Reservation Era Begins 1850-1878
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1868
Buffalo kills and genocide
In October 1868, General Sheridan writes to General Sherman that their best hope to control...Read More
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1868
U.S. Army and frontiersmen Native grave robbing
American military actively solicits Native grave robbing. On January 13, 1868, the U.S. Army urges...Read More
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1869
“The only good Indian is a dead Indian”
Comanche Chief Tosahwi reputedly tells Sheridan in 1869, “Tosahwi, good Indian," to which Sheridan supposedly...Read More
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1870
Marias Massacre of Piegan (Blackfeet) camp (Montana)
U.S. troops massacre over 173 Blackfeet, mostly women, children, and the elderly, as a U.S....Read More
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1870
California Indian genocide
Since the beginning of the Gold Rush, more than 80 percent of California’s Native Americans...Read More
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1870
Reservation imprisonment for Plains tribes
The Arikara, Gros Ventre, and Mandan of the Dakota are forced to and imprisoned at...Read More
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1871
Near-extermination of Yahi (California)
In the Kingsley Cave Massacre, 30 Yahi Indians are massacred in Tehama County, California, leaving...Read More
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1871
Congress ends treaty-making with tribes; creates system of coerced dependency
Tribes in the U.S. are no longer recognized as independent nations by the federal government,...Read More
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1871
Camp Grant Massacre, enslavement of Apache women and children (Arizona)
Tucson ex-Mayor William Oury leads a group of American and Mexican settlers and allied Pima...Read More
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1872
Skeleton Cave Massacre of Yavapai (Arizona)
U.S. troops murder 76 Yavapai women, men, and children in a remote cave in Salt...Read More
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1872
General Mining Act allows the staking of Indian lands without consent
U.S. President Grant signs the Mining Act into law, which allows individuals and corporations to...Read More
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1874-1875
Forced roundup of Natives in southwestern territories
The so-called Red River War is a U.S. Army military campaign to forcibly capture and...Read More
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1874
David Kalakaua becomes King of Hawai’i
He seeks to reduce the power of the White Missionary Party (Reform Party) in Hawaiian...Read More
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1874
Black Hills Gold Rush begins
Gold is discovered, which leads to thousands of gold miners rushing to the Black Hills,...Read More
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1875
Lt. Richard Henry Pratt experiments with “assimilation” strategy on prisoners
The U.S. Army transports 72 Cheyenne, Kiowa, Apache, Comanche, and Caddo Indian prisoners, including some...Read More
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1875
Sappa Creek Massacre of Cheyenne (Kansas)
Kansas troops trap a group of Cheyenne, massacring 27 men, women, and children on the...Read More
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1876
Battle of Greasy Grass (Battle of Little Bighorn)
Red Cloud had asked the U.S. government to enforce the treaty and protect the Black...Read More
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1876
Satanta, Kiowa war chief, is taken prisoner and murdered
Satanta, a Kiowa leader who led raids due to food scarcity on the reservation, is...Read More
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1876-1886
Apache resistance
The U.S. government tries to relocate the Chiricahua Apache to the Gila River Indian reservation...Read More
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1877
Lakota resistance relents
Colonel Nelson Miles continues the campaign to hunt down and round up bands of Lakota...Read More
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1877
Massacre of Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) at Big Hole (Montana)
Under Colonel John Gibbon, U.S. troops attack a Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) village, killing 90, including...Read More
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1877
Chief Joseph’s resistance campaign in the Pacific Northwest
Chief Joseph of the Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) and other non-Treaty Nimiipuu resist government efforts to...Read More
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1878
Fort Marion prisoners sent to be “civilized”
The Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia was a boarding school for African Americans...Read More
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1879
Fort Robinson Massacre of Northern Cheyenne (Nebraska)
Under the leadership of Dull Knife, his band of Northern Cheyenne attempt to escape from...Read More