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Sand Creek Massacre
Before dawn on November 29, Army colonel John M. Chivington arrived at Sand Creek with about 700 troops. The Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle raised an American flag and a white flag as a sign of peace. But Chivington did not want peace. His troops opened fire and killed about 150 Native Americans, mostly women, children, and elderly people. News of the Massacre angered many Americans. -
Medicine Lodge Treaty
The Medicine Lodge Treaty is the name for the three treaties that the U.S signed with Southern Plains Indians in 1867. These treaties were intended to bring peace and to relocate the Indians to reservations in Indian Territory. Under the treaty, the tribes were assigned to reservations of smaller size compared to the reservations in an 1865 treaty. -
2nd Treaty of Ft. Laramie
The treaty was signed in 1868 and was between the Lakota Indians and the United States. Under the treaty, the Lakota got ownership of the Black Hills and the U.S agreed to remove millitary forts along the Bozemen Trail in the Powder River Country. This meant that the Powder River Country was to be closed to all whites. -
Battle of Palo Duro Canyon
In the Panhandle of Texas, Colonel Ranald McKenzie caught Comanches, Kiowas, and Cheyennes preparing a winter encampment in the fall of 1874. He sent in his cavalry. Then his men killed more than 1,000 Indian horses and destroyed all food supplies. The Comanches were starving and had no choice but to move onto the reservation in Indian Territory the following spring. -
Battle of Little Big Horn
For years the Lakota Sioux raided white settlers who had moved into Sioux lands. In response, the U.S. government ordered all Lakota Sioux to return to their reservation by January 31, 1876. They refused and about 2,000 Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho gathered near the Little Bighorn River. On June 25, 1876, U.S Army Lieutenant Custer led his troops into an attack against the Native Americans. Custer and his troops were quickly surrounded and were killed. -
Relocation of the Nez Perce
In 1877 the Nez Perce were told to abandon the last portion of their Oregon homeland and move into a section of Idaho. Their leader, Chief Joseph, reluctantly agreed. In the meantime, hostilities broke out among some Nez Perce and some settlers. The Indians had to flee, and the army was following them. The Nez Percé headed to Canada but less than 40 miles from the Canadian border, Joseph and his people were forced to surrender. -
Capture of Geronimo
In the 1870s the government moved the Apaches to a reservation in Arizona. The Apache leader Geronimo fled the reservation with dozens of others. Geronimo’s band of Apache led raids on both sides of the Arizona-Mexico border for years. In 1884 he briefly returned to reservation life, but soon he continued raiding settlements. Geronimo and his followers were finally captured in 1886. -
Ghost Dance movement begins
Wovoka, a shaman of the Northern Paiute in Nevada, became known as a healer who could bring rain. In 1889 he had a vision that he spoke with God in heaven, where he saw many who had died. The dream, he said, told him to bring the Indians a new message and a sacred dance. They believed that the dance would bring the buffalo back and the whites would leave the west. -
Wounded Knee Massacre
After the Sioux surrendered, Colonel James Forsyth ordered the Sioux to give up their rifles. One young man did not want to give up his gun, and when he struggled with the soldiers, his gun went off. The Sioux and the soldiers began shooting. Women and children fled, but soldiers ran after them. By the end of the fight, about 300 Sioux were dead.
