Native American

With the Europeans came diseases the Indians had never encountered before, thus their numbers dwindled from 80 million to one million in less than 500 years.

European Diseases: typhoid, yellow fever, smallpox, measles, influenza.

Ponce de Leon encountered Calusa Indians while exploring the Gulf Coast of Florida near Charlotte harbor. In a fight with the Calusa, de Leon captured four warriors.

The first kidnapping in America done by Europeans.
Florentine explorers kidnapped an Indian child to bring to France.

The first significant exploration of Florida occurred when Spanish soldier, explorer, and Indian fighter Panfilo de Narvaez saw Indian houses near what is now Tampa Bay. Narvaez claimed Spanish royal title to the land.

Hernando de Soto explores southeastern North-America defeating resistance from Timucuan warriors, leading to the Napituca Massacre.

Francisco Vasquez de Coronado led Mexico's invasion of the north with an expeditionary force of 300 conquistadors and more than one thousand Indian "allies." When they reached Cibola, they found not the promised metropolis but "a little, crowded village, looking as if it had been crumpled all up together." This was the Zuni Pueblo of Hawikuh, whose warriors answered with arrows when Coronado demanded that they swear loyalty to his King. Within an hour, the Spaniards overran the pueblo, and over the next few weeks, they conquered the other Zunis in the region.

Coronado moved his camp to the upper Rio Grande, where his soldiers confiscated one pueblo for winter quarters and looted the surrounding pueblos for supplies. During this operation, a Spaniard raped an Indian woman, and when Coronado refused to punish him, the Indians retaliated by stealing horses. Lopez de Cardenas attacked the thieves' pueblo, captured 200 men and methodically burned them all at the stake.

Francisco Vásquez de Coronado explores Kansas and New Mexico which led to the Tiguex War.

First Indian uprising in an English colony (Virginia).

The Powhatan Confederacy in Virginia between colonists and Native Indian Americans.

The First Reservations were established by Puritans near New Haven, Connecticut.

The Pequots were defeated by the colonists led by John Underhill and John Mason allied with the Narragansetts and Mohegans.

The Beaver Wars, also known as the Iroquois Wars or the French and Iroquois Wars.

The Susquehannock Nation and allied Native Americans on settlements around New Amsterdam.

King Philip's War so named after Metacomet of the Wampanoag tribe, who was called Philip by the English.

The Pueblo Revolt occurred in New Mexico and Arizona between the Tuscarora Native Americans and the Spanish.

The Tuscarora War between the Tuscarora Native Americans and European settlers in Northern Carolina. The Tuscarora were defeated.

The Yamasee against the white settlements in South Carolina.

Iroquois surrender claims to land south of the Ohio River in addition to counties in the eastern panhandle.

Pontiac's Rebellion in the Ohio River Valley. The Ottawa Chief Pontiac (1720-1769) led a rebellion against the British.

Lord Dunmore's War in Southern Ohio in which Lord Dunmore, the Governor of Virginia sent 3000 soldiers who defeated the 1000 Native Indians.

Cherokee involvement in the American Revolutionary War and continuing through late 1794.

Northwest Indian War in Indiana and Ohio. The Americans suffered two humiliating defeats by the Native Indians until they won the Battle of Fallen Timbers.

The Prophet, brother of Shawnee chief Tecumseh, attacked Indiana Territory but was defeated by the troops of William Henry Harrison.

War of 1812 begins.

The Creek War erupted in Alabama and Georgia. The Creek Indians were defeated by American forces led by Andrew Jackson.

The Peoria War was conflict between the U. S. Army, settlers and the Native American tribes of the Potawatomi and the Kickapoo tribes in Illinois.

The First Seminole War erupted in Florida as the Seminole Indian tribe defended their lands and runaway slaves.

The Winnebago War in Wisconsin between the settlers and lead miners who were trespassing on their land and the Winnebago tribe.

The Black Hawk War occurred in Northern Illinois and Southwestern Wisconsin by Sauk and Fox tribes led by Chief Black Hawk in an attempt to re-take their homeland.

Department of Indian Affairs was established

The Creek Alabama Uprising in Alabama and Georgia. It resulted in a defeat for the Creek forces and the removal of the Creek people from their native lands to the Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma.

The Second Seminole War in the Florida everglade area. Under Chief Osceola

Osage Indian War with the Osage Indians in Missouri.

The Cherokee were the last of the Five Civilised Tribes (Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Seminal and Chickasaw) to take the enforced march on the tragic Trail of Tears.

The Navajo conflicts in New Mexico and Arizona.

The Sioux Wars in South Dakota, Minnesota and Wyoming led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull.

The Rogue River War in Oregon. Indian tribes were attacked in an attempt to start a war that would enable unemployed miners to work. Survivors were forced on to reservations.

The Third Seminole War in the Florida everglade area. The Seminole led by Chief Billy Bowleg made their last stand.

The Apache Wars in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas led by Geronimo and Cochise. Geronimo surrendered in 1886 but others carried on the fight until 1900.

Ute Wars broke out in Utah due to Mormon settlers taking over their lands.

Ute Wars broke out in Utah due to Mormon settlers taking over their lands.

The Madoc War in California and Oregon led by Captain Jack.

The Red River War in Northern Texas against the Arapaho, Comanche, Cheyenne and Kiowa tribes.

The Battle of the Rosebud in Montana. Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne under Crazy Horse cut off reinforcements intended to help Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

The Nez Perce War in Oregon, Montana and Idaho led by Chief Joseph.

Ute Wars broke out in Utah due to Mormon settlers taking over their lands.

The Wounded Knee Massacre in South Dakota. Chief Big Foot led the last stand of Sioux.

Charles Curtis is the first American Indian elected to the U.S. Senate.

American Indian Movement (AIM).

All Indians declared citizens of U.S.

American Indian Religious Freedom Act (Public Law 95-341) passed.

Christopher Columbus discovers America by accident, with his arrival in the Caribbean, which he named “The West Indies” believing he was on islands west of India.

Columbus inferred the native people to be an inferior race: "They all go around as naked as their mothers bore them; and also the women." However, he noted that "they could easily be commanded and made to work, to sow and to do whatever might be needed, to build towns and be taught to wear clothes and adopt our ways." Although Columbus also wrote that "they are the best people in the world and above all the gentlest," his record of the first encounter between Europeans and New World Indians was filled with accounts of enslavement, murder, and rape.

The French and Indian War between France and Great Britain for the lands in the New World. The Iroquois Indians were allied to the French and the Algoquian tribes were allied o the British.

(French and Indian War)
Due to disputes over land is won by Great Britain. France gives England all French territory east of the Mississippi River, except New Orleans. The Spanish give up east and west Florida to the English in return for Cuba.

Treaty of Paris ends French and Indian War (1754-1763).

Massachusetts patriots dressed as Mohawk Indians protest against the British Tea Act by dumping crates of tea into Boston Harbor.

Virginia. Until 1861, West Virginia was originally part of the State of Virginia which was named to honour Queen Elizabeth I of England referred to as the “Virgin Queen.”

U.S. Congress passes the Homestead Act, opening the Great Plains to settlers.

Building of Union Pacific Railroad brings settlers to the Great Plains.

Dawes General Allotment Act passed by Congress leads to the break up of the large Indian Reservations and the sale of Indian lands to white settlers.