Native American Timeline

  • The Gnadenhutten Massacre

    Its where a group of militiamen from Pennsylvania killed 96 Christianized Delaware Indians. The converted Delaware's were blamed for attacks on white settlements.
  • Battle of Tippecanoe

    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, while Tecumseh was away campaigning the Choctaws for more warriors, incited the Shawnee leader to attack again.
  • The Sand Creek Massacre

    It was where a former Methodist minister, John Chivington, led a surprise attack on peaceful Cheyennes and Arapahos on their reservation at Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado. "…I have come to kill Indians, and believe it is right and honorable to use any means under God’s heavens to kill Indians.”
  • Sioux Treaty of 1868

    This treaty was to bring peace between the whites and the Sioux who agreed to settle within the Black Hills reservation in the Dakota Territory. United States government set out to establish a series of Indian treaties that would force the Indians to give up their lands and move further west onto reservations.
  • Custer’s Campaigns

    Custer wanted fame, and killing Indians, especially peaceful ones who weren’t expecting to be attacked represented opportunity.
  • The Reservation System

    It was created to keep Native Americans off of lands that European Americans wished to settle and allowed indigenous people to govern themselves and to maintain some of their cultural and social traditions.
  • Assimilation Policies

    The U.S. government forced tens of thousands of Native American children to attend “assimilation” boarding schools in the late 19th century. The first school was opened in Pennsylvania of 1879. Roughly 150 other such schools that the government opened were susceptible to deadly infections like tuberculosis and the flu.
  • Dawes Act of 1887

    The objective of the Dawes Act was to assimilate Native Americans into mainstream US society by annihilating their cultural and social traditions.
  • Wounded knee Massacre and The Ghost Dance

    According to the teachings of Wovoka, the Ghost Dance ceremony would reunite the spirits of the dead with those of the living, and the power of these spirits could be harnessed in battle with white settlers and the US Army. The wounded knee Massacre was where they were trying to disarm the Sioux, a shot was fired and a scuffle ensued. The US army soldiers opened fire on the Sioux, indiscriminately massacring hundreds of men, women, and children.
  • The American Indian Warrior Tradition

    They cared for people and helped in many ways, in any time of difficulty. They would do anything to help their people survive, including laying down their own lives. Many tribes had special warrior societies, which had their own ceremonies, songs, dances, and regalia that they wore. Usually, a warrior had to prove himself before being asked to join a warrior society.