1492
From their nakedness, Columbus inferred the
native people to be an inferior race.
Columbus wrote of the Indians he
encountered, "They all go around as naked as
their mothers bore them; and also the
women." However, he noted that "they could
easily be commanded and made to work, to
sow and to do whatever might be needed, to
build towns and be taught to wear clothes
and adopt our ways." Although Columbus also
wrote that "they are the best people in the
world and above all the gentlest," his record
of the first encounter between Europeans
and New World Indians was filled with
accounts of enslavement, murder, and rape.
1513
In May, Ponce de Leon encountered Calusa
Indians while exploring the Gulf Coast of
Florida near Charlotte harbor. In a fight with
the Calusa, de Leon captured four warriors.
1524
On July 8, the first kidnapping in America
took place. Florentine explorers kidnapped
an Indian child to bring to France.
1528
On April 16, the first significant exploration
of Florida occurred when Spanish soldier,
explorer, and Indian fighter Panfilo de
Narvaez saw Indian houses near what is now
Tampa Bay. Narvaez claimed Spanish royal
title to the land.
1540
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado led Mexico's
invasion of the north with an expeditionary
force of 300 conquistadors and more than
one thousand Indian "allies." When they
reached Cibola, they found not the promised
metropolis but "a little, crowded village,
looking as if it had been crumpled all up
together." This was the Zuni Pueblo of
Hawikuh, whose warriors answered with
arrows when Coronado demanded that they
swear loyalty to his King. Within an hour, the
Spaniards overran the pueblo, and over the
next few weeks, they conquered the other
Zunis in the region.
Coronado moved his camp to the upper Rio
Grande, where his soldiers confiscated one
pueblo for winter quarters and looted the
surrounding pueblos for supplies. During this
operation, a Spaniard raped an Indian
woman, and when Coronado refused to
punish him, the Indians retaliated by stealing
horses. Lopez de Cardenas attacked the
thieves' pueblo, captured 200 men and
methodically burned them all at the stake.
1541
Faced with an incipient uprising, Francisco
Vasquez de Coronado ordered an attack on
Moho pueblo, a center of Indian resistance.
His men were repulsed when they tried to
scale the walls, so they settled in for a siege
that lasted from January through March. At
last, when the Moho tried to slip away, the
Spaniards killed more than 200 men, women
and children in a massacre that pacified the
region.
1542
Under pressure from religious leaders,
especially the Dominican friar Bartolome de
Las Casas, Spanish Emperor Carlos V
attempted to impose "New Laws" on the
Spanish colonies, ending the encomienda
system that gave settlers the right to Indian
slave labor.
1546
The "New Laws" barring Indian enslavement
were repealed at the insistence of New
World colonists, who developed a society and
economy dependent on slave labor
1552
Bartolome de Las Casa, the first priest
ordained in the Western hemisphere and
chief architect of the now-defunct "New
Laws" against Indian enslavement, published
Brief Relations of the Destruction of the
Indies, which provided many gruesome
examples of the colonists' treatment of
Indians.
1598
On November 15, Don Juan Oñate declared
possession of Hopi land (in what is now
northern Arizona) in the name of the Spanish
crown. Four hundred years later, the Hopi
have still never signed any treaty with any
non-Indian nation.
1600's
Europeans of the time held steadfastly to the
belief that their introduced diseases were
acts of God being done in their behalf. One
settler proclaimed while speaking about the
deaths of Native Americans, "Their enterprise
failed, for it pleased God to effect these
Indians with such a deadly sickness, that out
of every 1000, over 950 of them had died,
and many of them lay rotting above the
ground for lack of burial."
1607
Jamestown is founded in Virginia by the
colonists of the London Company. By the end
of the year, starvation and disease reduce
the original 105 settlers to just 32 survivors.
Captain John Smith is captured by Native
American Chief Powhatan and saved from
death by the chief's daughter, Pocahontas.
On July 3, Indians brought maize, beans,
squash, and fresh and smoked meat to the
Jamestown colony. As at Plymouth years
later, the colonists and their diseases would
eventually exterminate them.
1609
On July 29, Samuel de Champlain,
accompanied by 2 other Frenchmen and 60
Algonquins and Hurons, defeated a band of
Iroquois Indians near the future Ticonderoga,
beginning a long period of French/Iroquois
enmity.
1611
Former Dutch lawyer Adrian Block explored
Manhattan Island in the ship Tiger. He
returned to Europe with a cargo of furs and
two kidnapped Indians, whom he named
Orson and Valentine.
1614
On May 13, the Viceroy of Mexico found
Spanish Explorer Juan de Oñate 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.
In May, Virginia's Deputy Governor George
Yeardley and a group of men killed 20 - 40
Chickahominy Indians. It was under
Yeardley's leadership that friendly relations
between the Chickahominy and the colony
ended.
1621
One of the first treaties between colonists
and 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.
1626
Peter Minuit, a Dutch colonist, buys
Manhattan island from Native Americans for
60 guilders (about $24) and names the island
New Amsterdam.
1637
In the colony of Massachusetts the Pequod
Indians were the first slaves, but as they
"would not endure the yoke," they were sent
to the Bermudas and exchanged for Negroes
in the hope that the latter would bear
slavery more patiently. The first exchange of
Indians for Negroes was made in 1637, the
first year of the Pequod war and was
doubtless kept up for many years.
On May 26, Captains John Mason and John
Underhill attacked and burned Pequot forts
at Mystic, Connecticut, massacring 600
Indians and starting the Pequot War.
On June 5, English settlers in New England
massacred a Pequot Indian village.
1639
Captain
William
Pierce
of
Salem,
Massachusetts sailed to the West Indies and
exchanged Indian slaves for black slaves.
1675-1676
King Philip's War erupts in New England
between colonists and Native Americans as a
result of tensions over colonist's expansionist
activities. The bloody war rages up and down
the Connecticut River valley in Massachusetts
and in the Plymouth and Rhode Island
colonies, eventually resulting in 600 English
colonials being killed and 3,000 Native
Americans, including women and children on
both sides. King Philip (the colonist's
nickname for Metacomet, chief of the
Wampanoags) is hunted down and killed on
August 12, 1676, in a swamp in Rhode Island,
ending the war in southern New England and
ending the independent power of Native
Americans there. In New Hampshire and
Maine, the Saco Indians continue to raid
settlements for another year and a half.
July 30, 1676: Bacon's Rebellion - Tobacco
planters led by Nathan Bacon ask for and 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 and kill many
Indians before order is restored in October.
1690
The beginning of King William's War as
hostilities in Europe between the French and
English spill over to the colonies. In
February, Schenectady, New York is burned
by the French with the aid of their Native
American allies.
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, and that some men
were bred from childhood for this purpose.
1704
On June 23, former Governor of South
Carolina, James Moore, led a force of 50
British, and 1,000 Creek Indians against
Spanish settlements. They attacked a Mission
in Northwestern Florida. They took many
Indians as slaves and killed Father Manuel de
Mendoza.
1709
A slave market was erected at the foot of
Wall Street and here Negroes and Indians,
men, women and children were daily
declared the property of the highest cash
bidder.
1711
Hostilities break out between Native
Americans and settlers in North Carolina
after the massacre of settlers there. The
conflict, known as the Tuscarora Indian War
will last two years.
1715
Yamasee tribes attack and kill
hundred Carolina settlers.
several
1716
South Carolina settlers and their Cherokee
allies attack and defeat the Yamassee.
1721
Jesuit explorer Pierre Francois Xavier de
Charlevoix
recorded
effeminacy
and
widespread homosexuality and lesbianism
among the "Indian" tribes in what is now
Louisiana. The most prominent tribes in the
area at the time were the Iroquois and
Illinois.
1725
Ten sleeping Indians were scalped by whites
in New Hampshire for a bounty.
1745
Upon hearing of an impending French and
Indian attack upon the Ulster county
frontiers, Europeans massacred several
Indian families in their wigwams at Walden in
the Hudson River Valley.
1745
On November 28, French military forces out
of
Canada,
accompanied
by
220
Caughnawaga Mohawk and Abenaki Indians,
attacked and 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 and 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 and were often
captives of war.
1754
On April 9, an Indian slave trader sent a
letter to South Carolina Governor J. Glenn
asking for permission to
Indians to fight another:
only what we can take
what slaves we take to be
use one group of
"We want no pay,
and plunder, and
our own."
1756
On April 8, Governor Robert Morris declared
war on the Delaware and Shawnee Indians.
Included in his war declaration was "The
Scalp Act," which put a bounty on the scalps
of Indian men, women and boys.
