Chronography of the USA-Indigenous
American Nations
Page last modified
26 January /2023
For history of the USA click here
Indigenous American Nations (see
also Alaska, Florida)
21
September 2004, The National Museum
of the American Indian opened in Washington DC.
30 June 1980, In the US,
the Sioux
nation won US$ 122.5 million in compensation and interest for illegal
government seizure of their land in 1871.
28 May 1973, Actor Marlon Brando
refused an Oscar in protest at the USA�s treatment of indigenous Americans.
2 June 1924, The US
now allowed indigenous Indians to become full citizens. Indigenous Indian,
Learned Hand, became the first Native American judge of the US Court of Appeals,
serving until 1956.
1923, The Navajos set uo a Tribal
Council, intitally to approve an oil and gas lease.
9 January 1918, U.S
troops engaged Yaqui indigenous Americans warriors in the Battle of Bear Valley
in Arizona, a minor skirmish and one of the last battles of the American Indian
Wars between the United States and indigenous Americans.
10 January 1917, William
�Buffalo Bill� Cody died, aged 71. He was a pony express
rider before the Civil War, in which he fought; after, he supplied meat to the
workers of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, hence his name. As chief of scouts for
the US military he fought in several battles against the Indians, which made
him famous.
29 August 1911, A man
believed to be the last indigenous American to make contact with White
Americans, called Ishi, last of the Yahi people, was discovered in north-eastern California.
23 February
1911, Quanah Parker, 65, Principal Chief of the
Comanche Nation, died.
29 January 1907, Charles Curtis
became U.S. Senator for Kansas, the first Indigenous American to become a Senator.
16
September 1893, Some 2.4 million hectares of land in North Oklahoma,
formerly owned by the Cherokee People, were declared open to White settlement.
16
September 1891, The Sioux national finally formally surrendered to
the USA.
29 December
1890. The Battle of Wounded Knee in South Dakota. This was the
last major conflict between indigenous Americans, the Sioux, and US troops.
15 December
1890. Chief Sitting Bull, Sioux leader (born ca.1831), was
shot dead in a scuffle with police in South Dakota whilst resisting arrest. He
had fled to Canada after his victory over General Custer at Little Bighorn in 1876. He
returned to the USA in 1881 and was jailed for 2 years. He performed for
several years with Buffalo Bill�s travelling Wild West Show, but
the suffering of his people led him to join the new Ghost Dance Movement,
dedicated to destroying the Whites and restoring the lost Indian world. The US
Government sent troops to suppress the Ghost Dance Movement and arrest its
leaders; Sitting
Bull was shot in the skirmish.
2 May 1890. The Federal Territory of Oklahoma was
created; it was formerly known as the Indian
Territory. On 22 April 1889 the US government, via a single shot fired at
noon, had signalled the start of a great race for land by white settlers. An
estimated 200,000 people crossed into the land once home to 75,000 Indians, who
had to move on. By nightfall 22 April 1889 almost all of Oklahoma�s 2 million
acres had been claimed.
8 February 1887. The USA
passed the Dawes Act. This granted
US citizenship to Indigenous Americans living outside the reservations, but
also allowed the President to overrule Indian governments and sell traditional
communally-owned tribal lands to private owners.
Geromimo�s last days, surrender to the US
17 February 1909. Geronimo,
the last Apache chief to surrender, died at his ranch on an Oklahoma
reservation, aged 90.
4 September 1886. The
Apache chief Geronimo
surrendered to General
Nelson Miles of the US army. He was born in what is now New Mexico
in 1829.� After returning home to find
his wife and three children murdered by Spanish troops from Mexico he
terrorized European settlements. He was the leader of the last American Indian
force to surrender, and had outwitted the US army with its superior numbers for
10 years. His ten years of guerrilla action was intended to deter white
settlers from New Mexico and Arizona. He died a prisoner in 1909, unable to
return to his homeland, and was buried in the Apache cemetery at Fort Sill,
Oklahoma.
