February 17, 1909: Apache leader Geronimo (Goyathlay) died at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
February 23, 1945, Native American Ira Hayes participated in the flag raising on Iwo Jima.
March 27, 1814: On the “Horseshoe Bend” of the Tallapoosa River, Andrew Jackson and 2,000 whites,
Cherokees, Choctaws, and White Stick Creeks Jackson attacked 800–1,000 Red Stick Creeks, who were
led by Chief Menewa. In the end, only about fifty of the Red Stick Creeks survived the battle. Jackson’s
forces lose forty-nine soldiers and twenty-three warriors killed.This defeat led to the Treaty of Horseshoe
Bend, signed on August 9, 1814, whereby the Creeks gave up 23 million acres of land to the United States.
March 28, 1953: Jim Thorpe (of mostly Sac and Fox Indian heritage ) is widely considered the greatest
athelete of the 20th century. He died today.
April 8, 1756: Governor Robert Morris declared war on the Delaware and Shawnee Indians. As a part of
his declaration, he offered the following cash bounties: prisoners: men over twelve = 150 Spanish pieces of
eight, women or boys = 130; scalps: men = 130, women and boys = 50. The bounty on scalps led to the
killing of many innocent Indians who were members of neither tribe. The legislation for this was called the
Scalp Act. (Also recorded as happening on April 14.)
April 14, 1614: While perhaps best known for allegedly saving the life of Captain John Smith, on this date,
Pocahontas married John Rolfe.
April 15, 1865, Native American General Ely Parker serving under General Grant, wrote the surrender
papers ending the Civil War. Later he was appointed Indian Commissioner and worked to settle many
conflicts between whites and Indians.
May 10, 1864: Cherokee leader, and eventual Principal Chief Stand Watie was promoted to the rank of
Brigadier General in the Confederate Army. Watie was the last Confederate general to surrender.
May 25, 1637: The Battle of Mystic (near modern Mystic, Connecticut) was fought. As a part of the
Pequot War, Mohegan Chief Uncas was leading approximately 100 Indian allies, but he was doubtful of the
ability of seventy-seven Europeans under Captains John Underhill and John Mason to defeat the Pequot.
Regardless, they attacked a fortified Pequot before dawn. Few of the Pequot warriors were in the village,
and the allies set fire to the dwellings. According to some accounts, as many as 700 old men, women, and
children were burned or shot to death. Only about a dozen Pequot in the village survived. (Also recorded as
happening on May 26 and June 5.)
June 2, 1924, all American Indians became U.S. citizens.
June 24, 1832: Today the Supreme Court ruled that the state of Georgia had unfairly tried to exercise
control over the Cherokees contrary to federal law and treaties. The court struck down most of the antiIndian laws passed by Georgia, including those seizing lands and nullifying tribal laws. Before the trial,
President Andrew Jackson officially stated that he had no intention of supporting the Cherokees over the
state of Georgia. Speaking to the court’s decision, Jackson was quoted as saying, “John Marshall [the chief
justice] had rendered his decision; now let him enforce it.” Jackson ignored the Supreme Court ruling and
continued in his efforts to move the Cherokees out of the south and into the Indian Territory (present-day
Oklahoma).
June 25, 1876: The Battle of the Little Big Horn took place. It was a significant defeat for the U.S. Army.
Army reports listed over 260 soldiers killed in the fighting which lasts for two days.
June 26, 1874: Comanche under Quanah Parker decided to punish the white hunters for killing their
buffalo herds and taking their grazing lands. Joined by Kiowa, Cheyenne, and Arapaho, they set out for the
trading post known as Adobe Walls in the Texas Panhandle. Medicine man Isatai of the Comanche
promised that the bullets of the white men would not harm them. A buffalo hunter named William “Billy”
Dixon spotted the Indians approaching and was able to fire a warning shot before the attack. The Indians
charged the trading post. There were twenty-eight men and one woman in Adobe Walls, and the buffalo
hunters there had very accurate, long-range rifles with telescopic sights. Dixon was reported to have
knocked an Indian off his horse from 1,538 yards away with one of these rifles. The post’s adobe walls
provided very good cover for the defenders. Slightly more than a dozen Indians were killed in the fight, and
Isatai was humiliated. The Indians gave up the fight as hopeless and left. (Also recorded as happening on
June 27–July 1, 1874.)