1758
On August 1, the first Indian reservation in
North America was established by the New
Jersey Colonial Assembly.
1759
Responding to a Comanche attack that
destroyed two missions on the San Saba River
in central Tejas, a Spanish force of 600
marched north to the Red River where they
engaged several thousand Comanche and
other Plains Indians fighting behind
breastworks and armed with French rifles.
The Spaniards were routed, losing a cannon
in their retreat, and Comanche raids became
a constant threat to settlers throughout
Tejas.
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
In May, the Ottawa Native Americans under
Chief Pontiac begin all-out warfare against
the British west of Niagara, destroying
several British forts and conducting a siege
against the British at Detroit. In August,
Pontiac's forces are defeated by the British
near Pittsburgh. The siege of Detroit ends in
November, but hostilities between the British
and Chief Pontiac continue for several years.
The Proclamation of 1763, signed by King
George III of England, prohibits any English
settlement west of the Appalachian
mountains and requires those already settled
in those regions to return east in an attempt
to ease tensions with Native Americans.
An indication of the basic racism inherent in
the use of violence by colonial whites can be
found in the notorious Paxton Boys. In 1763
this group of frontier thugs did not hesitate
to kill dozens of friendly Christian Indians,
for they were easier to get at than the
hostiles who would put up a fight. The
Paxton Boys mostly beat their victims to
death, though they did not scruple at using
axes. Yet when they marched on Philadelphia
to press their claims for more funding and
arms for a war against the Indians, they were
met by an armed militia, and their forces
melted away. Only some 250 Paxton Boys
remained, and they were intellectually
outnumbered by Benjamin Franklin, who
offered these "white savages" a face-saving
out. The western insurgents presented a promurder petition to the legislature, an
amazing exercise in projection that argued
that Indians should be killed because they
were prone to massacre innocents. The point
is, again, that these white rebels contented
themselves with a petition and then went
home. The legislature ignored their drivel. In
brief, then, personal violence in colonial
America appears to have been reserved for
despised races.
On
December
8,
an
organization
compensating settlers for losses resulting
from Indian raids was created by Indian
Commissioner Sir William Johnson.
On December 27, a troop of 50 armed men
entered the Workhouse at Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, and 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 and to
worship according to the missionaries'
teachings, the Indians at San Diego rebelled
against the Spanish, burning every building
and killing most of the inhabitants, including
the mission's head priest. Thanks to a Spanish
sharpshooter, the Indians were finally driven
off and the Spanish retained control of their
outpost.
1776
On May 25, the Continental Congress resolved
that it was "highly expedient to engage
Indians in service of the United Colonies,"
and authorized recruiting 2,000 paid
auxiliaries. The program was a dismal
failure, as virtually every tribe refused to
fight for the colonists.
1776
On July 21, Cherokee Indians attacked a
settlement in western North Carolina. Militia
forces retaliated by destroying a nearby
Cherokee village.
1772-1780
4/5 of the Arikara died of smallpox, measles,
etc.
1781
Smallpox wiped out more than half the
Piegan Blackfeet.
1782
On March 8, Captain David Williamson and
about 90 volunteer militiamen slaughtered 62
adults and 34 children of the neutral,
pacifist, and Christian Delaware people at
Gnadenhutten, Ohio in retaliation for raids
by other Indian tribes.
On April 21, the Presidio, overlooking San
Francisco, was erected by the Spanish to
subdue Indians interfering with mail
transmissions along El Camino Real.
1786
On July 13, the Northwest Ordinance was
enacted, stating "the utmost good faith shall
always be observed toward the Indians . . . in
their property, rights, and liberty they shall
never be disturbed."
1787
First federal treaty
Delaware Indians.
enacted
with
the
1789
Indian Commerce Clause of the Constitution
is added stating "The Congress shall have
Power . . . to regulate Commerce with
foreign Nations, and among the several
States, and 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 and Intercourse Act is
passed, placing nearly all interaction
between Indians and 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, and 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 U.S. Army and
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.
On March 1, the first U.S. Census count
included slave and free Negroes. Indians
were not included. Pre-1795
Trading begins between Native Americans
and French and 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
The Treaty of Greenville - This treaty marked
the end of an undeclared and multi-tribal
war begun in the late 1770s and led by the
Shawnees who fought to resist American
expansion into Ohio. In 1795, over a thousand
Indian delegates ceded two-thirds of presentday Ohio, part of Indiana, and the sites
where the modern cities of Detroit, Toledo,
and Chicago are currently situated. The
Indians, in return, were promised a
permanent boundary between their lands and
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 and Clark expedition begins its
exploration of the West.
1804 to 1806
Lewis and Clark expedition with Sacagawea.
Under direction of President Jefferson, Lewis
and Clark charted the western territory with
the help of Sacagawea, a Shoshone Indian.
1804
The Sioux
Expedition
meet
the
Lewis
and
Clark
Trading posts begin to be established in the
west.
Fur trading becomes an important part of
Oglala life.
Oglala and other Lakota tribes expand their
region of influence and control to cover most
of the current regions known as North and
South Dakota, westward to the Big Horn
Mountains in Wyoming and 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 and Arkansas to the U. S.
1808 to 1812
Tecumseh, Chief of the Shawnees, and his
brother known as The Prophet, founded
Prophetstown for the settlement of other
Indian peoples who believed that signing
treaties with the U.S. 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 and
Indian land. Meanwhile, William Henry
Harrison, governor or Ohio, began enacting
treaties with various tribes. At a meeting
between Tecumseh and Harrison at
Vincennes in 1810, Tecumseh declared that
he and the confederacy would never
recognize any treaties signed with the U.S.
government. When Tecumseh was away from
Prophetstown in November 1811, Harrison
led troops to the town and 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, and were held as slaves for
two years.
1810
This Treaty of Fort Wayne brought the
Delawares, Potawatomi, Miami, and 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 and
Okanogan Rivers; Indians met the Astorians
with pledges of friendship and 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
The Creek War was instigated by General
Andrew Jackson who sought to end Creek
resistance to ceding their land to the U.S.
government. The Creek Nation was defeated
and 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 and Creek Indians captured Fort
Blount, Florida from Seminoles and used it as
a haven for escaped slaves and 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 and 20 Indians, was taken after a siege
of several days. The fort was destroyed,
punishing the Seminoles for harboring
runaway slaves.
1817
Congress passed the Indian Country Crimes
Act which provided for federal jurisdiction
over crimes between non-Indians and
Indians, and maintained exclusive tribal
jurisdiction of all Indian crimes.
1818
On April 18, Andrew Jackson defeated a
force of Indians and 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 on the California missions.
1821
South Carolina settlers and their Cherokee
allies attack and defeat the Yamassee.
The U.S. government began moving what it
called the "Five Civilized Tribes" of southeast
America
(Cherokee,
Creek,
Seminole,
Choctaw, and 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
and 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, and 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
established by the Secretary of War
operated under the administration of
War Department. The Office becomes
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in 1849.
was
and
the
the
1825
Creek chief William McIntosh signs treaty
ceding Creek lands to the U.S. and agrees to
vacate by 1826; other Creeks repudiate the
treaty and kill him.
1827
Creek Indians sign a second treaty ceding
lands in western Georgia
1828
Elias Boudinot and 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, and from 1830 to
1840 thousands of Native Americans were
forcibly removed.
On September 15, the Choctaws 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 Sauk and Fox tribes agrees
to move west of Mississippi.
Cherokee Nation v. Georgia - The Cherokee
Nation sued the State of Georgia for passing
laws and enacting policies that not only
limited their sovereignty, but which were
forbidden in the Constitution. The Court's
decision proclaimed that Indians were
neither U.S. citizens, nor independent
nations,
but
rather
were
"domestic
dependent nations" whose relationship to the
U.S. "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 and
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 and the Cherokees
refused to negotiate unless the federal
government
honored
previous
treaty
promises.
On August 2, some 150 Sac and Fox men,
women and 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, and parts of what later became
Nebraska, Colorado, and 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 and 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
and removal to Indian Territory. A larger
group of the Cherokee did not accept the
terms of this treaty and refused to move
westward.
1835-42
Seminole War - The second and most terrible
of three wars between the U.S. government
and the Seminole people was also one of the
longest and most expensive wars in which the
U.S. army was ever engaged. Thousands of
troops were sent, 1,500 men died, and
between 40-60 million dollars were spent to
force most of the Seminoles to move to
Indian Territory—more than the entire U.S.
government's budget for Indian Removal.
1836
In five groups, over 14,000 Creeks were
forcibly removed by the U.S. Army from
Alabama to Oklahoma.