1883, An Apache traitor led US forces under Generals George Crook
and Nelson A
Miles to Geronimo�s headquarters. Taken by surprise,
the Apache surrendered and agreed tp
live on the White Mountain reservation. In 1885 the Apoache again began
raiding, but in 1886 they were finally overcome by US forces. Geronimo
and other Apache were sent to a Federal prison in Florida, but later allowed to
return to the West, where he li8ved the rest of his life near Fort Siull,
Oklahoma.
Impossibility of reservation life; suppression of Indigenous American
culture
1885, Numbers of
bison in the US were down to 2,000, from 15 million in 1860. Many were
killed to provide meat for the railway construction gangs. More sinisterly, the bison were killed to
remove the Indigenous American basis of livelihood; they depended on the bison
for food, clothing, shelter and fuel. Indigenous American nations
were forced onto reservations and expected to grow crops. However they were
accustomed to hunting and saw farming as a lowly occupation; many nations all
but died out.
10 April 1883, On the
instructions of the US Secretary for the Interior (Henry M Teller), the
Commissioner for Indian Affairs distributed instructions to eradicate
�demoralising and barbarous� traditions. The document defined �Indian Offenses�
that included having more than one wife, holding religious feasts and dances
such as the Sun Dance, and practising traditional medicine. Other indigenous traditions
such as purchasing a wife by leaving property at her father�s house and showing
grief by destroying property were also outlawed.
11/1877, General Carleton ordered Apache Indians in
Arizona off their Chiricahua Reservation at Warm Springs and on to San Carlos.
Here, summer temperatures reached 40 C, and there was no game or other food.
Any Indian found leaving San Carlos would be shot.
20 July 1881, Chief Sitting Bull
surrendered the Sioux
nation to US troops.
15 October 1880, Victorio,
Apache leader, died.
4 October 1877, The Indigenous
American leader of the Nez Pierce tribe, Chief Joseph, surrendered to the US Army. His
people were cold and exhausted after a long march from the tribe�s lands in
Oregon after gold was discovered on their lands. Joseph and his people were sent
to live on the non Nez Pierce reservation of Colville, eastern Washington,
where Joseph died in 1904.
5 September
1877, Crazy Horse, Sioux Chief, one of the leaders at the victory of Little
Big Horn in 1876, died.
17 June 1877, Nez Perce
indigenous Americans, led by Chief Joseph, succefully resisted US soldiers
at White Bird Canyon, where conflict had begun between the Nez Perce and White
prospectors seeking gold along the Salmon River. However see 4 October 1877.
6 May 1877. Chief Crazy
Horse
and his Sioux
indigenous Americans gave themselves up to US troops, abandoning
claims to Nebraska.
25 June 1876. Custer�s
Last Stand took place at Little Bighorn, Montana. Custer died with all 264
men of his 7th cavalry. The killing was done by Sioux Indians led by Chiefs Crazy
Horse and Gall. The Battle was the result of a confused
policy by the US government towards the Indians. The Indians, Eastern Sioux,
and Northern Cheyennes, had been guaranteed exclusive possession of the Dakota
territory west of the Missouri River, but white miners were settling in the
Black Hills area searching for gold; this was an area the Sioux considered sacred. The US
government refused to move the miners and so conflict became inevitable. The
Indians were asked to leave or be considered hostile and in June 1876 US
soldiers moved in. However Custer, with his 650 men, was unaware that the
Indians had 1,500 warriors close by. After the disaster of Little Bighorn, the
US army flooded the area with soldiers, forcing the Indians to surrender.
31 January 1876, All
American Indians were ordered to move to reservations. Many of the Sioux
did not comply.
2 July 1874, The US
Government ordered General George A Custer
to lead a reconnaissance expedition into the Black Hills territory of the Sioux Indians.
9 June 1874, Cochise,
Apache chief and war leader against White settlers, died.
