeated a strong force of Colonel Steptoe near Colfax, Washington, at the village of To-ho-to-nim-me.
On September 17, Colonel Wright dictated terms of surrender to Indians at Coeur d'Alene mission. 24 chiefs of the Yakama, Cayuse, Wallawalla, Palouse & Spokan tribes were shot or hanged. 1860 On February 26, white settlers from Eureka, California attacked & killed 188 members of the Wiyot Tribe on Indian Island in Humboldt Bay. Only one Wiyot member survived — a child named Jerry James, who was the son of chief Captain Jim. On April 29, Navajo Chief Manuelito & his warriors attacked Fort Defiance in northeastern Arizona. The fort, the first built in Navajo country, was near livestock grazing land used by the Navajo. Conflict began when the army claimed the grazing land for their horses. 1860 to 1864 The Navajo War broke out in the New Mexico Territory as a result of tensions between the Navajo & American military forces in the area. During a final standoff in January 1864 at Canyon de Chelly, fears of harsh winter conditions & starvation forced the Navajo to surrender to Kit Carson & his troops. Carson ordered the destruction of Navajo property & organized the Navajo Long Walk to Bosque Redondo reservation at Fort Sumner, New Mexico. 1861 On February 13, the first military action to result in the Congressional Medal of Honor occurred. Colonel Bernard Irwin attacked & defeated hostile Chiricahua Indians in Arizona.
On February 18, Arapaho & Cheyenne ceded most of eastern Colorado, which had been guaranteed to them forever in an 1851 treaty. On September 22, in an unprovoked peacetime attack, U.S. Army soldiers massacred visiting Navajo men, women & children during a horse race at Fort Wingate, New Mexico. On September 22, 500 Apache led by Cochise attacked the town of Pinos Altos, New Mexico. Three miners & 14 Indians were killed. 1862 Congress passes the Homestead Act making western lands belonging to many Indian Nations available to non-Indian American settlers. This marked the beginning of mass migrations to Indian lands for non-Indian settlement. August 18, 1862 Beginning of the Sioux Uprising (or Santee War) in Minnesota.
The Sioux declared war on the white settlers, killing more than 1,000. They were eventually defeated by the US army, which marched 1,700 survivors to Fort Snelling. Others escaped to the safety of their western relatives. Over 400 Indians were tried for murder, 38 of whom were publicly executed. By 1864 90% of the Santee, & many of the Teton who sheltered them were dead or in prison. December 26, 1862 The mass execution of 38 Sioux men in Mankato, Minnesota for crimes during the Sioux Uprising. The trials of almost every adult male who had voluntarily surrendered to General Sibley, at a rate of up to 40 a day, were conducted under the premise of guilty until proven innocent. Originally 303 men were condemned to death. President Abraham Lincoln intervened & ordered a complete review of the records.
This resulted in a reduced list of 40 to be executed. One was reprieved by the military because he had supplied testimony against many of the others. A last minute reprieve removed one more from the list. A mix-up in properly recording the names of the men & in associating the records with the proper men resulted in one man being ordered released for saving a woman's life, a day after he was hanged. July 3, 1863 After the end of the Santee Sioux uprising, Little Crow leaves the area. Eventually he returns to steal horses & supplies so he, & his followers can survive. On this day, near Hutchinson, Minnesota, Little Crow & his son stop to pick some berries. Minnesota has recently enacted a law which pays a bounty of $25 for every Sioux scalp. Some settlers see Little Crow, & they open fire. Little Crow will be mortally wounded. His killer would get a bonus bounty of 500 dollars. Little Crow's scalp would go on public display in St.Paul. Little Crow's son, Wowinapa, escapes, but is later captured in Dakota Territory. 1864 The Long Walk to Bosque Redondo - Under the military leadership of Kit Carson, the federal government forced 8,000 Navajo men, women, & children to walk more than 300 miles from their ancestral homeland in northeastern Arizona to a newly-designated reservation at Bosque Redondo in northwestern New Mexico. The march ended in confinement on barren lands, as well as malnutrition, disease, & hunger. For four years they endured life in this desolate area under virtual prison camp circumstances.