1837
Two thirds of the 6,000 Blackfeet died of
smallpox
1838
Trail of Tears - Despite the Supreme Court's
rulings in 1831 and 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)
and had remained in Georgia. In May,
American soldiers herded most into camps
where they remained imprisoned throughout
the summer and 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 Seminoles 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.
1842
Seminole Nation v. United States. The Court
held officials of the United States were to be
held to the "most exacting fiduciary
standards" in performing their duties toward
American Indians. Thus, it "has charged itself
with moral obligations of the highest
responsibility and trust" towards American
Indian Nations; i.e., upholding the trust
responsibility.
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 and 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 and Texas.
On September 9, California entered the
Union. With miners flooding the hillsides and
devastating the land, California's Indians
found
themselves
deprived
of
their
traditional food sources and forced by hunger
to raid the mining towns and other white
settlements. Miners retaliated by hunting
Indians down and 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 and 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 and
hide hunters severely limits Plains Indians
food supply and ability to survive.
1851
A series of Fort Laramie treaties were signed
with the Lakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho and
other Plains tribes delineating the extent of
their territories and 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 and wagon trains on the
Oregon and later the Bozeman trails, 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 and 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 and 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.
1855
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.
1856
January 26, 1856: 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.
1857
In September, the Fancher party, a group of
California-bound emigrants from Arkansas
and Missouri, arrived in Salt Lake City.
According to Brigham Young's edict, the
townspeople refused to sell supplies to the
group. They headed south and camped in
Mountain Meadows.
On September 7, the
Fancher party suffered a coordinated joint
attack by Paiute Indians and 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 Doyle Lee, and 54 Mormon
militiamen approached the Fancher party
and offered to provide safe passage through
the territory. The surviving members of the
Fancher party would hand over their
livestock to the Paiutes and their guns to the
Mormons. In return, the pioneers were
guaranteed safe passage from the area. Once
the emigrants accepted the Mormon offer
and laid down their weapons, the Mormons
opened fire on them. The Paiute, allies of
the Mormons, stormed the wagon train, and
slaughtered the women and 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 and
settled in Lee's Ferry, Arizona.
In 1877,
Lee was arrested and tried for his part in the
massacre. He was convicted and 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
and was executed by a firing squad.
1858
On May 17, 1,200 Coeur d'Alene, Palouse,
Spokane, and 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 and Spokane
tribes were shot or hanged.
1860
On February 26, white settlers from Eureka,
California attacked and 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 and 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
Navajos and American military forces in the
area. During a final standoff in January 1864
at Canyon de Chelly, fears of harsh winter
conditions and starvation forced the Navajo
to surrender to Kit Carson and his troops.
Carson ordered the destruction of Navajo
property and 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 and
defeated hostile Chiricahua Indians in
Arizona.
On February 18, Arapaho and 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 and
children during a horse race at Fort Wingate,
New Mexico.
On September 22, 500 Apaches led by
Cochise attacked the town of Pinos Altos,
New Mexico. Three miners and 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 U.S. 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, and 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 Lincoln
intervened and 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 and 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 hung.
1863
July 3, 1863: After the end of the Santee
Sioux uprising, Little Crow leaves the area.
Eventually he returns to steal horses and
supplies so he, and his followers can survive.
On this day, near Hutchinson, Minnesota,
Little Crow and 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,
and 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, and children to walk more
than 300 miles from their ancestral homeland
in northeastern Arizona to a newlydesignated reservation at Bosque Redondo in
northwestern New Mexico. The march ended
in confinement on barren lands, as well as
malnutrition, disease, and 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, and to become ranchers
and farmers. In 1868, the government finally
returned the Navajo to their homeland.
On June 11, rancher Nathan Hungate, his
wife and two little girls were slaughtered in
Chivington, Colorado by Indians.
On November 29, 750 Colorado volunteers of
the 3rd Colorado Calvary, under the
command of Colonel John Chivington (a
Methodist pastor), attacked a Cheyenne and
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 squaws in
relays, and used baby toddlers as target
practice. 163 Indians were killed; 110 of
them were women and children. The dead
were left to be eaten by coyotes and
vultures. On the way back to Fort Lyon, the
soldiers wore the sliced breasts and 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, and
Colorado Governor John Evans was removed
from office.
1865
July: 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 and 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.
July 24-26, 1865: Battle of Platte Bridge The Cheyenne and Lakota besiege the most
northerly outpost of the U.S. army and
succeed in killing all members of a platoon of
cavalrymen sent out to meet a wagon train
as well as the wagon drivers and their
escorts.
Late August, 1865: Battle of Tongue River Connor's column destroys an Arapaho village,
including all the winter's food supply, tents
and 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 and Walker columns of exhausted and
starving soldiers who were attempting to
return to Fort Laramie. Because they were
armed only with bows, lances and 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 2 companies of soldiers at
the fort they had constructed at the fork of
the Crazy Woman Creek and the Powder
River. Red Cloud and his warriors kept these
men isolated and without supplies all winter.
Many died of scurvy, malnutrition and
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 Brulés, Hunkpapas,
Oglalas and Minneconjous. 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 U.S.
Army begins building forts along the Bozeman
Trail, an important route to the gold fields of
Virginia City; Captain Fetterman and 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 and
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
and 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 Kearney He halts his
column between the forks of the Little Piney
and the Big Piney Creeks, in the best hunting
grounds of the Plains Indians, and pitches
camp. The Cheyenne visit and decide that
the camp is too strong for them to attack
directly and begin plans for harassing the
soldiers who leave the camp and for drawing
out soldiers by using decoys. All summer they
harasses the soldiers and make alliances with
other Plains groups, forming a coalition of
Lakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho and Crow groups.
December 21, 1866: Fetterman Massacre Early in December the young Lakota warriors,
including Crazy Horse, executed an elaborate
decoy manuever to draw soldiers out of the
fort. They were very successful and killed
several officers and severely wounded
several other soldiers. In the next weeks an
ambush was carefully planned and a location
for a trap was chosen. Two thousand warriors
moved south and set up camp two miles
north of the chosen trap location. Ten young
warriors were selected from the different
tribal groups represented for the most
dangerous job of decoying the soldiers.
These
decoys
performed
elaborate
manuevers to lure the soldiers into the trap.
When they were all inside the trap, the
decoys signaled to the concealed warriors
who rose up and killed all 80 of the soldiers.
Nonetheless, casualties among the Indians
were great because they were poorly armed
to compete with the new repeating rifles of
the soldiers. The Indians named this battle
The Battle of the Hundred Slain. The whites
knew it as the Fetterman Massacre because
the soldiers were led by Captain Fetterman,
who had boasted that he could defeat the
entire Sioux Nation with a single company of
cavalrymen. Colonel Carrington was appalled
by the mutilation of the bodies they found.
Had he seen the bodies of the Indians slain at
Sand Creek, the condition of these bodies
would have come as no surprise.
1866 to 1867
Red Cloud's fight to close off the Bozeman
Trail - The Oglala Sioux Chief Red Cloud
successfully fought the U.S. 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.
Summer, 1867: Treaty of Medicine Lodge After Congress passed a law to confine the
Plains tribes to small reservations where they
could be supervised and "civilized," U.S.
representatives organized the largest treatymaking gathering in U.S. history. Members
from the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Apaches,
Comanches, and Kiowas met at Medicine
Lodge in Kansas. The Grand Council of 6,000
tribes was attended by Crazy Horse, Red
Cloud, and 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 and to "bring
in" any tribes that refused to live on
reservations.
1868
Nez Perce Treaty - This was the last Indian
treaty ratified by the U.S. government.
Second Treaty of Fort Laramie - This treaty
guaranteed the Sioux Indians' rights to the
Black Hills of Dakota and gave the Sioux
hunting permission beyond reservation
boundaries. The treaty also creates the Great
Sioux Reservation and agrees that the Sioux
do not cede their hunting grounds in Montana
and Wyoming territories. The Army agrees to
abandon the forts on the Bozeman Trail and
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 and all of its
inhabitants were killed.
In June, Navajos signed a treaty after the
Long Walk when Kit Carson rounded up 8,000
Navajos and 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
and exiled Navajos it was a prison camp.
1869
First Sioux War ends with the Treaty of Fort
Laramie; the U.S. agrees to abandon Forts
Smith, Kearney, and Reno.
Board of Indian Commissioners - Congress
created the Board to investigate and report
alleged BIA mismanagement and conditions
on reservations where corruption was
widespread. The Board continued to operate
as an investigative and oversight commission
that also helped shape and direct American
Indian policy.