3 October 1873,
Indigenous American Modoc Chief Kintpuash (Captain Jack) was hanged at
Fort Klamath, after leading an insurrection against forced location on the
Klamath Reseervation.
4/1873, Geronimo and other Chiefs, worn
down by lack of food and ammunition and continually harried by US troops, gavfe
up the fight and agreed to live on reservations. However after a few years,
unable tpo bear the restrictions of reservation life and facing continued
agreement-breaking by White settlers, some Indigenous Americans resumed
raiding. Game and other food was scarce on these reservations. Soime Indigenous
Americans would flee across the border to Mexico when US troops closed in,
where they could not follow.
1872, Cochise, Apache Chief, finally
signed a peace treaty with the European settlers and agreed to his people
living on a reservation. Other Chiefs siuch as Geronimo fought on.
30 April 1871, Around
150 White men and Papago Indigenous Americans, who had traditionally hated the
Apache, raided camp Grant in southern Arizona and attacked the Arivaipa Apache
tribe. 108 were killed but most of the victims were women and children, because
the men were mostly away hunting. Only 8 of the victims were men. N29 children
were taken hostage and later sold as slaves in Mexico. The leaders of the raid
were arrested but soon acquitted, and the massacre precipitated the Apache Wars
of 1871-73, as US President Ulysses S Grant stepped up measures to confine
the Apache to reservations, where they could be forcibly �civilised�.
3/3/1871, US
Congress passed the Indian Appropriation
Act. Many Indigenous Americans had already ceded their lands by treaty and
then been moved to reservations. However this Act now made all tribes wards of
the US Government and voided all previous treaties recognising each tribe�s
reservation status as a separate nation.
27/11/1868,
Lieutenant Colonel George Custer
and his 7th cavalry attacked the village of Cheyenne Indian chief Black Kettle.
The Indians had been resisting the building of a railway in their territory.
6/11/1868. Oglala Sioux
Indians, led by Chief
Red Cloud, signed a peace treaty with General William Sherman, representing
the US Government, at Fort Laramie. This ended 2 years of fighting between
Indians and gold miners.
12 August 1868, Under
duress, Navajo Chiefs signed a Treaty with the US Government agreeing to live
on a 3.5 million reservation which was only a small portion of the former
Navajo domain. The reservation later grew to 14.5 million acres, but was mostly
desert and semi-desert, with just 68,000 acres of farmland. Meanwhile during a
5-year period of Navajo internment their population had fallen from 10,000 to
8,000 and of their former 200,000 sheep, just 940 were left.
21 May 1867, Frances Theresa
Densmore was born in Red Wing, Minnesota. She recorded and
documented the songs and music of over 30 Indigenous American tribes before her
death at age 87.
21 December
1866, The Bozeman Trail, built by the US Government to enable
miners to export their product to the east coast, was encroaching on Sioux
hunting grounds and Chief Red Cloud (1822-1909) warned that this
was unacceptable. The US built Fort Phil Kearney to guard the trail in northern
Wyoming, but was then attacked by the Sioux. An 82-strong force under William Judd
Fetterman was sent to rescue the fort but was lured into a trap and
massacred by some 1,500 Sioux under Chief High Backbone this day.
Parts of the Bozeman trail were subsequently closed.
Apache aned Navajo War 1860-65
1865, End of the Apache
and Navajo War 1860-65. Conflict between the Indigenous Americans and White
settlers grew as the latter encroached on Indian lands, backed up by US
military forts erected in the 1850s. In 1861 Cochise, anApache Chief, was
wrongly accused with 6 others of kidnap and cattle rustling. The othe r5 were
executed but Cochise escaoed, with US Federal forces drawn away from the area
by the US civil wat, was able to create considerable trouble for the Europeans.
However in 1863 and 1864 Colonel Christopher �Kit� Carson (1809-69) led the
Forst New Mexico Volunteers ina determined foght against the Indigenous
Americans. Thye men were to be killed and the women and children taken
prisoner.� In 1865 the Navajo surrendered
and were resettled on a reservation on the Pecos River, new Mexico. The Apache
under Cochise,
however, retreated to the mountains and made continued guerrilla raids on the
White settlers.