June 30, 1520: According to some sources, Montezuma died, possibly killed by other Aztecs. Other
sources said he was stabbed to death by Spaniards under Hernán Cortés.
August 11, 3114 B.C., the world began according to the Maya. They predicted that the world would end in
late December, 2012.
August 29, 1758: The First State Indian Reservation in Brotherton, New Jersey, was established. It was
primarily for the Lenni Lenape (Delaware).
September 8, 1883: In Bismarck (North Dakota), the Northern Pacific Railroad celebrated the completion
of its transcontinental railroad line. The company invited Sitting Bull, as a representative of the Indians, to
make a speech to welcome the dignitaries at the celebration. Sitting Bull, speaking through an interpreter,
instead said the whites were liars and thieves and that he hated all of them, smiling throughout the entire
speech. The shocked interpreter, a young army officer, delivered the planned speech instead of Sitting
Bull’s real words. Sitting Bull was a great success and received a standing ovation. Railroad officials asked
Sitting Bull to make additional speeches elsewhere based on his reception today.
September 17, 1868: In Colorado, Brevet Colonel G. A. Forsyth (Ninth Cavalry) and fifty scouts were
following the trail of Indians who had been marauding near Sheridan City. As they approached the
“Arickaree” Fork of the Republican River, they were attacked by 700 Indians. The soldiers moved to an
island that was 125 yards long by fifty yards wide. The army claimed that it killed thirty-five Indians while
losing only six, including Lieutenant F. H. Beecher and surgeon Moore. Forsyth and his men lived on
horseflesh until September 25, when a relief column of buffalo soldiers (black troops) arrived. Roman Nose
died in the fighting. This was called the Battle of Beecher’s Island by the soldiers.
October 5, 1877: Chief Joseph, according to army reports, eighty-seven warriors, eighty-four women, and
147 children surrendered near Bear Paw, Montana. They were within fifty miles of their goal—the
Canadian border. It was here that the chief spoke the famous words: “From where the sun now stands, I
will fight no more.”
October 12, 1492: According to some sources, Columbus landed in the New World. According to the
Taino, they were the first American Indians to greet Columbus on the island of Guanahani (San Salvador).
November 4, 1791: Miami Chief Little Turtle and 1,500 Miami, Delaware, Potawatomi, and Shawnee
warriors had been stalking American General Arthur St. Clair and his force of 2,500 men. About 300 of the
men were militia, and they had camped across a stream from the rest of the force (near the site of presentday Fort Recovery, Ohio). In a predawn move, Little Turtle’s forces attacked the militia. The militia was
routed, and their retreat hampered the efforts of the rest of the force. After three hours of slaughter, St. Clair
managed to retreat. All told, 900 of St. Clair’s men died in what has been called the worst defeat in the
history of the American army.
November 29, 1864: Over 700 Colorado volunteers under Colonel Chivington attacked Black Kettle and
his Cheyenne and Arapaho followers at Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado. The Indians had been told to
camp in this area while they awaited a peace conference with Colorado authorities. The soldiers had four
cannons with them. As a result of the fight, fourteen soldiers were killed and forty were wounded. The
exact number of Indians killed was widely disputed. Chivington reported over 500 Indian dead. Other
estimates ranged from 100 to 600 killed. White Antelope was killed while he was trying to surrender. This
fight was most often called the Sand Creek Massacre.
December 12, 1531: According to most sources, Juan Diego (Cuauhtlatoatzin), a Nahua, spotted the
apparition of the Virgin Mary on a hill called Tepeyacac in Mexico again. He first saw her on December 9.
According to Juan Diego, the Virgin Mary instructed him to carry some roses in his macehualli (cloak) to
the local bishop as proof of her appearance. When the macehualli was opened before the bishop, an image
of the Virgin Mary appeared on the cloak among the rose petals. The macehualli is still on display in the
church (Our Lady of Guadalupe) built to honor the event.
