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Bureau of Indian Affairs
Their mission is to enhance the quality of life, to promote economic opportunity, and to carry out the responsibility to protect and improve the trust assets of American Indians, Indian tribes and Alaska Natives. -
Indian Removal Act
Authorized the president to grant unsettled lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for Indian lands within existing state borders. A few tribes went peacefully, but many resisted the relocation policy. -
Comstock Lode
It was the richest silver deposit in American history, in Nevada. Henry Comstock, a sheepherder and prospector, who cared for the brothers' cabin, unsuccessfully tried to find gold on the land, sold his claims within months, and died a poor man. But the silver lode came to bear his name. -
Battle of Apache Pass
The Battle of Apache Pass was fought in 1862 at Apache Pass, Arizona, in the United States, between Apache warriors and the Union volunteers. It was one of the largest battles between the Americans and the Chiricahua during the Apache Wars. -
Homestead Act
It allowed any American, including freed slaves, to put a claim for up to 160 free acres of federal land. Over time, the growing American agriculture led to the replacement of individual homesteads with smaller numbers of larger farms. -
Little Crow’s War
The tribe's need for food and hatred for the white settlers led to the Dakota War of 1862. Little Crow agreed to lead the tribes through the conflict, even though he knew the whites could ultimately send larger numbers of troops into the conflict than his people could counter. -
Cheyenne Uprising
The Cheyenne had agreed by the terms of the Fort Wise Treaty 1861 to move onto the Sand Creek Reservation. However, the land was very poor and survival for the Indians was virtually impossible. In 1863 faced with starvation, they began to attack wagon trains and steal food. -
Bear River Massacre
450 Northwestern Shoshone were killed along the Bear River, in perhaps the largest massacre in United States history. Trying to escape the rampaging soldiers, some jumped into the freezing river. -
Sand Creek Massacre
The peaceful Southern Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians are massacred by a band of Colonel John Chivington's volunteers. It was caused because of the conflict for control of the Great Plains of eastern Colorado. -
Fetterman Massacre
A small band of Indians made an attack on a party of woodcutters. The soldiers rode right into an ambush and were wiped out in a massive attack. It was one of the only Indian victories. It started when John Bozeman blazed the Bozeman trail. -
Red Cloud’s War
The Sioux chief, Red Cloud, was furious when white settlers began using the Bozeman Trail which passed through the Sioux hunting grounds and began attacking travellers. By spring of 1868 the government were forced to withdraw the army and abandon the forts. -
Fort Laramie Treaty
It was an agreeement between the United States and the Oglala, Miniconjou, and Brulé bands of Lakota people. It was signed on April 29, 1868 at Fort Laramie in the Wyoming Territory, guaranteeing to the Lakota ownership of the Black Hills, and further land and hunting rights in South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. The treaty ended the Red Cloud's War. -
Completion of Trans-Cont R.R.
It was a 1,907-mile contiguous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 across the western United States to connect the Pacific coast at San Francisco Bay with the existing Eastern U.S. rail network at Council Bluffs, Iowa, on the Missouri River. -
Indian Appropriations Act
Indian policy began to place a growing emphasis on erasing a distinctive American Indian identity. Congress passed the Indian Appropriation Act, which ended the practice of treating tribes as independent, sovereign nations. -
Camp Grant, AZ Apache massacre
On April 30, 1871, was an attack on Pinal and Aravaipa Apaches who surrendered to the United States Army at Camp Grant, Arizona, along the San Pedro River. The massacre led to a series of battles and campaigns fought between the Americans, the Apache, and their Yavapai allies, which continued into 1875, the most notable being General George Crook's Tonto Basin Campaign of 1872 and 1873. -
The Lakota War
Was a series of battles and negotiations which occurred between 1876 and 1877 involving the Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne against the United States. -
Great Sioux War
The Great Sioux War of 1876, also known as the Black Hills War, was a series of battles and negotiations which occurred between 1876 and 1877 involving the Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne against the United States. Once gold was found on the Black Hills, settlers began to move onto the Native American lands. -
Battle of Little Bighorn
Federal troops fought against a band of Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. Caused by the discovery of gold on Native American Lands, when the tribes missed a deadline to move onto reservations they decided to confront them. -
Dead Man’s Hand
The dead man's hand is described as a two-pair poker hand consisting of the black aces and black eights. According to the legend, Wild Bill Hickok was shot to death in the middle of a poker game with 2 pairs: black aces and black eight's. -
Desert Land Act
Was made to encourage and promote the economic development of the arid and semiarid public lands of the Western states. -
Capture of Nez Perce
Chief Joseph surrendered his forces to General Nelson A. Miles and General Otis Howard. They were promised a safe return to the Wallowa Valley. -
Pratt Boarding School
The history of the Carlisle Indian School is inexorably bound to its founder, Richard Henry Pratt, whose attitude toward Native Americans shaped virtually every dimension of it. Pratt’s program at the Carlisle Indian School had its share of failures and successes. -
A Century of Dishonor by Helen Hunt Jackson
It aroused the nation's conscience and stimulated political action against injustice, in this case the nation's unjust treatment of Indians. Among the incidents it depicts is the eradication of Praying Town Indians in the colonial period, because it was assumed that all Indians were the same. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
The Chinese Exclusion Act was a United States federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur. It was one of the most significant rescrictions of free immigration in U.S. history. -
Bill Cody’s “Wild West Show”
He was also known as Buffalo Bill. He performed in shows tha displayed cowboy themes and episodes from the frontier and Indian wars. -
Capture of Geronimo
The Apache chief surrenders to U.S. government troops. It signaled the end of the Indian Wars in the South West, he was the last Indian to give in to U.S. forces. It happened becasue they were the last Indian warriors. -
Dawes Act
To break up reservations by granting land allotments to individual Native Americans. They did it to protect Indian property rights during the land rushes of the 1890s. It resulted in the Indians living in or near the deserts which were unsuitable for farming, which the Indians didn't want to take up. -
Wounded Knee Massacre
Was the site of two conflicts between North American Indians and representatives of the U.S. government. It happened because U.S. Army's calvary surrounded a band of ghost dancers, they decmanded their weapons and as that was happening a shot went off and the massacre began. -
Forest Reserve Act
It is a law that allowed the President to set aside forest reservations from the land in the public domain. Harrison issued proclamations establishing 13 million acres of land and Forest Reserves. -
Turner Thesis
The argument that the American Democracy was formed by the American Frontier. It had an impact on the pioneers. The land was free for taking.