Federally-sponsored Sac and Fox and 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 and attacked them,
killing ten Mescalero Apaches and taking 25
ponies.
On January 23, in the Massacre on the
Marias, 173 Blackfeet men, women and
children were slaughtered by U.S. soldiers on
the Marias River in Montana in response for
the killing of Malcolm Clarke and the
wounding of his son by a small party of young
Blackfeet 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.
March 3, 1871: Indian Appropriation Act This Congressional Act specified that no tribe
thereafter would be recognized as an
independent nation with which the federal
government could make a treaty. (From 1607
to 1776, at least 175 treaties had been
signed with the British and colonial
governments, and from 1778 to 1868, 371
treaties were ratified the U.S. government.)
All future Indian policies would not
negotiated with Indian tribes through
treaties, but rather would be determined by
passing Congressional statutes or executive
orders. Marking a significant step backwards,
the act made tribal members wards of the
state rather than preserving their rights as
members of sovereign nations.
April 30, 1871: One Hundred Forty-Four
Apaches, most of them women and children,
were murdered outside Camp Grant, Arizona,
where they had been given asylum, when
members of the Tucson Committee of Public
Safety arrived with a force of Papago Indians,
the Apaches' long-time enemies. All but 8 of
the 144 dead were women and children.
They were clubbed to death, hacked to
pieces or brained by rocks. The committee
members claimed they acted in retaliation
for raids by various Apache bands at distant
points across the region, but public opinion,
particularly in the East, linked the event to
the recently investigated Sand Creek
Massacre of 1864 as further evidence of
Westerners' deep-seated hatred for Indians.
July 5, 1871: Kiowas, Santana and Big Tree
are arrested for murdering wagon drivers in
the raid on May 18th. The trail for the two is
held in Jacksboro, Texas near Fort
Richardson. After three days of testimony
they are found guilty. Satanta tells the court,
"If you let me go, I will withdrawn my
warriors from Tehanna, but if you kill me, it
will be a spark on the prairie. Make big fireburn heap." Although sentenced to be
hanged, the Texas Governor, fearing a Kiowa
uprising, decides to commute the sentences
to life in a Texas prison. Eventually, Big Tree
and Satanta are freed.
1872
The Mining Act of 1872 was passed by the
U.S. Congress. Alaskan natives were excluded
from claiming ownership to their own land.
During this period of history natives were not
accepted as citizens of the nation and had no
land or load claim rights, something that
took many years to change.
1873
Custer and the Seventh Cavalry come to the
northern plains to guard the surveyers for the
Northern Pacific Railroad. He has a chance
encounter with Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.
On June 5, Alcatraz's first Indian prisoner
known as Paiute Tom started his prison term
at the infamous facility. Tom's stay at the
prison was short. He was shot and killed by a
guard two days after arriving. It's unknown
today what he was convicted of or why he
was killed.
1874
George Armstrong Custer announced the
discovery of gold in the Black Hills of Dakota,
setting off a stampede of fortune-hunters
into this most sacred part of Lakota territory.
Although the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty
required the government to protect Lakota
lands from white intruders, federal
authorities worked instead to protect the
miners already crowding along the path
Custer blazed for them, which they called
"Freedom's Trail" and the Lakota called
"Thieves' Road."
On February 25, the Skokomish reservation
was established, near Shelton, Washington.
On July 26, the order was given that friendly
Indians were to remain in fixed camps at the
Wichita Agency, Indian Territory, and answer
periodic roll calls.
On September 10, a group of Kiowa and
Comanche attacked a military supply caravan
along the Washita River, Indian Territory, in
present day Oklahoma. The soldiers
barricaded themselves for several days until
others came to help. One soldier was killed.
1875
The U.S. government attempts to purchase
Paha Sapa (the Black Hills) and fails. Second
Sioux War erupts after the Sioux refuse to
sell the lands north of the Platte to the
federal government.
On November 9, the Indian Bureau reported
that Plains Indians outside reservations were
"well-fed . . . lofty and independent in their
attitudes, and are a threat to the reservation
system."
1876
January, 1876: The U.S. government issues
an ultimatum that all Sioux who are not on
the Great Sioux Reservation by January 31
will be considered hostile. The winter is
bitter and most Sioux do not even hear of the
ultimatum until after the deadline.
February 1, 1876: The Secretary of the
Interior notified the Secretary Of War that
time given to "hostile" Sioux and Cheyenne
Indian families to abandon their villages and
come into U.S. agencies had expired; it was
now a military matter.
February 7, 1876: The War Department
authorized General Philip Sheridan to
commence operations against "hostile"
Lakota, including bands of Sitting Bull and
Crazy Horse.
March 17, 1876: General George Crook's
advance column attacked a Sioux/Cheyenne
camp on the Powder River in South Dakota,
mistakenly believing it to be the
encampment of Lakota warrior Crazy Horse.
The people were driven from their lodges
and many were killed. The lodges and all the
winter supplies were burned and the horse
herd captured.
Spring 1876: George Armstrong Custer and
the Seventh Cavalry begin to forcibly place
the Lakota Sioux onto reservations.
Sitting Bull organizes the greatest gathering
of Indians on the northern plains.
May 15, 1876: President Ulysses S. Grant
issued an executive order creating the
Cabazon Reservation for the Cahuilla Indians.
Prior to the order, the Cahuilla moved many
times due to Southern Pacific Railroad's claim
to local water rights.
June 17, 1876: In the Battle of the Rosebud,
General Crook is forced to retire from the
"pincers" campaign.
June 25, 1876: The Battle of the Little
Bighorn - Ignoring warnings of a massed Sioux
army of 2,000-4,000 men, Custer and 250
soldiers attack the forces of Sitting Bull and
Crazy Horse at the Little Bighorn. George
Armstrong Custer and 210 men under his
command are killed. The news reaches the
east for the Independence Day Centennial
celebrations. In response, the federal
government spent the next two years
tracking down the Lakota, killing some and
forcing most onto the reservation. On July 6,
The New York Times referred to those
American people as "red devils."
October 1876: Colonel Nelson "Bear Coat"
Miles arrived on the Yellowstone River to
take command of the campaign against the
northern plains Indians. The Manypenny
Commission demands that the Sioux give up
Paha Sapa or starve. Having no choice, Red
Cloud, Spotted Tail, and the other
reservation chiefs signed over Paha Sapa.
November 25, 1876: The U.S. took retaliatory
action for the Battle of the Little Bighorn
against the Cheyenne. U.S. troops under
General Ronald Mackenzie burned Chief Dull
Knife's village, even though Dull Knife himself
didn't fight at the Little Bighorn.
1877
Nez Perce War - This war occurred when the
U.S. army responded to some American
deaths along the Salmon River, said to have
been committed by the Nez Perce. To avoid
a battle that would have resulted in being
forced onto a reservation, about 800 Nez
Perce fled 1,500 miles. They were caught 30
miles south of the Canadian border. Survivors
were sent to Indian Territory in Oklahoma,
despite the promise of the U.S. government
to allow them to return to their homeland.
January 15, 1877: Standing Bear, a Ponca
chief, refused to move to a reservation
because it was within lands already given to
the Lakota.
February 28, 1877: The U.S. Government
seized the Black Hills from Lakota Sioux in
violation of a treaty.
March 23, 1877: John D. Lee was brought to
trial for his part in the Fancher Party
Massacre of 1857. He was convicted by an
all-Mormon jury. On March 23 he was
executed by firing squad at the site of the
massacre, after denouncing Brigham Young
for abandoning him. His last words are for his
executioners: "Center my heart, boys. Don't
mangle my body."
Early May 1877: Sitting Bull escapes to
Canada with about 300 followers.
May 6, 1877: Crazy Horse finally surrendered
to General George Crook at Fort Robinson,
Nebraska on May 6, having received
assurances that he and his followers will be
permitted to settle in the Powder River
country of Montana. Defiant even in defeat,
Crazy Horse arrived with a band of 800
warriors, all brandishing weapons and
chanting songs of war.
May 7, 1877: A small band of Minneconjou
Sioux is defeated by General Miles, thus
ending the Great Sioux Wars.
June, 1877: The Ponca arrived at the Otto
reservation. They were forcibly marched
from their old reservation to Indian
Territory. The Otto took pity on the Ponca
and gave them some horses to help carry
their people.
