1492
Christopher Columbus explores Native lands in the Americas.
Estimated 12.5 million Native persons live in region.
1492
Largest population of Native people and number of distinct tribes located in the region.
1494
Columbus ships Native people to Spain to be sold as slaves (200 years of forced labor and slavery of Native people in the Southwest would follow).
1621
Native children attend school in Jamestown, Virginia.
1638
First reservation established in Connecticut for the Qinnipiacs.
1670
Indian slave trade instituted by the English in the American southwest (Indian slave trade in the southeast would continue until 1717).
1700
Indian population in California area estimated at 750,000.
1827
Constitution of the Cherokee Nation adopted.
1830
Congress affirms forced Indian removal from the southeast to Indian Territory (three Methodist Episcopal annual conferences would support the removal).
1831
The United States Supreme Court passes ruling that tribes possess “unquestionable rights” to all lands on which they live unless they give them up voluntarily.
1834
Indian Country Crimes Act.
1836
Forced removal of Creek Nation.
Beginning of 34 years of smallpox epidemics among Plains tribes (smallpox-infected blankets deliberately distributed to Native people).
1836
First of forced removals of Cherokee to Indian Territory (Native Methodists bring their churches to Indian territory).
1841
First Methodist hymnal in Creek language.
1844
First Annual Conference of the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference held.
1848
Indian population in California estimated at 150,000. In 1870, only 30,000 remain.
1860
The Massacre of the Wyot Tribe (California).
1863
Forced removal of Mescalero Apache and Navajo, known as the Long Walk.
Emancipation Proclamation – end of Indian Slavery.
1864
Teaching Native children in their own language prohibited by Congressional action.
1868
Fort Laramie Treaty.
1870
Supreme Court ruling affirms Indians are not U.S. citizens.
1870
Beginning of slaughter by non-Native hunters of ten million buffalo for hides alone.
Continuing until 1886, this program was designed to starve and demoralize Native people.
1875
Seventy-two warriors of the Cheyenne, Kiowa, Comanche, and Caddo nations sent to Ft. Augustine, Florida in chains held hostage
to insure their people remain “good.”
1876
Gold discovered in Black Hills. Congress “takes back” the Black Hills from land given to the Lakota Sioux.
1876
Battle of the Little Big Horn.
1879
Carlisle Indian School founded in Carlisle, PA.
Native children as young as four years are sent to boarding schools run by BIA or sponsored by churches. Five generations of Native children raised in institutions without families.
1880
Sun Dance outlawed by the U.S. government.
1881
Beginning of a series of policies making Native religions and customs illegal.
1885
Congress passes the Major Crimes Act.
1887
The General Allotment Act
(The Dawes Act) requires tribal persons to register and allots each family a portion of land. The vast majority of lands granted then taken from the tribes and made available for general settlement.
1890
Massacre of Lakota Sioux at Wounded Knee.
1900
Only about 250,000 Native people survive in the U.S.
1906
Cherokee Nation and other Oklahoma tribes officially terminated.
1912
Jim Thorpe
(Sac and Fox tribe) wins the pentathlon and decathlon at the Olympic games in Stockholm, Sweden.
1924
Native Americans are granted U.S. citizenship.
1935
Indian Reorganization (lasting until 1953).
1940
Indian men register for draft for the first time.
(Native men had fought in every war since the Revolution. As new citizens, their names are entered into the draft).
1944
Navajo “code talkers” develop secret codes used in South Pacific field of WWII. Comanche, Cheyenne, and others develop different codes also used in war. During WWI, Choctaw soldiers had developed codes.
1946
Policy of Indian relocation to urban centers is instituted to break down reservation systems. Families are often split up.
1953
Termination of tribes by the U.S. federal government
(15 year period whereby the U.S. federal Government removes tribal status and reservation lands from tribes).
1958
Lumbees force Ku Klux Klan to leave Robeson County, NC.
1968
Congress passes Indian Civil Rights Act, basically requiring tribes to grant Native people the same rights guaranteed to most Americans by the Bill of Rights.
1971
Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (Federal recognition of Alaska Native people. Establishment of 13 Native corporations).
1972
Cherokee Nation re-established.
1973
American Indian Movement occupation of Wounded Knee.
1978
Congress passes the American Indian Religious Free Act.
Indian Child Welfare Act (prohibiting states & social agencies from removing and adopting Native children without consent of parents or tribes).
1979
Florida Seminole Nation begins first Native high-stakes bingo.
1980
Kateri Tekakwitha beatified – First Native Roman Catholic saint.
1988
Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.
1989
Congress passes the National Museum of the American Indian Act.
1990
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (requiring return of Native religious artifacts and bones by museums).
1990
Congress passes the Indian Arts and Crafts Act, stipulating that only enrolled tribal members may display in Indian Arts Shows or use the term “Indian made.” Many well-known, non-enrolled artists are disenfranchised.
1993
Congress passes the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
1995
One million Native people are members of federally recognized tribes.
BIA estimates that over 500,000 U.S. born, ethnic Native people are ineligible for various reasons.
2000
Jim Thorpe
(1887-1953) named by Congress as Athlete of the Century.
2007
Less than 200 Native languages still surviving.
As many as 50 percent of Native people in the U.S. ineligible for tribal membership.