30 April 1860, Fort Defiance, New Mexico, was attacked
by 1,000 Navajo Indians, angered by
the shooting of their sheep and goats by the fort�s soldiers. The Navajo, with
bows and arrows, almost succeeded in capturing the fort. |However they
retreated when the fort fired cannon on them.
29/11/1864, The Sand
Creek massacre; Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians were waiting to surrender to US
forces when soldiers under the command of Colonel Chivington slaughtered them.
28 July 1864, US
General Alfred
Sully (1821-79) heavily defeated the Sioux at Killdeer Mountain.
3/3/1863. Congress
provided for the forcible removal of all Indians from the state of Kansas.
26 December
1862, 38 Sioux Indigenous Americans were hanged; 345
had been sentenced to death but most had their sentences commuted. This was the
largest ever mass execution in the US.
23
September 1862, US troops under the Governor of Minnesota, Henry H Sibley
(1811-91) decisively defeated the Sioux under Chief Little Crow at Wood Lake
(now in North Dakota).
24 August 1862, The Sioux
under Chief
Little Crow attacked Fort Ridgeley, on the Upper Minnesota River.
17 August 1862, A Sioux
uprising in Minnesota led by Chief Little Crow was suppressed. White
settlers had occupied the best hunting grounds, leaving the Sioux
short of food.
1858, Only about 150 Seminole Indians
remained in the remoter areas of Florida after a war on them (Second Seminole War)
by Federal soldiers. Between 1835 and 1842, some 3,000 soldiers were killed,
and only some 300 Seminoles escaped death or deportation. The Army returned
again in 1855 in the Third Seminole War.
11
September 1858, The Mountain Meadows Massacre in Utah. 135 migrants on the
Fancher wagon train were ambushed, and nearly all killed, by Pahute Indians;
however the Indians were acting under instructions from the Mormon leader, Brigham Young.
8/3/1857, In
revenge for the killing of several Sioux by a White trader, a band of Sioux
under Chief Inkpaduta this day raided a newly built White settlement near
Spirit Lake, northwestern Iowa. They killed 32 people and took 4 mpore captive.
The Sioux were pursued by troops
from Fort Ridgeley, Minnesota, but they failed to catch them.
27 May 1856, At Fort
Lane, where the Oregon indigenous Americans were supposed to formally surrender
to the US Army (after attacks by White settlers on their villages in the Red
River area of Oregon through 1855, to seize their lands), the Indians instead
attacked the soldiers. The next day (28/5) US reinforcements arrived and the
Indians fled. However within a month they had surrendered and were herded into
Pacific Coast Reservations.
23 July 1851, Sioux Chieftains ceded all their land in Iowa,
as well as some in Minnesota, to the US Government.
3 June 1850, Five
Cayuse Indigenous Americans were executed in the USA by the military following
raids by the Cayeuse on White settlements.
27/11/1847, Cayeuse Indigenous
Americans killed 14 White settlers in the Oregon area, whom they blamed for the
measles epidemic that had killed many of the Cayeuse.
5 December 1839, Birth of George
Armstrong Custer, US cavalry commander famous for �Custer�s Last Stand� against the
Cheyenne and Sioux
Indians.
1838, Indian title to the lands of
Minnesota was extinguished by the US Government.
23 May 1838, General
Winfield-Scott ordered the forced removal of the Cherokee Indians
from their original lands into reservations 800 miles west in what is now
Oklahoma. About 4,000 of the 14,000 Cherokees died along the �Trail of Tears�.
25 December
1837, Seminole Indians were defeated at US forces under
53-year-old Colonel
Zachary� Taylor. Meanwhile
Seminole leader Osceola
was tricked into emerging from hiding to sign a truce, and arrested and taken
to Fort Moultrie, South Carolina, where he died in 1838. Most of the Seminole
in Florida were killed over the next few years. See 1858.
