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Since white European settlers arrived, they have been eradicating Native Americans in order to claim this land as their own. The period after the election of Andrew Jackson was particularly violent, as laws and wars were established to attempt to destroy Native American communities and their cultures. -
Andrew Jackson ran on a campaign of America first values, believing that Native Americans were a blight and needed to be removed. His Presidency was one of the hardest on the Native American people; it included the Trail of Tears and set the precedent for Native American violence and hate. -
Congress passed the Indian Removal Act. It was signed by President Andrew Jackson and forced native tribes to leave their homeland in the South East and to go to “Indian Territory”, what is now Oklahoma. The forced relocation of the Native Americans is known as the Trail of Tears. More than 46,000 Native Americans had to leave their lands. More than 4,000 died during the relocation journey, of starvation, disease, and extreme weather conditions. -
Manuelito (a Navajo War Leader) and Barboncito (a Navajo Head Chief and War Cheif) initiated the war by attacking the Ft. Defiance Hay Camp. Due to the Civil War, many men had to enlist, leaving the Navajo and Apache warriors to increase their raids and defeat Confederate forces in this territory. After a failed attempt at a peace treaty, Confederate Colonel Christopher Carson destroyed crops and livestock, causing the Najavo to concede. They then made the infamous 'Long Walk' to Bosque Redondo.
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After their crops and land were destroyed in the 1860-1864 Navajo War, the Navajo people were forced to walk to a new plot of land 300 miles away. Many died of hunger, cold, and drowning. When they arrived they were given no resources, and the land was not suitable for growing corn. Any crops they could grow were destroyed by animals and weather conditions, and in four years almost a quarter of their population was killed. -
The 1871 Appropriations Act stated that no longer was any group of Indians in the United States recognized as an independent nation by the federal government. Treaties that were signed with different tribes, committing the tribes to land cessions in exchange for specific lands designated to Indians for exclusive indigenous use, were ceased. It can be argued that the bill made it significantly easier for the government to secure lands previously owned by Native Americans. -
After the discovery of gold in South Dakota’s Black Hills, tensions emerged between the Native people and settlers who ignored the treaties that had been put in place and invaded the region. Sioux and Cheyenne tribesmen left their reservations and gathered along the Little Bighorn River. The battle opposed Colonel Custer troops and Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. Native Americans won the battle, killing all of Custer’s soldiers in an hour and marking a milestone in Native American history. -
The Carlisle Indian Industrial School formally opened on November 1st, 1879, with an enrollment of 147 students, most of which were teenagers. The school operated for nearly 30 years with a mission to "kill the Indian" to "save the Man," forcing students to speak English, wear Anglo-American clothing, and act according to U.S. values and culture. The Carlisle Indian Industrial School was just one of many boarding schools established that focused on "civilizing" Native American youth. -
Also known as the Dawes Act, this was done as an alternative to the extermination of Indigenous people. It stated the head of a household would be given 160 acres of tribal land and every single person would be given 20 acres. The title of the land would be held by the government and would be given back after 25 years. Total land held by Native Americans reduced from 138,000,000 to 48,000,000 due to this act. Luckily since 1934, the landholdings have slowly increased to 56,000,000 acres. -
He was a Dakota Native American chief during the Resistance against the United States' government policies. When gold was discovered on the land that Sitting Bull’s tribe lived on, the US government removed them by force, ignoring treaties that were in place. Sitting Bull was suspected of joining the Ghost Dance Movement and was arrested by police officers. He refused to obey and go with the police. A member of his tribe shot a police officer, and the police forces shot Sitting Bull in return. -
On December 29th, 1890, after the killing of Sitting Bull, the U.S. Army’s 7th cavalry surrounded a band of Ghost Dancers under the Sioux Chief Big Foot near Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota and demanded they surrender their weapons. The fight resulted in the Wounded Knee Massacre that killed almost 300 Lakota people. The massacre was the climax of efforts to repress the Plains Indians, breaking any organized resistance to reservation life and assimilation to white American culture -
Mount Rushmore was built within the cliff face of the Six Grandfathers Mountain, which was a sacred place of prayer for the Native People of the Great Plains. The Black Hills, where this mountain is located is also important as it is seen as the center of the universe for the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho peoples. -
This was a period of genocide for Native American people, as both their communities and cultures were destroyed. The atrocities committed during this period have effects that still permeate today, as many Native Americans fight to reclaim the land and culture that was taken from them. -