WALKING THROUGH NATIVE HISTORY:
EUROPEAN CONTACT THROUGH PRESENT DAY
1492 – 2007
1492
Christopher Columbus explores Native lands in the Americas.
Estimated 12.5 million Native persons live in region that will become North America.
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 that Indians are not U.S. citizens.
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 and held hostage to insure that 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 ears old are sent to boarding schools run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) or sponsored by churches. Five generations of Native children raised in institutions without their 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 under treaty are then declared excess, taken from the tribes and made available for general settlement.