21 October 1837, Osceola,
leader of the Seminole
Indians, was tricked by the US military; they seized him during
negotiations under a flag of truce. His followers were defeated on 25 December 1837
and Osceola
himself died in prison in 1838.
1835, A Second Seminole War (see 1819) began after
a 31-year-old Seminole man killed a chief who had signed the 1832 Treaty, also
a US agent at Fort King. A 2-year guerrilla war now began against US forces led
by General Thomas
S Jesup
29 December
1835, The Treaty of New Echota was signed between the US
Government and the Indigenous American Cherokee Nation, after which the
Cherokees were moved to the Oklahoma Territory along the �Trail of Tears�.
28 December
1835. Over 100 US troops were killed by Seminole Indians resisting attempts
to drive them out of Florida.
28 October 1834, Florida
Seminole Indians were ordered to move to an Indian Territory set up west of the
Mississippi (see 9 May 1832).
30 June 1834, US
Congress set up a Department of Indian Affairs.
14 October 1832, The
Chicasaw Indians ceded their land east of the Mississippi to the United States.
21
September 1832, The Sauk and Fox
Indigenous American tribes agreed to remain west of the Mississippi.
2 August 1832, Illinois
militiamen massacred Indian warriors at Bad Axe River in Wisconsi Territory,
during the Black Hawk War.
9 May 1832, Seminole
Indians in Florida ceded their land to the United States and agreed to move
west of the Mississippi. See 28 October 1834.
6 April 1832,
Indigenous American Sauk warrior
Black Hawk declared war on the USA after being tricked into signoing away
ownership of his lands. 500 Sauk
fought in the ensuing battle but only 150 survived.
24/3/1832, The Creek
Indians ceded all their land east of the Mississippi to the United States.
3/3/1832, The US
Supreme Court ruled, in the case of Worcester v. Georgia, that the US
Government had exclusive authority over tribal Indians and their lands in any
State.
27 May 1831, Comanche
Indians on the Cimarron killed Jeremiah Smith.
18/3/1831, The US
Supreme Court ruled that indigenous Indigenous American tribes could not sue
for their rights in a Federal Court�
�because they weren�t full citizens, and their reservations weren�t foreign
nations�.
15
September 1830. The Choctaw Indians ceded their lands east of the
Mississippi River.
28 May 1830. The USA
passed the Indian Removal Act,
giving the Indians perpetual title to western lands. The Indians were wary,
aware of valuable mineral deposits beneath these western lands.
16 June 1829, Geronimo,
Apache indigenous American Chief, was born.
20 December
1828. Cherokee Indians ceded their traditional lands in Arkansas
territory to the USA and agreed to migrate to lands west of the Mississippi
River.
12 February
1825, The Cree People repudiated the treaty by which their
leaders had ceded their lands in Georgia to the USA after conflict in 1813.
11/3/1824, The Bureau of Indian Affairs was created by
US Secretary of War, John C Calhoun.
1823, The Arikara War. The Arikara Indigenous Americans began attacking
White trappers who were encroaching on their lands� US troops under Colonel Henry H Leavenworth
(1783-1834) now mounted a punitive expedition agaoinst the SArikara, who were
eventually resettled on a reservation at Fort Berthold, North Dakota, in the
1860s.
14 October 1823, Chicksaw
Indian tribal chiefs ceded land east of the Mississippi River to the United
States Government.
1819, First Seminole War; The US army
under Major General Andrew Jackson, having taken Florida from Spain, now set
about evicting the local Seminole Indians from the best farmland. The four
thousand Seminoles refused to move, and the First Seminole War lasted until
1826. See 1835.
29
September 1817, Under the Fort Meigs
Treaty, 6,000 square miles of land previously belonging to the Ohio Indians
was ceded to the US Government. In return the Indians received 144 square
miles, the �Grand Reserve, on the Upper Sandusky.