September 6, 1877: By late summer, there
were rumors that Crazy Horse was planning a
return to battle, and on September 5 he was
arrested and brought back to Fort Robinson,
where, when he resisted being jailed, he was
held by an Indian guard and killed by a
bayonet thrust from a soldier on September
6. He was 36.
Congress passed the Manypenny Agreement,
a law taking the Black Hills and ending Sioux
rights outside the Great Sioux Reservation.
The Sioux land - 134 million acres guaranteed
by treaty in 1868 was reduced to less than 15
million acres.
October 5, 1877: Nez Perce leader Chief
Joseph surrendered his rifle at Eagle Creek in
the Bear Paw Mountains in Montana after
months in which his starving band eluded
pursuing federal troops: "From where the sun
now stands, I will fight no more forever."
1877-1888
Buffalo have disappeared and Lakota now
live on handouts from the Federal
Government.
1878
The Northern Cheyenne escape from their
reservation in Oklahoma in an attempt to
reach their lands in Montana Territory.
January, 1878: A Commission finds the Indian
Bureau
permeated
with
"cupidity,
inefficiency, and the most barefaced
dishonesty." The department's affairs were "a
reproach to the whole nation." Carl Schurz
had already dismissed the Commissioner of
Indian Affairs, John Q. Smith on September
27, 1877. He now discharged many more
Bureau
employees
and
began
a
reorganization of the Indian agents.
1879
The first students, a group of 84 Lakota
children, arrived at the newly established
United States Indian Training and Industrial
School at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, a boarding
school founded by former Indian-fighter
Captain Richard Henry Pratt to remove young
Indians from their native culture and
refashion them as members of mainstream
American society. Over the next two
decades, twenty-four more schools on the
Carlisle model will be established outside the
reservations, along with 81 boarding schools
and nearly 150 day schools on the Indians'
own land.
On January 14, Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce
Tribe addressed Congress about tribal lands
stolen through treaties. He gave the analogy
that it was like having horses that he doesn't
want to sell being sold by his neighbor, with
the neighbor then letting the buyer take the
horses.
In January, the U.S. Army rounded up 540
Paiutes in Oregon and, in what's known as
the Paiute Trail of Tears, forcibly took them
to the Yakima Reservation in Washington. On
February 2, they arrived at the reservation
after a forced march through winter snows.
1880
Civilization Regulations - Congress set up a
series of offenses that only Indians could
commit. These regulations outlawed Indian
religions, the practices of "so-called"
medicine men, ceremonies like the Sun
Dance, and leaving the reservation without
permission. These regulations were in place
until 1936.
1881
A Century of Dishonor publication. - Helen
Hunt Jackson released her book detailing the
plight of American Indians and criticizing the
U.S. government's treatment of Indians.
January 18, 1881: The Spokane
Reservation was established.
Indian
July 19, 1881: Sitting Bull and 186 of his
remaining followers surrender at Fort Buford.
He is sent to Fort Randall for two years as a
prisoner of war instead of being pardoned, as
promised.
Late Summer, 1881: Spotted Tail, is
assassinated by Crow Dog - White officials
dismiss the killing as a simple quarrel, but
the Sioux feel that it was the result of a plot
to wrest control from a strong Indian leader.
1882
Congressional Act - Congress provided funds
for the mandatory education of 100 Indian
pupils in industrial schools and for the
appointment
of
an
Inspector
or
Superintendent of Indian schools.
Indian Rights Association - This organization
was created to protect the interests and
rights of Indians. The association was
composed of white reformers who wanted to
help Indians abandon their cultural and
spiritual beliefs and assimilate into American
society.
On October 24, a federal Grand Jury in
Arizona charged civil authorities with
mismanagement of Indian Affairs on the San
Carlos Reservation.
1883
Ex Parte Crow Dog Supreme Court decision. Crow Dog, a Sioux Indian who shot an killed
an Indian on the Rosebud Reservation, was
prosecuted in federal court, found guilty,
and sentenced to death. On appeal it was
argued that the federal government's
prosecution had infringed upon tribal
sovereignty. The Court ruled that the U.S.
did not have jurisdiction and that Crow Dog
must be released. The decision was a
reaffirmation of tribal sovereignty and led to
the passage of the 1885 Major Crimes Act
which identified seven major crimes, that if
committed by an Indian on Indian land, were
placed within federal jurisdiction.
A group of clergymen, government officials
and social reformers calling itself "The
Friends of the Indian" met in upstate New
York to develop a strategy for bringing Native
Americans into the mainstream of American
life. Their decisions set the course for U.S.
policy toward Native Americans over the next
generation and resulted in the near
destruction of native American cultures.
Courts of Indian Offenses - The Secretary of
the Interior established these courts to
uphold the 1880 Civilization Regulations to
eliminate "heathenish practices" among the
Indians. The rules of the courts forbade the
practice of all public and private religious
activities by Indians on their reservations,
including ceremonial dances, like the Sun
Dance, and the practices of "so-called
medicine men."
In May, Lakota Chief Sitting Bull was released
from prison. He rejoined his tribe in Standing
Rock where he was forced to work the fields.
He spoke forcefully against plans to open
part of the reservation to White settlers.
Despite the old chief's objections, the land
transfer proceeded as planned. He lived the
rest of his life across the Grand River from
his birthplace.
On September 8, Sitting Bull delivered a
speech, at the celebration of the driving of
the last spike in the transcontinental railroad
system, to great applause. He delivered the
speech in his Sioux language, departing from
a speech originally prepared by an army
translator. Denouncing the U.S. government,
settlers, and army, the listeners thought he
was welcoming and praising them. While
giving the speech, Sitting Bull paused for
applause periodically, bowed, smiled, and
continued insulting his audience as the
translator delivered the original address.
On November 3, the U.S. Supreme Court
ruled that an Indian is by birth "an alien and
a dependent."
1885
Sitting Bull tours with Buffalo Bill's Wild West
Show.
Major Crimes Act - This Congressional Act
gave federal courts jurisdiction over Indians
accused of rape, manslaughter, murder,
assault with intent to kill, arson, or larceny
against another Indian on a reservation. The
list was eventually expanded to include 14
crimes.
When U.S. troops pursued a band of Apaches
near Pleasanton, New Mexico, the Indians
caught the soldiers in a triple cross-fire trap
and killed them all.
1886
United States v. Kagama Supreme Court
decision. Two Indians on the Hoopa Valley
Reservation in northern California killed
another Indian on the reservation. They were
prosecuted and found guilty by the federal
government. The Indians argued that
Congress did not have constitutional
authority to pass the Major Crimes Act
(1885). The Court, however, upheld the full
and absolute (plenary) power of the Congress
to pass the Major Crimes Act and of the
federal government - not state governments
- exclusively to deal with Indian tribes.
"These Indian tribes are the wards of the
nation. They are communities dependent on
the United States - dependent largely for
their daily food; dependent for their political
rights. They owe no allegiance to the states,
and receive from them no protection.
Because of the local ill feeling, the people of
the states where they are found are often
their deadliest enemies. From their very
weakness and helplessness, so largely due to
the course of dealing of the federal
government with them, and the treaties in
which it has been promised, there arises the
duty of protection, and with it the power."
Thus, the case challenged the major crime
act and its ruling upheld it by implying that
because Indian tribes were wards of the US,
Congress had the power to regulate tribes,
even if it interfered with their sovereign
power to deal with criminal offenders on
tribal lands.
Geronimo, described by one follower as "the
most intelligent and resourceful . . most
vigorous and farsighted" of the Apache
leaders, surrendered to General Nelson A.
Miles in Skeleton Canyon, Arizona, after
more than a decade of guerilla warfare
against American and Mexican settlers in the
Southwest. The terms of surrender required
Geronimo and his tribe to settle in Florida,
where the Army hoped he could be
contained.
1887
The Dawes Severalty Act, otherwise known as
the General Allotment Act, gives the
President power to reduce the landholdings
of the Indian nations across the country by
allotting 160 acres to the heads of Indian
families and 80 acres to individuals. The
"surplus lands" on the reservations were
opened up to settlement.
On July 16, J. D. C. Atkins, the Commissioner
of Indian Affairs, wrote in his annual report
that English would be the exclusive language
used at all Indian schools. He argued that
native languages were not only of no use, but
were detrimental to the education and
civilization of Indians.
1888
Oglala Lakota move to Pine Ridge Agency on
South Dakota/Nebraska border.
The Sioux Act - This Congressional Act
divided the Great Sioux Reservation into six
separate reservations in an effort to dilute
their power and make much of their land
available for non-Indian settlement.
1889
The Sioux sign an agreement with the U.S.
government breaking up the great Sioux
Reservation. The Sioux will get six separate
small reservations. The major part of their
land was thrown open to settlers.
