Treatment of Native Americans Timeline

  • Mary Campbell’s get kidnapped

    Mary Campbell’s get kidnapped

    Mary Campbell’s life changed forever when Delaware Indians kidnapped her and absorbed her into their community for the next six years. She was among the first of some 200 known cases of white captives, many of whom became pawns in an ongoing power struggle that included European powers,
  • The Gnadenhutten Massacre

    The Gnadenhutten Massacre

    a group of militiamen from Pennsylvania killed 96 Christianized Delaware Indians, illustrating the growing contempt for native people. Captain David Williamson ordered the converted Delawares, who had been blamed for attacks on white settlements, to go to the cooper shop two at a time, where militiamen beat them to death with wooden mallets and hatchets.
  • Battle of Tippecanoe

    Battle of Tippecanoe

    In the early 1800s, the rise of the charismatic Shawnee war leader, Tecumseh, and his brother, known as the Prophet, convinced Indians of various tribes that it was in their interest to stop tribal in-fighting and band together to protect their mutual interests. The decision by Indiana Territorial Governor (and later President) William Henry Harrison in 1811 to attack and burn Prophetstown, the Indian capital on the Tippecanoe River.
  • Westward expansion:

    Westward expansion:

    Westward expansion fueled economic development through the availability of cheap land (e.g., Homestead Act), the discovery of valuable resources like gold and silver , and the government's support for new transportation infrastructure like the Transcontinental Railroad. These factors created new markets, drove agricultural and industrial growth, and led to the rise of large-scale commercial farming, though this often came at the expense of environmental damage and the displacement of Natives.
  • Office of Indian Affairs

    Office of Indian Affairs

    the Office of Indian Affairs was created in order to resolve the land issue. The position of Commissioner of Indian Affairs was established by an act of Congress in 1832, and in 1869, Ely Samuel Parker became the first Native American to be appointed to the position. The Office of Indian Affairs was renamed the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1947.
  • The Indian reservation system

    The Indian reservation system

    The U.S. Indian reservation system designates specific areas of land for Native American tribes, originally intended to confine tribes, acquire their land for settlers, and encourage assimilation. These reservations are federal lands held in trust by the government for the tribes, and while the system was a result of treaties and government action, its implementation often involved forced relocation and has led to significant challenges like poverty and cultural disruption.
  • Sioux Treaty of 1868

    Sioux Treaty of 1868

    This war was brought upon us by the children of the Great Father who came to take our land from us without price., Exploration and settlement of the western United States by Americans and Europeans wreaked havoc on the Indian peoples living there. In the 19th century the American drive for expansion clashed violently with the Native American resolve to preserve their lands,
  • Dawes Act of 1887

    Dawes Act of 1887

    The act broke up tribal land and allotted specific acreage to individual Native Americans, such as 160 acres to heads of families and 320 acres for grazing land, says the National Park Service.
  • Custer's 1874 Expedition

    Custer's 1874 Expedition

    The Black Hills Expedition (1874) was led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer through modern day North and South Dakota. The U.S. government had instructed Custer to undertake the expedition with the objective of finding a suitable location for a new military fort.
  • Indian Wars

    Indian Wars

    1609-1924 length of battle were a protracted series of conflicts between Native American Indians and white settlers over land and natural resources in the West.
    Many of these battles resulted from Indian resistance to the imposition of the reservation system and the repeated attempts of the US Army and white settlers to forcibly remove Native Americans from their tribal lands.
    The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer’s Last Stand,