9 August 1814. By the Treaty of Fort Jackson the Creek
Indians ceded their claims to about half of present day Alabama, and by a
further series of treaties in 1830 and 1835 the Indians were transferred
further west.
22 July 1814. Five
Indian tribes in Ohio made peace with the USA and declared war on the British.
27/3/1814, US General Andrew
Jackson (1767-1845) attacked and defeated the Creek Indigenous
Americans at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, on the Tallapoosa River, eastern
Alabama. Over 800 Creek warriors were killed sand their power eliminated. See 9
August 1914.
9/11/1813, In the
USA, General Andrew Jackson defeated Cree Indians at Taledega in a retaliatory
attack following a Cree attack in August 1813 in which 500 White settlers were
massacred.
30 August 1813, A band of
Creek Indians, the Red Sticks, wanted to avenge a recent ambush of them by
White settlers, also to recover Creek lands taken by the settlers. This day the
Red Sticks under Chief Red Eagle (William Weatherford, died 1824) made s
surprise raid on Fort Mims, at the confluence of the Alabama and Tombighee
Rivers, and massacred some 500 Whites. This provoked a campaign by US
militia,men to crush the Creek nation.
7/11/1811, The Battle of Tippecanoe. The Shawnee
Indians were heavily defeated by US General Harrison.
30
September 1809, The Treaty of Fort
Wayne was signed by Governor Harrison and Chiefs of the Delaware,
Miami and Potawatomi Indian tribes, ceding 5,500 square miles of territory to
the Federal Government. Two tribal leaders, Tecumseh and Tensquatawa,
refused to sign.
24/11/1807, Joseph Brant,
American Indian chief of the Mohawks, died (born 1742).
1796, Amelia Simmons wrote American Cookery, the first cookbook to
contain indigenous American recipes.
4/11/1791,
Indigenous Americans under Chief Little Turtle (1752-1812) ,made a surprise
attack on Arthur St C;lair�s forces (see 3 October 1791), killing over half of
them and forcing the survivors to make a humiliating retreat. An investigation
by Congress blamed the inexperience of the soldiers.
3 October 1791, Arthur St Clair,
(1736-1818) set out to subdue the indigenous Americans of the Northwest
territory, an earlier mission by Josaih Harmar (1753-1813) having failed to
accomplish this. See 4/11/1791.
3 October 1790, John Ross,
Cherokee Chief, was born.
7 August 1790, Alexander
McGillivray, chief of the Muskogian
Indians, signed a treaty of peace and friendship with President Washington.
26/11/1789. Thanksgiving was celebrated across America
for the first time.� In 1621 the
indigenous Americans had taught early Plymouth settlers how to tap the maple
trees for sap and how to plant the Indian corn. The harvest was very successful
and the Pilgrims found they had enough food to see them through the winter. The
Pilgrim Governor William Bradford proclaimed a Day of Thanksgiving to be shared
by all colonists and invited the Indians to join them for three days. During
the American Revolution of the late 1770s, a Day of National Thanksgiving was
suggested by the Continental Congress and was celebrated nationwide in 1789.
Since then each President has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation, usually
designating the fourth Thursday in November as the holiday.
8/3/1782, The Gnadenhutten Massacre in Delaware. 160
volunteers under Colonel David Williamson attacked the Moravian mission town
of Gnadenhutten. 90 Christian indigenous American Indian men women and children
were slaughtered, and the mission church burnt down. A few survivors managed to
flee to Canada.
20 April 1777, The
Cherokee Nation ceded all their land in South Carolina to the US federal
government by the De Witts Corner Treaty.
30 April 1774, In Ohio,
the Yellow Creek (or, Baker�s Cabin) Massacre took place. The settler-friendly
Tahgah-Jute family of Shawnee Indigenous Americans, and some Mingo Indigenous
Americans, were slaughtered by Whites led by Daniel Greathouse.
20 April 1769, Pontiac,
indigenous American leader, died.