Oklahoma Organic Act - This Congressional
Act divided Indian land into two territories in
what is currently the state of Oklahoma: the
Territory of Oklahoma in western Oklahoma
was opened up to non-Indian settlement; and
the Indian Territory in eastern Oklahoma was
retained for continued Indian settlement.
Two Zuni Indians were hung over the wall of
a Spanish church in Arizona on the charge of
using witchcraft to chase away rain clouds.
January 1, 1889: A Paiute rancher named
Wovoka announced that he had dreamed a
vision of a new world set aside for native
people and that white people would vanish
en masse. It was the birth of the short-lived
Ghost Dance religion. February 19, 1889
The Quileut Indian reservation at La Push,
Washington was established.
April 22, 1889: In the first "Oklahoma Land
Rush," the U.S. government bows to pressure
and opens for settlement land that it had
previously promised would be a permanent
refuge for Native Americans moved from
their eastern territories. Native American
tribes are paid about $4 million for the
parcel of land. The starting gun sounds at
noon, and an estimated 50,000 settlers race
across the land; by sunset, all 1.92 million
acres have been claimed.
1890
Congress established the Oklahoma Territory
on unoccupied lands in the Indian Territory,
breaking a 60-year-old pledge to preserve
this area exclusively for Native Americans
forced from their lands in the east.
May 29, 1890: Charles L. Hyde, a Pierre,
South Dakota citizen, wrote a letter to the
Secretary of the Interior saying the Ghost
Dance was leading to a possible uprising by
the Sioux. Prior to the letter, federal agents
were not concerned about the Ghost Dance,
but soon after, they feared the ceremony.
October 16, 1890: Reservation Police forcibly
removed Kicking Bear from Standing Rock
Agency, South Dakota, for teaching the Ghost
Dance, a visionary ceremony foretelling the
disappearance of white people.
December 15, 1890: When Federal troops
tried to arrest Sioux Indians in Little Eagle,
South Dakota on December 15, Chief Sitting
Bull ordered his warriors to resist and he was
shot in the back of the head and killed. The
aftermath of his death led to the massacre of
the Sioux at Wounded Knee.
December 29, 1890: Big Foot's band of
Minneconjous try to reach Pine Ridge and the
protection of Red Cloud after hearing of
Sitting Bull's death. Also present were
members of the Sioux band led by Chief
Spotted Elk. Hungry and exhausted, they had
assembled under armed guard as requested
to receive the protection of the Government
of the United States of America, surrendering
their arms and submitting to a forced search
of tents and teepees that yielded but two
remaining rifles. Marched to Wounded Knee
Creek, South Dakota, they were disarmed by
the U.S. Army. A group of 120 men and 230
women and children were counted by Major
Samuel Whitside at sundown on December
28, 1890. The next day an unidentified shot
rang out and the well-armed 487 U.S.
soldiers ringing the defenseless people
opened fire. Afterwards, 256 Sioux lay dead
and were buried in mass graves. Twenty (20)
Congressional Medals of Honor were awarded
the soldiers.
1891
Indian Education - A Congressional Act
authorized the Commissioner of Indian Affairs
"to make and enforce by proper means" rules
and regulations to ensure that Indian
children attended schools designed and
administered by non-Indians.
Amendment to the Dawes Act - This
amendment modified the amount of land to
be allotted and set conditions for leasing
allotments.
1893
Indian Education - This Congressional Act
made school attendance for Indian children
compulsory and authorized the BIA to
withhold rations and government annuities to
parents who did not send their children to
school.
Experts estimated that fewer that 2,000
buffalo remained of the more than 20 million
that once roamed the Western plains.
More than 100,000 white settlers rushed into
Oklahoma's Cherokee Outlet to claim six
million acres of former Cherokee land.
On February 10, the Campo Indian
Reservation near San Diego was established
for the Campo band of Kumeyaay Indians.
The tribe that had dwindled down to 200
members, from 2000 forty years earlier, was
given one acre of land.
1894
On January 8, the Yakama signed away
23,000 acres of timberland formerly
inhabited by the Wenatchee tribe to the U.S.
for $20,000.
Jan-August, 1895: Chief Lomahongyoma and
eighteen other Hopi Indians were placed in
Alcatraz for their resistance to government
attempts to erase the Hopi culture. The
nineteen Hopi were jailed for their
resistance to farm on individual plots away
from the mesas and for refusing to send their
children to government boarding schools.
1898
Curtis Act - This Congressional Act ended
tribal governments practice of refusing
allotments and mandated the allotment of
tribal lands in Indian Territory - including the
lands of the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw,
Chickasaw, and Seminole nations.
1899
On March 2, Congress allowed railroad
companies blanket approval for rights-of-way
through Indian lands.
1903
Lone Wolf v. Hickcock Supreme Court
decision - The Kiowas and Comanches sued
the Secretary of the Interior to stop the
transfer of their lands without consent of
tribal members which violated the promises
made in the 1867 Treaty of Medicine Lodge.
The Court ruled that the trust relationship
served as a source of power for Congress to
take action on tribal land held under the
terms of a treaty. Thus, Congress could, by
statute, abrogate the provisions of an Indian
treaty. Further, Congress had a plenary - or
absolute - power over tribal relations.
1906
Antiquities Act - This Congressional Act
declared that Indian bones and objects found
on federal land were the property of the
United States.
Burke Act - This act amended the Dawes Act
to give the secretary of the interior the
power to remove allotments from trust
before the time set by the Dawes Act, by
declaring that the holders had "adopted the
habits of civilized life." This act also changed
the point at which the government would
award citizenship from the granting of the
allotment to the granting of the title.
1907
State of Oklahoma - Congress established the
State of Oklahoma by merging Oklahoma
Territory and Indian Territory. The former
Indian Territory was opened to additional
non-Indian settlement.
1908
Winters v. United States Supreme Court
decision. Indians from the Fort Belknap
reservation in Montana sued to prevent a
white settler from damming the Milk River
and diverting water from their reservation.
The Court found that when Congress created
reservations, it did so with the implicit
intention that Indians should have enough
water to live. Thus, Indians had federally
reserved and protected water rights.
1910
Act to Provide for Determining the Heirs of
Deceased Indians ("and other purposes"). This
act altered the Dawes Act by dealing with
inheritance and leasing of allotments and
with the allotment of land that could be used
for irrigated farming, among many other
things.
1911
Society of American Indians—The Society—the
first step in the direction of pan-Indian unity
- was established and managed exclusively by
American Indians, most of whom were wellknown in non-Indian society and welleducated.
Although
members
favored
assimilation, they also lobbied for many
reform issues, especially improved health
care on reservations, citizenship, and a
special court of claims for Indians.
1913
US v. Sandoval Supreme Court decision. The
Court upheld the application of a federal
liquor-control law to the New Mexico
Pueblos, even though Pueblo lands had never
been designated by the federal government
as reservation land. The Court ruled that an
unbroken line of federal legislative,
executive, and judicial actions had ". . .
attributed to the United States as a superior
and civilized nation the power and duty of
exercising a fostering care and protection
over all dependent Indian communities
within its borders. . . " Thus, once Congress
had begun to act in a guardian role toward
the tribes, it was up to Congress, not the
courts, to determine when the state of
wardship should end.
1917
World War I - When the U.S. entered the
war, about 17,000 Indians served in the
armed forces. Some Indians, however,
specifically resisted the draft because they
were not citizens and could not vote or
because they felt it would be an
infringement of their tribal sovereignty. In
1919, Indian veterans of the war were
granted citizenship.
1918
Native American Church - This Indian church
was organized in Oklahoma to combine an
ancient Indian practice - the use of peyote with Christian beliefs of morality and selfrespect. The Church prohibits alcohol,
requires monogamy and family responsibility,
and promotes hard work. By 1923, 14 states
had outlawed the use of peyote and in 1940,
the Navajo tribal council banned it from the
reservation. In1944, the Native American
Church
of
the
United
States
was
incorporated. Today, the Church continues to
play an important role in the lives of many
Indian people.
1924
Indian Citizenship Act - This Congressional
Act extended citizenship and voting rights to
all American Indians. Some Indians, however,
did not want to become U.S. citizens,
preferring to maintain only their tribal
membership.
1924
Indian Health Division - Congress established
the Division to operate under the jurisdiction
of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
1928
The Meriam Report "The Problem of Indian
Administration." The report, commissioned
by the Department of Interior in 1926,
focused on the poverty, ill health, and
despair that characterized many Indian
communities. It recommended reforms that
would increase the BIA's efficiency, and
promote
the
social
and
economic
advancement of Indians: the termination of
allotment and the phasing out of Indian
boarding schools.