In 1866, the Navajo signed a treaty allowing them to return to their traditional homes to begin rebuilding their communities. In return, the Navajo were forced to promise to remain on the reservation, to stop raiding white communities, & to become ranchers & farmers. In 1868, the government finally returned the Navajo to their homeland. On June 11, rancher Nathan Hungate, his wife & two little girls were slaughtered in Chivington, Colorado by Indians. On November 29, 750 Colorado volunteers of the 3rd Colorado Cavalry, under the command of Colonel John Chivington (a Methodist pastor), attacked a Cheyenne & Arapaho village at Arapaho in retaliation for the Hungate's. The soldiers scalped the victims, then sliced off women's breasts, cut out their vaginas, cut the testicles from the men, cut off fingers, raped dead women in relays, & used baby toddlers as target practice. 163 Indians were killed; 110 of them were women & children. The dead were left to be eaten by coyotes & vultures. On the way back to Fort Lyon, the soldiers wore the sliced breasts & vaginas atop their hats or stretched over saddlebows. Weeks later, soldiers paraded through Denver, waving body parts of the dead. After two congressional hearings, Colonel Chivington was driven into exile, & Colorado Governor John Evans was removed from office. July 1865 General Patrick Conner organizes 3 columns of soldiers to begin an invasion of the Powder River Basin, from the Black Hills, Paha Sapa, to the Big Horn Mountains.
They had one order: "Attack & kill every male Indian over twelve years of age." Conner builds a fort on the Powder River. Wagon trains begin to cross the Powder River Basin on their way to the Montana gold fields. "I am poor & naked, but I am the chief of the nation. We do not want riches but we do want to train our children right. Riches would do us no good. We could not take them with us to the other world. We do not want riches. We want peace & love.” - Chief Red Cloud (Makhipiya-Luta) Sioux Chief "When a child my mother taught me the legends of our people; taught me of the sun & sky, the moon & stars, the clouds & storms. She also taught me to kneel & pray to Usen for strength, health, wisdom, & protection. We never prayed against any person, but if we had aught against any individual we ourselves took vengeance. We were taught that Usen does not care for the petty quarrels of men." - Geronimo [Goyathlay], Chiracahua Apache "Whenever the white man treats the Indian as they treat each other, then we will have no more wars. We shall all be alike--brothers of one father & one another, with one sky above us & one country around us, & one governmnet for all.” - Chief Joseph, Nez Perce "We are now about to take our leave & kind farewell to our native land, the country the Great Spirit gave our Fathers, we are on the eve of leaving that country that gave us birth, it is with sorrow we are forced by the white man to quit the scenes of our childhood...we bid farewell to it & all we hold dear."
Charles Hicks, Tsalagi (Cherokee) Vice Chief speaking of The Trail of Tears, November 4, 1838 July 24-26, 1865 Battle of Platte Bridge - The Cheyenne & Lakota besiege the most northerly outpost of the U.S. army & succeed in killing all members of a platoon of cavalrymen sent out to meet a wagon train as well as the wagon drivers & their escorts. Late August, 1865 Battle of Tongue River - Connor's column destroys an Arapaho village, including all the winter's food supply, tents & clothes. They kill over 50 of the Arapaho villagers. Late September, 1865 Roman Nose's Fight - The Cheyenne Chief, Roman Nose, in revenge for the Sand Creek Massacre, led several hundred Cheyenne warriors in a siege of the Cole & Walker columns of exhausted & starving soldiers who were attempting to return to Fort Laramie. Because they were armed only with bows, lances & a few old trade guns, they were unable to overrun the soldiers, but they harasses them for several days, until Connor's returning column rescued them. October 14, 1865 The Southern Cheyenne chiefs sign a treaty agreeing to cede all the land they formerly claimed as their own, most of Colorado Territory, to the U.S. government. This was the desired end of the Sand Creek Massacre. October, 1865 Connor returns to Fort Laramie leaving two companies of soldiers at the fort they had constructed at the fork of the Crazy Woman Creek & the Powder River. Red Cloud & his warriors kept these men isolated & without supplies all winter. Many died of scurvy, malnutrition & pneumonia before winter's end. They were not relieved until June 28th by Colonel Carrington's company. Late Fall, 1865 Nine treaties signed with the Sioux including the Brulé, Hunkpapa, Oglala & Minneconjou. These were widely advertised as signifying the end of the Plains wars although none of the war chiefs had signed any of these treaties.