5/11/1768. William Johnson,
the Northern Indian Commissioner, signed a treaty with the Iriquois Indians to
acquire much of the land between the Tennessee and Ohio rivers for future
settlement.
14 October 1768, The
Treaty of Hard Labour confirmed the cession of Cherokee lands in Virginia and
Carolina to the British Crown. Meanwhile the Treaty of Fort Stanwix confirmed
the cession of Iriquois lands between the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers.
15 February
1764, The city of St
Louis, Missouri, was founded as a trading
post between Europeans and Indigenous Americans.
14 December
1763, The Paxton Massacre.
Indigenous Americans in Pennsylvania were slaughtered by Europeans from the
town of Paxton. They then marched on Pennsylvania to massacre more Indigenous
Americans, but were deterred by US troops.
6 August 1763, Indigenous
American attacks on British forts and outposts had destroyed many (see 31 July 1763)
but Forts Niagara, Pitt and Detroit had not fallen. This day a British relief
force under Colonel Henry Boquet (1719-65) reached Fort Pitt and defeated the
indigenous Americans attacking it. From Spring 1764 the Briitsh gradually
overcame all indigenous American unrest, although Pontiac himself did not sue
for peace until 1766, whenh he signed a peace treaty and was pardoned by the
British.
31 July 1763, Battle of
Bloody Run. Pontiac (1720-69), Chief of the Ottowa� indigenous Americans, was emragred at British
appropriation of the fertile plains of the Ohio River (given to them under the
1763 Treaty of Paris) and in 5/1763 led a surprise attack on Fort Detroit, but
failed to capture it. However a British attack on Pontiac�s army was heavily
defeated this day, see 6 August 1763.
7 May 1763. Four
Indian tribes united to lay siege to the British stronghold of Fort Detroit.
However the British had forewarning of the plan by the Delaware, Chippawa,
Shawnee, and Ottawa tribes and had strengthened their fortifications. The
Indians were concerned at the loss of their fur trade to the British, and
wanted a return to the old Indian customs. In November 1763 the Indians lifted
the siege after failing to gain French support.
9 August 1757, French General Louis
de Montcalm (1712-59) attacked the British held Fort William Henry,
gateway to northern Canada. Outnumbered, the fort�s commender, Colonel Munro
laid down his arms and honourably surrendered, having been promised safe
passage by Montcalm.
However the� Indigenous Americans allied
to the French then turned on the British, to the horror of Montcalm.� Risking his own life he managed to restore
order, however many Biritsh were killed. The survivors reached safety at Fort
Edward.
28/11/1729, In
Louisiana, Natchez Indians massacred over 200 White settlers after the
colonists tried to appropriate the Indians traditional burial grounds.
1725, End of the Third Abnaki War, 1722-25. Engtlish settlers had encroached on
Abnaki lands, and the French Jesuit missionary Sebastien Rasles encourage dthem
to resist. The English attempted to seize rasles, and the Abnakiintensified
their raids on Englisah settlements at Brunswick, Arrowsick and Merry Meeting
Bay. The English then also fought back harder, killing Rasles at the battle of
Norridgewock (1724), also Fryburg (1725). The War was ended by peace
conferences at Boston and Casco Bay.
15 April 1715, Yamasee
indigenous Americans attacked English White fur traders after White settlers
had encroached on their lands. The Whites counterattacked but the Yamasee fled
south to Florida and allied with the Spanish, enemies of the English. The
English attacked again in 1727 and the Yamasee were wiped out in a war with the
Creek Indians in 1733.
3/1713, White settlers counterattacked
the Tuscarora Indigenous Americans, after the raid of 22/11/1711. The Tuscarora
surrendered, and were forced to trek northwards to join the Iriquois
Confederacy.
1712, End of Second Abnaki War, 1702-12. Allied French and Abnaki forces
attacked English settlers, but when the English and French started to make
peace, in 1712, the Abnaki, now alone, were forced to sue for peace with the
English. See also First Abnaki War 1678, and Third Abnaki War 1725,
22/11/1711, Tuscarora
indigenous Americans launched a surprise attack on 200 White settlers on the
Chowan and Roanoke Rivers. See 3/1713.
