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Supreme Court decision
Rules that "Indians had no right of soil as sovereign independent states." -
Supreme Court Decision
Declares "Indian tribes" are "domestic dependent nations" -
Supreme Court Decision
The Federal Government ..." had the authority to govern relations between indigenous nations and the States". -
Trail of Tears begins
Forcible removal of Cherokee from Georgia, Alabama North Carolina and Tennessee to Oklahoma. It will last 3 years and during the forced march in the winter of 1838 would leave thousands dead along the way. -
Gold discovered in California
Settlers begin to migrate westward across the continent, often coming into contact and conflict with Native tribes, -
Department of Interior is created.
Adopts the Bureau of Indian Affairs away from the War Department. -
Treaty of Traverse des Sioux signed by the United States and the Dakota nations
The Treaty stipulated Dakota peoples would live sedentary, agricultural lifestyles apart from white settlers and adopt Christianity in exchange for government rations and annuities for ceded lands. -
First Fort Laramie Treaty (the Horse Creek Treaty)
the United States and representatives of Arapaho, Arikara, Assiniboine, Cheyenne, Crow, Hidatsa, Mandan, and Sioux nations to guarantee safe passage of settlers to California in exchange for goods and services. Ten to fifteen thousand gathered in what is the
largest gathering of Plains Nations in history. Many nations never receive payment from the United States. -
The Civil War begins
leading to an increasing professionalization of the United
States army. Native nations and forces fight for both the Union and Confederacy in order to preserve their lands and sovereignty. -
The Great Sioux Uprising
Bands of Dakota attack settlers, and the United States Army is called in to protect them. United States military tribunals charge 303 Dakota of murder or rape of civilians and 38 Dakota men are sentenced to death in the largest penal execution in American history. The following year, the Bureau of Indian Affairs abolishes the Dakota reservation and forcibly moves the Dakota to Nebraska and South Dakota. It will end after 2 years. -
The Homestead Act
opens 270 million acres of land west of the Mississippi for
settlement. Settlers who lived on the land for five years, improved it, and filed an application were given ownership of the land. -
Transcontinemtal Railraod
Construction begins between Council Bluffs, Iowa and
Sacramento, California – almost all of it on land controlled by Indigenous people. -
The Civil War ends
There is an increasing need for land as slavery becomes outlawed and migration to large Northern cities increases the national population. The 14th Amendment provides citizenship for
Black and white people born within the United States. -
The Fort Laramie Treaty
...guarantees Sioux reservation land including the Black Hills, and hunting rights in Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota. -
The Great Sioux War
begins after gold is discovered in Black Hills and settlers rush
to the area, prompting the United States Army to violate the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. Colonel Custer attacks Sioux and seizes the Black Hills. During the Battle of Greasy Grass (Little Bighorn), Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho forces kill Custer and a large portion of the U.S. 7th Cavalry. -
Buffalo are targeted.
The United States Army is directed to kill buffalo, which are a threat to the railroad and cattle industries as well as a primary resource for Plains nations. -
The Black Hills Act
(also known as “the Agreement of 1877,” the “Sell or Starve Act,” or the Indian Appropriations Act of 1876) cuts off government rations until the Oceti Sakowin cease hostilities and cede the Black Hills. The Black Hills were ceded but there is no record that the United States purchased the land. -
Elk v Wilkins
In Elk v. Wilkins, the United States Supreme Court holds the 14th Amendment's guarantee of citizenship to all persons born in the U.S. does not apply to Indians, even those born within geographic confines of U.S. -
The Dawes Act
... grants the President authority to survey and divide Indian tribal
reservation lands held in trust by the federal government and sell them to individual Indians. Those who accepted allotments and lived separately from tribes would be granted U.S. citizenship. -
The 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty violated
...by breaking up the Great Sioux Reservation into five smaller reservations, enforcing private property ownership, agriculture, and residential schools without adequate resources. -
Wounded Knee Massacre
In response to the United States breaking up of the Great Sioux Reservation, Lakota Sioux take up the Ghost Dance. The Bureau of Indian Affairs calls in the Army, which assassinates Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. A small band of Lakota is forced to camp outside Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee Creek, where the army attempts to disarm them. The U.S. army escalates a confrontation and kills 250 to 300 Lakota, mostly women and children. -
Winters v United States
... the United States Supreme Court clarifies Indian
reservation rights to water by ruling that Indian reservations have water use rights that cannot be blocked through water projects. -
14th Amendment acnowledged
Indians are unilaterally made citizens of the United States, furthering the project of assimilating Native nations into the United States rather than recognizing their sovereignty. -
Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Plan
a massive water infrastructure