1934
The Indian New Deal - The brainchild of BIA
director John Collier, the New Deal was an
attempt to promote the revitalization of
Indian cultural, lingual, governmental, and
spiritual traditions. This blueprint for reform
was written by non-Indians who felt they
knew how to champion Indian rights.
Johnson-O'Malley Act - This Congressional Act
stipulated that the federal government was
to pay states between 35 and 50 cents per
day for Indian children enrolled in schools.
Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) - The IRA was
the centerpiece of the Indian New Deal. It
encouraged Indians to "recover" their cultural
heritage, prohibited new allotments and
extended the trust period for existing
allotments, and sought to promote tribal
self-government by encouraging tribes to
adopt constitutions and form federallychartered corporations. In order to take
advantage of IRA funding, tribes were
required to adopt a U.S. style constitution.
Tribes were given two years to accept or
reject the IRA. Tribes who accepted it could
then elect a tribal council. 174 tribes
accepted it, 135 which drafted tribal
constitutions. However, 78 tribes rejected
the IRA, most fearing the consequences of
even further federal direction.
1941
World War II - During the course of the war,
about 25,000 American Indians served in the
armed forces; another 40,000 Indian men and
women were employed in wartime industries.
Key
among
the
American
Indians
participating in WWII were the Navajo and
Comanche Code Talkers.
1942
On January 9, a U.S. government press
release said 40 percent more Native
Americans have enlisted to fight in WWII than
have been drafted. Altogether, 25,000
Indians served in the U.S. armed forces,
including 800 women. In the Philippines, a
Choctaw scout escaped from the Japanese at
the battle of Corregidor, and led
underground guerrilla forces until the war
ended. The Oneidas, Chippewas, and
Comanches blocked Japanese decoding of
military information by dispatching messages
in their tribal languages. Navajo Code
Talkers were instrumental in the landing at
Guadalcanal, where they sent and received
reports from field commanders.
1944
National Congress of American Indians (NCAI)
- About 100 Indian People met to create the
nationís
first
large-scale
national
organization designed to monitor federal
policies. Today, over 250 member tribes
throughout the U.S. work to secure for Indian
People and their descendants the rights and
benefits to which they are entitled; to
enlighten the public toward the better
understanding of Indian people; to preserve
rights under Indian treaties or agreements
with the United States; and to promote the
common welfare of the American Indians and
Alaska Natives.
1946
Indian Claims Commission Act - The
Commission was created to do away with
tribal grievances over treaty enforcement,
resource management, and disputes between
tribes and the U.S. government. Tribes were
given five years to file a claim, during which
them they had to prove aboriginal title to
the lands in question and then bring suit for
settlement. The Commission would then
review the case and assess the amount, if
any, that was to be paid in compensation.
Until the Commission ended operations in
1978, it settled 285 cases and paid more than
$800 million in settlements.
1948
Trujillo v. Garley Supreme Court decision - In
response to the allegation that many states
had successfully prohibited Indians from
voting, the Court ruled that states were
required to grant Native Americans the right
to vote.
1953
Termination - Under House Concurrent
Resolution 108, the trust relationship with
many Indian tribes was terminated.
Terminated tribes were then subject to state
laws and their lands were sold to nonIndians. Eventually, Congress terminated
over 100 tribes, most of which were small
and consisted of a few hundred members as
most. The Menominee of Wisconsin and the
Klamath of Oregon were exceptions with
3,270 and 2,133 members respectively.
1953
Public Law 280 - This Congressional law
transferred jurisdiction over most tribal lands
to state governments in California, Oregon,
Nebraska, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Alaska
was added in 1958. Additionally, it provided
that any other state could assume such
jurisdiction by passing a law or amending the
state's constitution.
1953
Relocation - In order to deal with increasing
unemployment among American Indians, the
BIA enacted a new policy to persuade large
numbers of Indians to relocate into urban
areas. Using the lure of job training and
housing, brochures depicting Indian families
leading a middle-class life were distributed
by the BIA. While the initial response was
enthusiastic, within five years the relocation
program was counted a failure, with 50
percent of the participants returning to their
reservations. This was the first of many late
20th Century failures to "mainstream" the
Indian population.
1954
Public Law 83-568 - This Congressional law
transferred responsibility for American
Indians and Alaskan Natives' health care from
the BIA in the Department of Interior, to the
Public Health Services within the Department
of Health and Human Services.
1961
National Indian Youth Council (NIYC) - This
organization sought, and still seeks, to
resurrect a sense of national pride among
young Indian people and to instill an activist
message - Indians were no longer to bow
their heads in humble obedience to the BIA
and other institutions of white society.
Instead, they were to look back to their own
great cultural traditions and make decisions
about their lives based upon such traditions.
1965-1973
Vietnam War - At least 43,000 American
Indians fought in the Vietnam War.
1968
Indian Civil Rights Act (ICRA) - This
Congressional Act revised Public Law 280 by
requiring states to obtain tribal consent prior
to extend any legal jurisdiction over an
Indian reservation. It also gave most
protections of the Bill of Rights and the
Fourteenth Amendment to tribal members in
dealings with their tribal governments. ICRA
also amended the Major Crimes Act to
include assault resulting in serious bodily
harm.
American Indian Movement (AIM) - Shortly
after the Minneapolis Anishinaabeg formed
an "Indian Patrol" to monitor police activities
in Indian neighborhoods, AIM was co-founded
by Dennis Banks. The new organization was
comprised primarily of young urban Indians
who believed that direct and militant
confrontation with the U.S. government was
the only way to redress historical grievances
and to gain contemporary civil rights; and
that the tribal governments organized under
the IRA (1934) were not truly legitimate or
grounded in traditional Indian ways. By the
1990s, AIM was still active in Indian affairs,
but
was
less
involved
in
militant
confrontation
1969
"Indians of All Tribes" occupation of Alcatraz
- A group of young Indians seized the
abandoned Alcatraz Island in the San
Francisco
harbor.
They
issued
a
"Proclamation to the Great White Father" in
which they stated their claim that Alcatraz
was suitable as an Indian Reservation and
thus, should be converted into an Indian
educational and cultural center. The Indians
of All Tribes continued to occupy AAlcatraz
until June, 1971.
1970
Nixon's "Special Message on Indian Affairs" President Nixon delivered a speech to
Congress which denounced past federal
policies, formally ended the termination
policy, and called for a new era of selfdetermination for Indian peoples.
1972
Trail of Broken Treaties - Over 500 Indian
activists traveled across the United States to
Washington, DC where they planned to meet
with BIA officials and to deliver a 20-point
proposal for revamping the BIA and
establishing a government commission to
review treaty violations. When guards at the
BIA informed the tribal members that Bureau
officials would not meet with them and
threatened forcible removal from the
premises, the activists began a week-long
siege of the BIA building. The BIA finally
agreed to review the 20 demands and to
provide funds to transport the activists back
to their home. Shortly thereafter, the FBI
classified AIM as "an extremist organization"
and added the names of its leaders to the list
of "key extremists" in the US.
Indian Education Act - This Congressional Act
established funding for special bilingual and
bicultural programs, culturally relevant
teaching materials, and appropriate training
and hiring of counselors. It also created an
Office of Indian Education in the U.S.
Department of Education.
1973
Wounded Knee Occupation - At the Pine
Ridge Reservation of the Oglala Sioux in
South Dakota, trouble had been brewing
between the Indian activists that supported
AIM, and tribal leaders who had the support
of the BIA. After a violent confrontation in
1972, tribal chair Richard Wilson condemned
AIM and banned it from the reservation. In
February 1973, AIM leaders led by Russell
Means and about 200 activists who were
supported by some Oglala traditional leaders
took over the village of Wounded Knee,
announced the creation of the Oglala Sioux
Nation, declared themselves independent
from the United States, and defined their
national boundaries as those determined by
the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie. The siege
lasted 71 days, during which time federal
marshals, FBI agents, and armored vehicles
surrounded the village. AIM members finally
agreed to end their occupation under one
condition - that the government convene a
full investigation into their demands and
grievances.
1975
Pine Ridge Reservation Shootout - In June,
two FBI agents entered the Pine Ridge
Reservation ostensibly looking for a tribal
member on theft and assault charges. Shots
were fired under confusing circumstances,
resulting in the death of the two agents and
one AIM member. The violence that ensued
was coupled with the criminalization of the
AIM movement, the result of which was an
undermining of the Indian movement for selfdetermination.
