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Pontiac's Rebellion
loose confederation of Native Americans who were dissatisfied with British rule in the Great Lakes region following the French and Indian War. Warriors from numerous nations joined in an effort to drive British soldiers and settlers out of the region. -
Northwest Indian War
an armed conflict for control of the Northwest Territory fought between the United States and a united group of Native American nations known today as the Northwestern Confederacy. The United States Army considers it the first of the American Indian Wars -
Indian Removal Act
authorizing the president to grant unsettled lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for Indian lands within existing state borders. -
Trail of Tears
the United States government forcibly removed the southeastern Native Americans from their homelands and relocated them on lands in Indian Territory -
The Reservation Sysytem
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. -
Sand Creek Massacre
massacre was a massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho people by the U.S. Army in the American Indian Wars -
Battle of Little Bighorn
engagement was one in a series of battles and negotiations between Plains Indians and U.S. forces over control of Western territory, collectively known as the Sioux Wars. In less than an hour, the Sioux and Cheyenne had won the Battle of the Little Bighorn, killing Custer and every one of his men. -
The Dawes Act
authorized the federal government to break up tribal lands by partitioning them into individual plots. Only those Native Americans who accepted the individual allotments were allowed to become US citizens. -
The Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee
some tribal leaders attempted to reassert their sovereignty and invent new spiritual traditions. The most significant of these was the Ghost Dance. The massacre at Wounded Knee, during which soldiers of the US Army 7th Cavalry Regiment indiscriminately slaughtered hundreds of Sioux men, women, and children, marked the definitive end of Indian resistance to the encroachments of white settlers. -
Sioux Treaty of 1868
an act to establish an Indian Peace Commission to end the wars and prevent future Indian conflicts. The 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.