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1st Treaty of fort Laramie
The United States negotiated the 1st Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851) (first major treaty between the US and the Plains Indians). This treaty recognized the Native Americans’ claims to the Great Plains. It also recognized the Black Hills as part of the Sioux territory and guaranteed access to hunting grounds. Finally, it allowed the United States the right to build forts and roads and to travel across the Indian lands. PowerPoint presentation, www.ushistory.org, www.history.com -
Long walk of the Navajo Indians
The Long Walk of the Navajo, also called the Long Walk to Bosque Redondo, refers to the 1864 deportation and attempted ethnic cleansing of the Navajo people by the government of the United States of America. Navajos were forced to walk from their land in what is now Arizona to eastern New Mexico. PowerPoint presentation, www.ushistory.org, www.history.com -
Fetterman Massacre
Determined to challenge the growing American military presence in their territory, Indians in northern Wyoming lure Lieutenant Colonel William Fetterman and his soldiers into a deadly ambush on this day in 1866. With 81 fatalities, the Fetterman Massacre was the army’s worst defeat in the West until the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. PowerPoint presentation, www.ushistory.org, www.history.com -
2nd Treaty of Fort Laramie
In the spring of 1868 a conference was held at Fort Laramie, in present day Wyoming, which resulted in a treaty with the Sioux. 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. PowerPoint presentation, www.ushistory.org, www.history.com -
Battle of Little Bighorn
Sitting Bull (a leader of the Lakota Sioux) resisted US demands. Custer and his men tried to attack a combined Lakota Sioux and
Cheyenne force without waiting for reinforcements at the Battle of Little Bighorn. This battle is called “Custer’s Last Stand” because he and his forces were surrounded and killed by Crazy Horse and his Sioux forces. PowerPoint presentation, www.ushistory.org, www.history.com -
Sitting Bull Surrenders to US army and goes to Standing Rock
Five years after General George A. Custer’s infamous defeat at the Battle of Little Bighorn, Hunkpapa Teton Sioux leader Sitting Bull surrenders to the U.S. Army, which promises amnesty for him and his followers. Sitting Bull had been a major leader in the 1876 Sioux uprising that resulted in the death of Custer and 264 of his men at Little Bighorn. PowerPoint presentation, www.ushistory.org, www.history.com -
Publication of A Century of Dishonor by Helen Hunt Jackson
In 1881 Helen Hunt Jackson published the book "Century of Dishonor" in which she outlined all the inequities perpetrated against the Indians. Jackson's book was well received and Congress appointed a commission to look into Indian affairs. The result was the Dawes Act that broke up reservation land into individual plots. www.historycentral.com -
Sitting Bull performs in Wild West show with Buffalo Bill Cody
“Buffalo Bill” Cody opened Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show on May 19, 1883 at Omaha, Nebraska. Sitting Bull toured with the show for one season in 1885. Enthralled by the site of “genuine” Indians, few audience members questioned whether these men wearing immense feathered headdresses and riding artfully painted horses accurately represented tribal life on the Great Plains. PowerPoint presentation, www.ushistory.org, www.history.com -
Dawes Severalty/General Allotment Act
The Dawes Act of 1887 (also known as the General Allotment Act or the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887), authorized the President of the United States to survey Native American tribal land and divide it into allotments for individual Native Americans. The act provided that after the government had doled out land allotments to the Indians, the sizeable remainder of the reservation properties would be opened for sale to whites PowerPoint presentation, www.ushistory.org, www.history.com -
Beginning of the Ghost Dance Movement
Beginning in 1889, many reservation tribes were gripped by the “Ghost Dance." This was a spiritual movement that spoke of a messiah who would bury the white man’s world under a layer of soil and allow the Indians to return to their old ways. www.history.com -
Sitting Bulls Death at Standing Rock
After years of successfully resisting white efforts to destroy him and the Sioux people, the Sioux chief Sitting Bull is killed by Indian police at the Standing Rock reservation in South Dakota. When the chief refused to go quietly, a crowd gathered and a few men threatened the Indian police. Someone fired a shot that hit one of the Indian police. The police retaliated by shooting Sitting Bull in the chest and head. The great chief was killed instantly. www.ushistory.org, www.history.com -
Massacre at Wounded Knee
On December 29, the U.S. Army surrounded a band of Ghost Dancers under Big Foot, a Lakota Sioux chief, near Wounded Knee Creek and demanded they surrender their weapons. As that was happening, a fight broke out between an Indian and a U.S. soldier and a shot was fired, although it’s unclear from which side. A brutal massacre followed, in which it’s estimated 150 Indians were killed, nearly half of them women and children. www.history.com