December 15, 1890: Sitting Bull was killed while being arrested at Fort Yates, South Dakota, by Eighth
Cavalry soldiers and Indian police near Standing Rock on the Grand River in Montana. Thirty-nine police
officers and four volunteers were assembled to arrest Sitting Bull. Before it was all done, over 100 of
Sitting Bull’s supporters arrived at the scene. Several people were injured or killed in the subsequent
fighting. According to army documents, four soldiers and eight Indians were killed. Of those eight were
Indian Police Officers John Armstrong, Paul Akicitah, David Hawkman, James Little Eagle, Charles
Shavehead, and Henry Bullhead. Three soldiers were wounded. Later this week, the editor of the Aberdeen
Saturday Pioneer wrote a editorial about Sitting Bull. One of the passages was as follows: “The proud spirit
of the original owners of these vast prairies inherited through centuries of fierce and bloody wars for their
possession, lingered last in the bosom of Sitting Bull. With his fall the nobility of the Redskin is
extinguished, and what few are left are a pack of whining curs who lick the hand that smites them. The
Whites, by law of conquest, by justice of civilization, are masters of the American continent, and the best
safety of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians.”
The author of this editorial was L. Frank Baum, best known as the author of The Wizard of Oz.
December 16, 1811: The New Madrid earthquake took place on the Mississippi River around 2:30 A.M.
Many tribes told tales of this event for generations. Many people said that Tecumseh predicted this
earthquake.
December 21, 1866: Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, Yellow Eagle, High Back Bone, and their followers had
been harassing Colonel Henry Carrington’s Second Cavalry and Twenty-Seventh Infantry troops from Fort
Phil Kearny in northern Wyoming. They staged several raids and ambushes along the road from the fort to
the nearby woods. Captain William J. Fetterman had once said, “A company of regulars could whip a
thousand, and a regiment could whip the whole array of hostile tribes.” A convoy of wagons carrying wood
left the fort. It was attacked by a decoy group of Indians. Following up on his claim that he “could ride
through the Sioux Nation” with just eighty men, Fetterman pursued the decoying Indians away from the
fort. The Indians’ trap was sprung. Fetterman’s entire force of three officers, forty-seven infantry, twentyseven cavalry, and two civilians were killed in the fighting. The soldiers called this the Fetterman
Massacre. The Indians called it the Battle of the Hundred Killed.
December 26, 1862, thirty-eight Santee Sioux were condemned and hanged for their actions in the “Santee
Uprising” at Mankato, Minnesota. This was the largest mass hanging in American history.
December 27, 1980, the U.S. Post Office issued a stamp honoring Sequoyah, a Cherokee who invented a
written language for the native dialect spoken by his tribe. This is the only known written language of the
North American Indian tribes created by a member of that tribe and it is still in use today.
December 29, 1890: The Battle of Wounded Knee, or Wounded Knee Massacre, took place. According to
army records, one officer, twenty-four soldiers, and 128 Indians were killed. The army would give
Congressional Medals of Honor to 18 soldiers for their actions during the fighting.
December 29, 1835: The United States informed the Cherokees that they were to appear in their capital
city, New Echota, Georgia, to negotiate a treaty with the United States. They were informed that anyone
not attending the council was assumed to support any agreement reached there. Several Cherokee leaders
opposed to the movement of the tribe to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) were physically
restrained so they could not attend the meeting. Chief John Ross was held prisoner, without charges, for
twelve days by Georgia militia. Of the estimated 18,000 Cherokees, less than 500 attended the treaty
council. Today, a treaty (7 Stat. 478) was signed by less than 100 Cherokees that ceded all of the Cherokee
lands in the east. The treaty-signers, led by Elias Boudinot, Major Ridge, and John Ridge, agreed to the
treaty with the provision that it receive approval from the majority of the Cherokee Nation. Although
representatives of almost 16,000 Cherokees informed the government they did not endorse or support the
treaty, the U.S. Senate ratified it by a one-vote margin.