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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. Black Kettle raised an American flag and a white flag as a sign of peace. But Chivington did not want peace. Chivington's troops opened fire and killed about 150 people, mostly women, children, and elderly people. After burning the camp to the ground, the troops returned to Denver with scalps, which they displayed to cheering crowds. -
Medicine Lodge Treaty
While the Sioux were forced to sign the Second Treaty of Fort Laramie, U.S. officials forced the Comanche, Kiowa, Cheyenne, and other southern nations to sign the Medicine Lodge Treaty in 1867. Those nations would be moved to reservations in what is now western Oklahoma. -
2nd Treaty of Ft. Laramie
In December 1866 the Sioux attacked a supply wagon train. When a patrol of some 80 soldiers tried to drive off the war party, the Sioux killed the entire group of soldiers. In exchange for the government closing the Bozeman Trail, officials pressured the Sioux to sign the Second Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868. The Sioux agreed to live on a reservation along the MS River. -
Battle of Palo Duro Canyon
In the Texas Panhandle, Colonel Ranald McKenzie caught Comanches, Kiowas, and Cheyennes preparing a winter encampment in the fall of 1874. He sent in his cavalry. Some Indians fled; others defended their scattered camps. Then McKenzie's men slaughtered more than 1,000 Indian ponies and destroyed all food stores. Starving Comanches had not choice but to move onto the reservation in Indian Territory the following spring. -
Battle of the Little Big Horn
For years the Lakota Sioux conducted raids against white settlers who moved into Sioux lands. The U.S. government ordered them to return to their reservation. About 2,000 Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho gathered near the Little Bighorn River. Sitting Bull had a vision of a great victory over soldiers. The leader of the U.S. Army troops, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, predicted victory as well. Custer and his troops were outnumbered and slaughtered. -
Relocation of the Nez Perce
After being forced into a small section of Idaho, hostilities broke out among settles and some young Nez Perce. The Indians-warriors, women, and children-were forced to flee, with the army in close pursuit. The Nez Perce headed to Canada, fighting major battles as they fled. Less than 40 miles from the Canadian border, Joseph and his people were forced to surrender to the U.S. Army. -
Capture of Geronimo
The Apache leader Geronimo fled the San Carlos Reservation along the Gila River in Arizona with dozens of others. Geronimo's band of Apache led raids on both sides of the Arizona-Mexico border for years. Geronimo briefly returned to reservation life in 1884. But soon he resumed raiding settlements. Captured one last time in September 1886, Geronimo and his followers were sent to an Apache internment camp in Florida as prisoners of war. -
Ghost Dance movement begins
Wovoka, a shaman of the Northern Paiute in Nevada, 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. The message was that the people should get along and not steal or lie or go to war. They were to perform the special Ghost Dance five nights in a row. Wovoka's message, and the Ghost Dance movement, spread across the central Plains. The Ghost Dance offered hope. -
Wounded Knee Massacre
Colonel James Forsyth of the 7th Cavalry ordered the Sioux to give up their rifles. One young man did not want to give up his gun, and in his struggle with the soldiers, the gun went off. Instantly, the Sioux and the soldiers began shooting. About half of the Sioux men were killed right away. Women and children fled, but soldiers pursued them. By the end of the fight, about 300 Sioux men, women, and children lay dead.