23 June 1683, William Penn
signed a treaty of peace and friendship with chiefs of the Lenapi Indian tribe,
at Shakamaxon.
1680, Revolt by the Arizona Indigenous
Americans against the Spanish.
1678, End of the First Abnaki War (1675-78). The Abnaki People, living in what is
now Maine, new Hampshire and Vermont, had allied with the French against the
English, harrying them for much of the 1600s. In 1675 hostilities intensified,
and the English were forced to conclude a peace treaty in 1687, paying an
annual tribute to the Abnaki. See also 1712, Second Abnaki War.
29 May 1677, The Treaty of Middle Plantation established
peace between the Virginia colonists and the local Indians.
12 August 1676, King Philip,
American Indian Chief, was killed.� The Indian War in New England ended.
19 December
1675, A White colonist army, 1,000 strong, attacked an indigenous
American Narraganset fort near what is now Kingston, Rhode island. The
colonists were repulsed but succeeded in enytering the fort by the rear. The
Narraganset along with their Wampanoag allies foled, but their Chief,
Canonchet,� was killed in the following
year.
26 May 1673, John Mason,
Goveronr-General of the Connecticut Colony, led spoldiers to massacre Pequot
indigenous Americans. His forces killed over 400, mainly women and children.
1659, Nantucket Island, Massachusetts,
was bought from the American Indians by Thomas Macy for �30 and two beaver hats.
1641, The Algonquian-Dutch War, 1641-45. Algonquian Indians, angered by
Dutch settlers 9on Staten Island taking theor lands, attacked the Europeans. A
truce was arranged in 1642 but in 2/1643 thye Dutch enlisted the Mohawk as
allies, armed them and attacked the Algonquians. The Dutch imposed a final
peace settlement in 8/1645.
26 May 1637, The
English massacred women and children of the Pequot Indians, in revenge for the
murder of a slave trader, John Oldham, in July 1636. The Pequot men were
away from their villages, tending the fields, so the English massacre was a
very one-sided affair. Other Indigenous American tribes were either enemies of
the Pequot, or intimidated into not assisting them, and a guerrilla war by the
Pequot finally ended when these other tribes captured and killed the Pequot
leader, Sassacus.
13 December
1636, The Massachusetts Bay Colony organised three militia
regiments to defend against the Pequot Indians.�
This was the founding of the United
States National Guard.
22/3/1622, The Jamestown Massacre.� Algonquin Indians killed 347 English settlers
outside Jamestown, Virginia, a third of the colony�s population, and burnt the
Henricus settlement.
21/3/1617, Algonquin
Indian princess Pocohontas,
born ca.1595,died.
5 April 1614. An Indian
Princess, Pocahontas,
was married to John
Rolfe, a Jamestown settler, in an effort to bring peace to the
settlement between the Powhatan Indians and the British.
1598, The Spanish led by Don Juan de
Onate marched into what is now Arizona from Zapateca in Mexico,
bringing thousands of sheep, cattle and goats, They subjugated the local Indigenous
Americans into acting as herders, looking after these animals.
1513, The Spanish landed in Florida under Ponce de Leon. They were unable to
subjugate the local Indigenous Americans, whom they termed cimarrones, or �wild ones�. They are now known as the Seminole.
1397,
Physician and mapmaker Paolo Toscanelli was born in Florence, Italy. It
was his incorrect map, showing Asia just 3,000 miles west of Europe, that
persuaded Columbus
to sail west from Europe.
2,000 BCE, Squashes,
maize and beans were being cultivated across the south west of the present-dasy
USA. Long distance trade routes were now
established.
7,500 BCE, Earliest known cemetery in North
America; the Sloan burial site.
11,500 BCE, Earliest date associated with the
Clovis Culture of North America.
36,000 BCE, First humans reached North America,, across the
Bering Strait.