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Sand Creek Massacre
Southern Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians are massacred by a band of Colonel John Chivington's Colorado volunteers at Sand Creek, Colorado. Nine of Chivington's men were killed; 148 of Black Kettle's followers were slaughtered, more than half of them women and children. The Colorado volunteers returned and killed the wounded, mutilated the bodies, and set fire to the village. on November 29, they attacked the unsuspecting Native Americans, scattering men, women, and children and hunting them down. -
Medicine Lodge Treaty
U.S. Indian Peace Commission signed three treaties at Medicine Lodge Creek near Medicine Lodge, Kansas. The U.S. promised the tribes peace and protection from white intruders in return for amity and relocation to reservations in western Indian Territory. Americans had viewed the arid Great Plains country west of the 100th meridian as unsuitable for white settlement; many maps even labeled the area as the Great American Desert. -
2nd Treaty of Ft. Laramie
The Black Hills were a hunting ground and sacred territory of the Western Sioux Indians. Whose rights to the region were guaranteed by the Second Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868. But after a U.S. military expedition under George A. Custer discovered gold in the Black Hills in 1874, thousands of white gold hunters and miners swarmed into the area the following year.To this day, ownership of the Black Hills remains the subject of a legal dispute between the U.S. Government and the Sioux. -
Battle of Palo Duro Canyon
Colonel Ranald McKenzie caught sight of the Comanches, Kiowas, and Cheyenne Indians preparing for their winter encampment in the late fall. He sent his calvery in and some indians fled. The other indians that stayed to defend were killed. They distroyed more than 1,000 ponies and food sorages. The Indians had no choice but to move to reserves the fallowing spring. Indian wars in the southern plains were over. -
Battle of the Little Big Horn
For many years the Lakota Sioux Indians were raiding the white settlers. The U.S. Government wanted them back on their reservations. When they had refused to do so the military got involved. A estimated guess of about 2,000 Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho gathered near the Little Bighorn River where leader "Sitting Bull" sun danced. Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer led a head on attack on the dancing indians. They were quickly encircled and then killed. -
Relocation of Nez Perce
In May of 1877, the U.S. government ordered the “non-treaty” Nez Perce to relocate to the new reservation by June 14. After violence erupted, Chief Joseph and other Nez Perce leaders, including Toohoolhoolzote, decided it would be better to flee to Canada than to relocate to the reduced reservation. In 1877, 750 Nez Perce 2/3 of the women, children,elderly and the sick and with 2,000 of their own horses—battled. More than 2,000 U.S. Army soldiers and other pursuers over 1,100 miles. -
Capture of Geronimo
The year of 1886 a indian by the name of Geronimo surrendered to the U.S. Army. He had been on the run with his to companions. Geronimo later died in jail thinking he had made a dumb decision. -
Ghost dance movement begins
Native Americans would dance to wild noises. They would claim that this would help them. The dance would reunite the living with the spirits of the dead and bring peace, prosperity, and unity to native peoples throughout the region. -
Wounded Knee Massacre
Wounded Knee, located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in southwestern South Dakota, was the site of two conflicts between North American Indians and representatives of the U.S. government. An 1890 massacre left some 150 Native Americans dead, in what was the final clash between federal troops and the Sioux. In 1973, members of the American Indian Movement occupied Wounded Knee for 71 days to protest conditions on the reservation.