December 21, 1865 An illegal Executive Order removed lands from the Oregon Coast Indian Reservation, cutting the territory in half. 1866 The Sioux Nations are angered as the US Army begins building forts along the Bozeman Trail, an important route to the gold fields of Virginia City; Captain Fetterman & 80 soldiers are killed. April 1, 1866 Congress overrides President Johnson's veto of the Civil Rights Bill, giving equal rights to all persons born in the U.S. (except Indians). The President is empowered to use the Army to enforce the law. Late Spring 1866 War chiefs Red Cloud, Spotted Tail, Standing Elk, Dull Knife & others come to Fort Laramie to negotiate a treaty concerning access to the Powder River Basin. Shortly after the beginning of the talks, on June 13, Colonel Henry Carrington & several hundred infantry men reached Fort Laramie to build forts along the Bozeman Trail. It was clear to the chiefs that the treaty was a mere formality; the road would be opened whether they agreed or not. This was the beginning Red Cloud's War. July 13, 1866 Colonel Carrington begins building Fort Phil Kearny He halts his column between the forks of the Little Piney & the Big Piney Creeks, in the best hunting grounds of the Plains Indians, & pitches camp. The Cheyenne visit & decide that the camp is too strong for them to attack directly & begin plans for harassing the soldiers who leave the camp & for drawing out soldiers by using decoys. All summer they harasses the soldiers & make alliances with other Plains groups, forming a coalition of Lakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho & Crow groups. December 21, 1866 The Fetterman Massacre was fought near Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming Territory on December 21, 1866. Angered at white interlopers traveling through their country, Sioux & Cheyenne forces continually harassed the soldiers at Fort Phil Kearny, constructed to provide emigrant protection along the newly opened Bozeman Trail. Out maneuvering the soldiers, the Indians killed all 80 of them. 1866 to 1867 Red Cloud's fight to close off the Bozeman Trail - The Oglala Sioux Chief Red Cloud successfully fought the US army in an effort to protect Sioux lands against American construction of the Bozeman Trail which was to run from Fort Laramie to the Montana gold fields. October, 1867 Treaty of Medicine Lodge - After Congress passed a law to confine the Plains tribes to small reservations where they could be supervised & "civilized," US representatives organized the largest treaty-making gathering in US history. Over 6,000 members from the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Apache, Comanche, & Kiowa met at Medicine Lodge in Kansas. The Grand Council of tribes was attended by Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, & Sitting Bull, among other great leaders, & pledged to end further encroachment by the whites. The treaty ensured that all tribes would move onto reservation lands. Thereafter, the army was instructed to punish Indian raids & to "bring in" any tribes that refused to live on reservations. 1868 Nez Perce Treaty - This was the last Indian treaty ratified by the US government.
Second Treaty of Fort Laramie - This treaty guaranteed the Sioux Indians' rights to the Black Hills of Dakota & gave the Sioux hunting permission beyond reservation boundaries. The treaty also creates the Great Sioux Reservation & agrees that the Sioux do not cede their hunting grounds in Montana & Wyoming territories. The Army agrees to abandon the forts on the Bozeman Trail & the Indians agree to become "civilized." George Armstrong Custer established himself as a great Indian fighter by leading the Massacre on the Washita in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) in which Black Kettle is killed. The entire village was destroyed & all of its inhabitants were killed. In June, Navajos signed a treaty after the Long Walk when Kit Carson rounded up 8,000 Navajos & forced them to walk more than 300 miles to the Bosque Redondo reservation in southern New Mexico . English officials called it a reservation, but to the conquered & exiled Navajos it was a prison camp. 1869 First Sioux War ends with the Treaty of Fort Laramie; the US agrees to abandon Forts Smith, Kearney, & Reno. Board of Indian Commissioners - Congress created the Board to investigate & report alleged BIA mismanagement & conditions on reservations where corruption was widespread. The Board continued to operate as an investigative & oversight commission that also helped shape & direct American Indian policy. Federally-sponsored Sac & Fox & Iowa tribes in Nebraska. 1870 Buffalo herds are diminished to a crisis point for Plains Indians. On January 20, Buffalo Soldiers, under the command of Captain Francis Dodge, came upon a settlement of Mescalero Apaches in the most remote region of New Mexico’s Guadalupe Mountains & attacked them, killing ten Mescalero Apaches & taking 25 ponies.
On January 23, in the Massacre on the Marias, 173 Blackfoot men, women & children were slaughtered by U.S. soldiers on the Marias River in Montana in response for the killing of Malcolm Clarke & the wounding of his son by a small party of young Blackfoot men. On March 30, the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified. It finally recognized the natural right of all men to vote, including Indians. Women continued to be second-class citizens.
