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Indian Removal Act
Signed by President Andrew Jackson. It was used to relocate Native Americans to land west of the Mississippi and take the land they were currently on which was in existing state borders. While some tribes complied others resisted leading to war. This is one of the events that are responsible for the years of war that is to follow. -
Trail of Tears
As a result of the Removal Act, those who accepted the terms would have to traverse this treacherous journey known as the Trail of Tears. There were many different routes all leading east of the Mississippi River. It was a tragic time for Native Americans who along this path away from home faced struggles such as hunger, exhaustion, as well as countless new diseases that they had not yet encountered -
Sand Creek Massacure
This was a mass killing of Cheyenne and Arapaho people by the U.S in the American Indian War. It was at Sand Creek, a southeastern Colorado territory, and a battle for control of The Great Plains in southeastern Colorado. American John Chivington and his battalion fought, killed, and mutilated up to 500 Native Americans, 2/3s being women and children -
Indian Appropriation Act
Name of four acts passed by the U.S congress affecting Native American land, reservations in 1851, 1871, 1885, and 1889. 1851 gave funds to relocate Native Americans to reservations. 1871 groups of native Americans were no longer recognized as an independent nation by the federal government. 1885 Allowed Native Americans to sell unoccupied land they claimed. 1889 Opened “unassigned land” to white settlers. -
Camp Grant Massacre
An attack at Camp Grant, Arizona, along the San Pedro River on Pinal and Aravaipa Apaches who surrendered to the United States Army resulting in the deaths of 144 people. Native Americans were being given rations and that didn't sit right with some people. Led to a series of battles and campaigns fought between the Americans, the Apache, and Yavapai. -
Battle of Little Bighorn
Federal troops led by LTC George Custer in a battle against the Lakota Sioux, and Cheyenne warriors. Near the Little Bighorn River in Montana Territory, lasted two days. This battle broke out as a result of the Second Treaty of Fort Laramie being broken. It was the most decisive Native American victory and the worst U.S. Army defeat in the long Plains Indian War. I t confirmed the image shared among whites that Native Americans were bloodthirsty savages. -
The Surrender of Chief Joseph
Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce peoples surrenders to U.S. General Nelson A. Miles in the Bears Paw Mountains of Montana. After already covering over 1,000 miles on his journey, he was stopped a mere 40 miles short of the Canadian Border. He stated “Hear me, my chiefs: My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.” -
The Dawes Act
Authorizes the president of the united states (Grover Cleveland at the time) to subdivide Native American tribal communal landholdings into allotments for Native American heads of families and individuals. The objective of the Dawes Act was to assimilate Native Americans into mainstream US society by annihilating their cultural and social traditions. Emphasized the treatment of Native Americans as individuals rather than as tribes. -
Oklahoma Land Rush
This Central Oklahoma land was supposed to be Native American territory, but because of the backlash, it was opened to whites. It was the first land rush into the Unassigned Lands. There were over 2,000,000 acres of land with over 50,000 lining up to get a piece of it. -
Massacre at Wounded Knee
At Wounded Knee Creek South Dakota, there was a battle between the Lakota people, and the U.S. Army. There was an order for surrender and in the middle, someone fired a shot, it is unknown from which side, this started a battle. Regiment indiscriminately slaughtered hundreds of Sioux men, women, and children, marking the definitive end of Indian resistance to the encroachments of white settlers.