project meant to increase hydropower, navigability, fishing and wildlife, and recreation along the Missouri River and its tributaries. In building these projects, the Army Corps of Engineers violates the Fort Laramie Treaties and Winters doctrine supporting the sovereignty of tribal lands, consultation, and access to water. -
Termination
President Truman enters office and directs the Bureau of Indian Affairs to focus on termination and the assimilation of Indians into American Cold War society. From 1945-1960 the federal government terminates over 100 tribes and bands. -
Lake Oahe Dam
Construction begins on the Lake Oahe dam for the Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Program, and is completed in 1962. The Lake Oahe dam destroys more Native land than any other water project in the United States, and eliminates 90% of timber land on the Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne Sioux Reservations, along with grazing
and agricultural land. -
Termination continues
The Hoover Commission recommends “termination” of Native reservations, and assimilation of Indians into American cities and society, reversing the Roosevelt New Deal policies and returning to 19th century politics of assimilation. -
Public Law 280
...moves authority and jurisdiction over tribal lands and resources
from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to the states in which tribes and reserves are located. -
Alcatraz Occupied
Occupation of Alcatraz by American Indian Movement to reclaim traditional land. Simultaneously, sit-ins are staged at the offices of the BIA. -
Nixon calls for repeal of Termination
In a special message to Congress on Indian Affairs, President Richard Nixon calls for the repeal of termination laws and the inauguration of the era of self-determination through self-help and community programming. -
Wounded Knee Occupation
Oglala Lakota and American Indian Movement
members occupy the town of Wounded Knee in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to protest against the corrupt reserve governance structure. The Occupation lasts for 71 days and calls for re-establishment of United States treaty obligations and nation-to-nation relations with Indian nations in the United States. -
Black Hills Compensation
U.S. government rules that the U.S. illegally seized the Black Hills in 1877, and offers $15.5 million (1877 price of the land) plus $105 million (5% interest on the land over 103 years). The Lakota refuse and demand return of land from the United
States. -
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
The United Nations adopts the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia vote against the Declaration’s adoption. -
Fighting Sioux?
The North Dakota Supreme Court supports a Board of Higher Education decision to retire the University of North Dakota’s Fighting Sioux nickname and logo. -
Obama addresses Standing Rock Sioux
President Obama speaks at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota promoting the need to help reservations create jobs. At the time, some 63% of able workers at Standing Rock were unemployed on the 2.3 million-acre reservation, which is home to some 850 residents. -
USACE begins DAPL
In February, the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the federal government body in charge of the nation’s waterways, initiates the Dakota Access Pipeline Project. By December, The Corps publishes an environmental assessment stating that “the Standing Rock THPO had indicated to DAPL that the Lake Oahu site avoided impacts to tribally significant sites.” -
DAPL Legislation is passed
Construction begins in North Dakota on six oil terminals for the Dakota Access project. Pipeline construction begins in mid-May. -
Protestors arrive
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe members begin the Sacred Stone Camp near the confluence of the Cannonball and Missouri rivers in opposition of the pipeline. -
Lawsuit is filed
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe files a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, arguing the agency failed to properly consult with the tribe and violated the National Historic Preservation Act and other laws. -
Sioux file an injunction
Standing Rock Sioux, represented by Earthjustice, file an injunction, suing the Army Corps of Engineers. Eleven days later, Energy Transfer Partners, the parent company of Dakota Access LLC, sues the Standing Rock Sioux chairman and other tribal members for blocking construction. -
Arrests begin
Protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline begin to ramp up near Cannon Ball, N.D., with the first 10 arrests. Thousands have since joined the camp and dozens of arrests — including for trespass and felony reckless endangerment — have been made in connection with protest activities. -
Protestors v Security Personnel
Pipeline opponents and security personnel with dogs and pepper spray clash after Dakota Access bulldozes an area the tribe claims contains burial sites. The incident, including whether sacred sites were destroyed, is under investigation. -
Scientists back Protestors
More than 90 scientists signed a letter to the journal Science expressing concerns that the Dakota Access Pipeline threatens biodiversity and clean water. -
Protest Camps established
Water protectors and allies establish the 1851 Camp in the path of pipeline construction, reclaiming unceded Oceti Sakowin land. Armed police from four states, using MRAPs, a sound cannon, less-lethal ammunition, and riot gear, raid the camp. Over 100 people are arrested, several are injured by police. -
Protests attacked by militarised police
Hundreds of officers in riot gear and military vehicles broke through the front lines of the Dakota Access Pipeline resistance, using pepper spray, non-lethal bean bag rounds and other deterrents as they cleared out protesters -- arresting more than 140 -- blocking a state highway and occupying the pipeline company’s land. Link text