Indian Self-Determination and Education
Assistance Act - This Congressional Act
recognized the obligation of the U.S. to
provide for maximum participation by
American Indians in Federal services to and
programs in Indian communities. It also
established a goal to provide education and
services to permit Indian children to achieve,
and declared a commitment to maintain the
Federal government's continuing trust
relationship, and responsibility to, individual
Indians and tribes.
Council of Energy Resource Tribes (CERT) Leaders from over 20 tribes created CERT to
help Indians secure better terms from
corporations that sought to exploit valuable
mineral resources on reservations.
Leonard Peltier Arrest - Two years after the
siege at Wounded Knee, conditions at the
Pine Ridge Reservation had deteriorated. AIM
activists and supporters continued to clash
directly with tribal Chairman Wilson and his
men. In 1975, two FBI agents were killed and
AIM activist Leonard Peltier was arrested,
tried, and convicted for the deaths.
Sentenced to double life imprisonment,
Peltier's arrest and conviction are still the
subject of heated controversy among many
American political activists.
1977
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs (SCIA) This Senate resolution re-established the
SCIA. The Committee was originally created
in the early nineteenth century, but
disbanded in 1946 when Indian affairs
legislative and oversight jurisdiction was
vested in subcommittees of the Interior and
Insular Affairs Commission of the House and
Senate. The Committee became permanent
in 1984. Its jurisdiction includes studying the
unique issues related to Indian and Hawaiian
peoples and proposing legislation to deal
with such issues - issues which include but
are not limited to Indian education,
economic
development,
trust
responsibilities, land management, health
care, and claims against the US. government.
Report of the American Indian Policy Review
Commission - The Commission, established in
1975, issued its report in which it called for a
firm rejection of assimilationist policies,
increased financial assistance to the tribes,
and a reaffirmation of the tribes' status as
permanent, self-governing institutions.
1978
Indian Child Welfare Act - This Congressional
Act addressed the widespread practice of
transferring the care and custody of Indian
children to non-Indians. It recognized the
authority of tribal courts to hear the
adoption and guardianship cases of Indian
children and established a strict set of
statutory guidelines for those cases heard in
state court.
American Indian Religious Freedom Act - This
Congressional Act promised to "protect and
preserve for American Indians their inherent
right of freedom to believe, express, and
exercise" traditional religions, "including but
not limited to access to sites, use and
possession of sacred objects, and the
freedom to worship through ceremonial and
traditional rites." Although the enactment
seemed to recognize the importance of
traditional Indian religious practices, it
contained no enforcement provisions.
Santa Clara v. Martinez Supreme Court
Decision - When a Santa Clara woman
married a Navajo, the tribal council denied
her children membership in the Santa Clara
Pueblo based upon a 1939 tribal ordinance
that denied membership to children of
women who married outside the tribe. The
woman sued to grant membership to her
children. The Court held that Indian tribes
are
"distinct,
independent
political
communities retaining their original natural
rights in matters of self-government." In
short, the Court held that the Court itself did
not have the right to interfere in tribal selfgovernment
issues
such
as
tribal
membership.
US v. Wheeler Supreme Court Decision - The
Court considered the question of whether the
power to punish tribal offenders is "part of
inherent tribal sovereignty, or an aspect of
the sovereignty of the Federal Government
which has been delegated to the tribes by
Congress." He concluded: "The sovereignty
that the Indian tribes retain is of a unique
and limited character. It exists only at the
sufferance of Congress and is subject to
complete defeasance. But until Congress
acts, the tribes retain their existing
sovereign powers. In sum, Indian tribes still
possess those aspects of sovereignty not
withdrawn by treaty or statute, or by
implication as a necessary result of their
dependent status." In short, Indian nations
were sovereign, but such sovereignty was
limited and subject to Congressional whim.
Federal Acknowledgment Project - This
Congressional Act established the Branch of
Acknowledgment and Research within the BIA
to evaluate the claims of non-recognized
Indian tribes for Federal acknowledgement.
The project created a uniform process for
reviewing acknowledgement claimants with
widelly varying backgrounds and histories. In
1994, the Project regulations were amended.
1979
The Seminole Tribe of Florida and Gaming The Seminoles were the first tribe to enter
into the bingo gaming industry. Their
endeavors encouraged other tribes to begin
gaming enterprises on reservations as a step
towards greater economic self-sufficiency.
1980
United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Sioux
Indians were entitled to an award of $17.5
million, plus 5% interest per year since 1877,
totaling about $106 million in compensation
for the unjust taking of the Black Hills and in
direct contravention of the Treaty of Fort
Laramie. The Sioux have refused to take the
money and sits in a trust fund in Washington,
collecting interest.
July 9, 1981
The Lakota Times is first published.
1982
Indian
Mineral
Development
Act.
This
Congressional Act encouraged Indian tribes to
mine their lands in a manner that would help
them become economically self-sufficient.
Seminole Tribe v. Butterworth Supreme
Court Decision - The Court ruled that tribes
have the right to create gambling enterprises
on their land, even if such facilities are
prohibited by the civil statutes of the state.
The ruling enabled reservations to establish
casinos, as well as gave reservations greater
authority for tribal governments to levy
taxes, own assets, and create judiciaries.
1987
California v. Cabazon Supreme Court
Decision - The Cabazon tribe in Southern
California operated a high stakes bingo game
and card club on reservation lands. The State
claimed that it had the legal authority to
prohibit such activities on Indian lands
located within California if such activities
were prohibited elsewhere in the State. The
Court found that states which permitted any
form of gambling could not prohibit Indians
from operating gambling facilities.
1988
Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery
Association Supreme Court Decision - The
Yurok Indians and several other Northern
California tribes argued that the construction
of a 6-mile, two-lane paved road between
the towns of Gasquet and Orleans (the G-O
Road) and the implementation of a timber
management plan would interfere with
traditional tribal religions. The Court held
that construction of the road did note violate
their freedom of religion. Thus far, the road
has not been built due to an administrative
decision.
Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) - This
Congressional Act affirmed the right of tribes
to conduct gaming on Indian lands, but made
it
subject
to
tribal/state
compact
negotiations for certain types of gaming.
1990
Native
American
Languages
Act
-
This
Congressional Act made it U.S. policy to
"preserve, protect, and promote the rights
and freedom of Native Americans to use,
practice, and develop Native American
languages." Consequently, the federal
government encourages and supports of the
use of native languages as a medium of
instruction in schools; recognizes the right of
Indian tribes to give official status to their
languages for conducting their own business;
supports proficiency in native languages by
granting the same academic credit as for
comparable proficiency in a foreign
language; and encourages schools to include
native languages in the curriculum in the
same way as foreign languages. Today, many
American Indian languages have been lost;
less than 100 languages currently are spoken
by Indians.
Indian Arts and Crafts Act (IACA) - The
Congressional Act is intended to promote
Indian artwork and handicraft businesses,
reduce foreign an counterfeit product
competition, and stop deceptive marketing
practices.
Native American Grave Protection and
Repatriation Act - This Congressional Act
required all institutions that receive federal
funds to inventory their collections of Indian
human remains and artifacts, make their lists
available to Indian tribes, and return any
items requested by the tribes.
Indian Law Enforcement Act - This
Congressional Act created a unified approach
to the BIA's provision of law enforcement
serives on reservations.
1992
Foxwoods Casino of Connecticut - The
Mashantucket Pequots opened the first large
casino in the United States
1993
Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) This Congressional Act stated that state
governments "shall not substantially burden a
person's exercise of religion" except if such
exercise of religion conflicts with "a
compelling government interest." On June
25, 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court declared
RFRA unconstitutional as it applied to the
states.
1994
American Indian Religious Freedom Act,
Amendments - This Congressional Act
protected the rights of American Indians to
use
peyote
in
traditional
religious
ceremonies.
President Clinton's Executive Memorandum,
April 29th - The president sought ìto clarify
our responsibility to ensure that the Federal
Government operates within a governmentto-government relationship with federally
recognized Native American tribes. I am
strongly committed to building a more
effective day-to-day working relationship
reflecting respect for the rights of selfgovernment due the sovereign tribal
governments.
1996
National American Indian Heritage Month -
President Clinton declared November of each
year to be National American Indian Heritage
Month.
Executive Order, October 21 on Tribal
Colleges and Universities - President Clinton
authorized a White House Initiative on Tribal
Colleges and Universities within the U.S.
Department of Education to continue the
support and development of tribal colleges
into the 21st Century.
1999
Shannon County, South Dakota, home of the
Oglala Lakota on Pine Ridge Reservation is
identified as the poorest place in the
country.