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Atiatoharongwen on the Treaty of 1796 (Primary Source)
Atiatoharongwen speaks about the Treaty of 1796, which sold most of the Mohawk lands in New York. "Formerly we enjoyed the priviledge we expect is now called freedom and liberty; but since the acquaintance with our brother white people, that which we call freedom and liberty becomes an entire stranger to us; and in place of that comes in flattery and deceit, to deprive poor...people of their properties, and bring them to poverty, and, at last, to become beggars and laughing stocks to the world." -
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Native American Injustice (Video)
Throughout the nineteenth century, the Native Americans, like many other minorities, have suffered the effects of white expansion and control. They have been exploited and treated with injustice. Their lands invaded, their resources taken, and their culture and way of life as they knew it, destroyed.
Native American Injustice -
Tecumseh's Speech (Primary Source)
The Treaty of Fort Wayne sold 3 million acres of Indian lands. Tecumseh, who was not there while the sale was made, reacts. "The white people have no right to take land from the Indian, because they had it first. It is theirs. ...All red men have equal rights to the unoccupied land. The right of occupancy is as good in one place as in another. ...It belongs to the first who sits down on his blanket or skins, which he has thrown upon the ground; and till he leaves it no other has a right." -
Indian Removal Act of 1830
Under the Indian Removal Bill, Indians surrendered land east of the Mississippi to settle in Oklahoma and elsewhere. This was the start of many attempts to force the Indians out of their southern homeland. -
President Jackson's Message to Congress on Indian Removal (Primary Source)
"It will separate the Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites; free them from the power of the States; enable them to pursue happiness in their own way and under their own rude institutions; will retard the progress of decay, which is lessening their numbers, and perhaps cause them gradually, under the protection of the Government and through the influence of good counsels, to cast off their savage habits and become an interesting, civilized, and Christian community." -
Black Hawk War of 1832
In 1832, the tribes of Sauk and Fox, under leadership of Black Hawk, resisted the Indian removal policy the U.S. government had set for them. They crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois, which sparked many battles between Black Hawk's people and white military officials. The last of the fighting took place at the Battle of Bad Axe, where the Indians were finally defeated and forced to surrender. Many were killed or captured, and Black Hawk became imprisoned soon after escaping. -
Trail of Tears (Video)
In 1838, the Cherokee, among other tribes, were forced to surrender their lands east of the Mississippi River and to march on foot to relocate to Oklahoma. The Indians faced hunger, disease, and exhaustion on their journey, and over 4,000 died before reaching their new homeland.
Trail of Tears -
First Treaty of Fort Laramie
In this treaty, Thomas Fitzpatrick persuaded Indian tribes to agree to specific limits for their hunting grounds; the Sioux were to stay north of the Platte River, and the Cheyenne and Arapaho were to stay within the Colorado foothills. This procedure was also known as "concentration," and attempted to enforce a divide and conquer strategy to gain control over the Indians. -
First Treaty of Fort Laramie Violated
Greedy prospectors violated the rights of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians when they invaded their lands upon the discovery of gold in Colorado in 1859. These lands had been granted to the Native Americans in the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie. This is one example of how negotiations with the Indians were often dishonered by the whites and were not taken seriously. -
The Battle of Sand Creek
Several hundred Indians were killed by white troops led by Colonel J. M. Chivington at Sand Creek in 1864. Native American men, women, and children were brutally killed and dismembered by whites in what came to be considered one of the most horrible massacres in U.S. history. -
The Destruction of the Buffalo
Native Americans depended on the buffalo for their source of food, clothing, and necessary resources used in everyday life. When millions of buffalo were carelessly destroyed, so were the Indians; they were left without food and a means of survival. In a period of about 30 years, the number of buffalo roaming the plains dropped from 30 million to less than 1000. The buffalo were slaughtered for fun and often left to waste. In this way, the whites continued to destroy the Indian way of life. -
Second Treaty of Fort Laramie
A new strategy was put in place by the government in addition to the "concentration" policy. In a "reservation" policy, all Plains Indians would be confined to two reservations in Oklahoma and the Dakota Territory, as well as be forced to live and work as farmers. (These lands, however, had little to offer and were unable to be farmed.) This arrangement angered many Indians who wished to preserve their lifestyle. -
Transcontinental Railroad Built
This picture shows the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, a feat that would come at the cost the Native Americans' land and resources. Their land was further encroached upon by whites expanding westward; hunting grounds were destroyed, buffalo were killed, and Indians were forced to relocate as a result of the building of railroads. -
Gold Discovered in the Black Hills
When gold was discovered in the Black Hills, miners invaded lands that were specifically reserved for the Indians as part of the Second Treaty of Fort Laramie. -
Dawes Severalty Act of 1887
This law aimed to assimilate the Indians by splitting up tribal lands into individual allotments, which were to be granted to those individuals who no longer associated with a tribe, and agreed to adopt habits of a more civilized life. Although on the surface it claimed to protect Indian property rights, it destroyed the Indian culture and way of life, and greatly reduced the amount and the quality of land the Indians were forced to live on. -
Wounded Knee Massacre
In 1890, Chief Sitting Bull resisted arrest when military authorities stepped in to end the Ghost Dance movement, a series of rituals that the Teton Sioux believed would stop the whites. Sitting Bull was shot and killed, and the Indians failed to escape the soldiers who pursued them. The Indians surrendered and over 150 were then killed.
