Treatment of Native American Timeline

  • The Gnadenhutten Massacre

    event where 96 unarmed Native Americans, who were turned into Christians prior to this incident, were slaughtered
  • The Reservation System

    Designed to isolate, control, and forcibly relocate Native Americans. Promoted assimilation
  • Indian Removal Act

    U.S. law that authorized the president to negotiate treaties to exchange Native American lands.
  • Cherokee Nation v. Georgia

    a Supreme Court case where the Cherokee Nation sued Georgia to prevent the state from enforcing its laws on their land
  • Trail of Tears

    the forced removal of over 16,000 Cherokee people from their homes in the southeastern United States to Indian Territory
  • Homestead Act

    a 1862 US law that gave 160 acres of public land to any citizen or future citizen who agreed to live on and farm the land for five years, sometimes on Native American land.
  • Sioux Treaty of 1868

    an agreement between the U.S. government and the Sioux and Arapaho nations. It established the Great Sioux Reservation, which included the sacred Black Hills, and granted the tribes exclusive use of the land.
  • Battle of the Little Bighorn

    a major 1876 armed conflict in which Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne warriors defeated Lt. Col. George A. Custer's 7th U.S. Cavalry near the Little Bighorn River in Montana.
  • Th Dawes Act

    a U.S. law that broke up communally-owned tribal lands into individual plots to promote farming and assimilation into mainstream American society
  • The Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee

    The Ghost Dance was a spiritual movement that emerged in the late 19th century, inspiring hope for Native Americans facing hardship by prophesying a future where their lands and ancestors would be restored. Wounded Knee refers to the 1890 massacre where U.S. soldiers killed hundreds of Lakota people who were followers of the Ghost Dance, effectively ending the movement as a widespread political force.