The following chronology are adapted from Karen Strom and Hanksvill
Native American narrative collection.
- Pre-1795 - Trading begun with Spanish and French
- merchants from St. Louis.
- 1804 The Sioux meet the Lewis and Clark expedition.
- Post Louisana
Purchase - Trading posts established
- throughout the West to take advantage of established trade networks.
Fur
trading becomes an important part of Oglala life. Oglala
and other Lakota tribes
expand their region of influence and control to cover most of the current
regions
known as North and South Dakota, westward to the Big Horn Mountains in
Wyoming
and south to the Platte River in Nebraska.
- 1834 - The Oglala become more centrally organized
- with most bands
following Bull Bear with many of the rest following Smoke. This was a
change from
their previous more loosely governed bands with many leaders of comparable
influence.
The Bear Butte
area in western South Dakota, extending west to Devil's Tower
was the geographic and spiritual center of their world.
The Oglala needed a base which provided access to the southern buffalo
herds
upon which their lifestyle depended. The area at the joining of the
Laramie and North Platte Rivers was optimum for their needs.
Simultaneously the fur trading companies
were pushing westward along the Indian trading routes. William Sublette
also
realized that the region near the joining of the Laramie and North Platte
Rivers
was an ideal site for a trading post. He realized that the beaver were
almost
gone and that buffalo hides would become a major trade item. He
established a
post he called Fort William (later to be Fort Laramie) as a trade center.
Hoping to
compete with the American Fur Company (owned by John Jacob Astor), he sent
messengers to the Oglala encouraging
them to trade at Fort Laramie. Bull Bear moved 4,000 Oglala to Fort
Laramie and
made this area the center of Oglala activity for the next 40 years. Bull
Bear brought his band the next year. Subsequently Sublette sold the Fort
to the American Fur
Company. While the Oglala drove other tribes from the Fort Laramie area,
other
Sioux bands would spend time in the area. By the 1860's many
Brulé bands moved to the area.
- 1849 - The U.S. government purchased Fort Laramie
- from the American Fur Company and brought troops in.
- 1851 - A series
of Fort Laramie treaties were signed
- with the Lakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho and other Plains tribes delineating
the
extent of their territories and allowing passage across these territories
in
exchange for payments to the tribes. The extent of Lakota territories were
clearly described. Thus began the incursions of miners and wagon trains on
the
Oregon and later the Bozeman trails, few at first but an onslaught after
the end of the Civil War.
- September 3, 1855 - Colonel William Harney
uses 1300 soldiers
- to massacre an entire Brulé village in retribution for the
killing of
30 soldiers who were killed in retribution for the killing of the
Brulé
chief, Conquering Bear, in a dispute over a cow.
- 1862 -
The Homestead Act
- A flood of settlers was unleashed upon the Indian lands.
- August 18, 1862 - Beginning of the Sioux Uprising (or Santee
War)
in Minnesota
- driving the Santee Sioux survivors from their homeland to the safety
of
the lands of their western relatives. By 1864 90% of the Santee, and many
of the Teton who sheltered them were dead or in prison.
- December 26, 1862 - The mass execution of 38 mostly innocent
Sioux men
- in Mankato, MN for crimes during the Sioux Uprising. The trials of
almost every adult male who had voluntarily surrendered to General
Sibley, at a rate of up to 40 a day, were conducted under the premise of
guilty until proven innocent. Originally 303 men were condemned to
death.
President Lincoln intervened and ordered a complete review of the
records. This resulted in a reduced list of 40 to be executed. One was
reprieved by the military because he had supplied testimony against many
of the others. A last minute reprieve removed one more from the list.
A mixup in properly recording the names of the men and in associating the
records with the proper men resulted in one man being ordered released
for saving a woman's life, a day after he was hung.
- November
29, 1864 - Massacre at Sand Creek
- Colonel
Chivington, a sometimes Methodist minister, leads a troop of
volunteers and soldiers to Black
Kettle's
camp at Sand Creek with the sole purpose of killing peaceful Indians. They
kill
105 Indian women and children and 28 men, many standing together under a
U.S. and a white flag. Afterward, they mutilated the bodies horribly and
wore
the severed parts on their saddles and their hats.
Unbelievable as it may seem, this event is still classified as a
major Civil War battle!
- April 9, 1865 - Lee surrenders to Grant at
Appomattox;
- Civil War ends.
- April 14, 1865 - President Lincoln assassinated.
- Andrew Johnson becomes president.
- July 1865 - General Patrick Conner organizes 3 columns of
soldiers
-
to begin an invasion of the Powder River Basin, from the Black Hills,
Paha Sapa, to the Big
Horn Mountains. They had one order: "Attack and kill every male Indian
over
twelve years of age." Conner builds a fort on the Powder River.
Wagon trains begin to cross the Powder River Basin on their
way to the Montana gold fields.
- July 24 - 26, 1865 - Battle of Platte Bridge
- The Cheyennes and Lakota besiege the most northerly outpost of the
U.S.
army and succeed in killing all members of a platoon of cavalrymen sent
out
to meet a wagontrain as well as the wagon drivers and their escorts.
- End of August 1865 - Battle of Tongue River
- Connor's column destroys an Arapaho village, including all the
winter's food
supply, tents and clothes. They kill over 50 of the Arapaho villagers.
- Late September 1865 - Roman Nose's Fight
- The Cheyenne chief, Roman Nose, in revenge for the Sand
Creek massacre, led
several hundred Cheyenne warriors in a siege of the Cole and Walker
columns
of exhausted and starving soldiers who were attempting to return to Fort
Laramie. Because they were armed only with
bows, lances and a few old trade guns, they were unable to overrun the
soldiers,
but they harasses them for several days, until Connor's returning column
rescued
them.
- October 14, 1865 - The Southern
Cheyenne chiefs sign a treaty
- agreeing to
cede all the land they formerly claimed as their own, most of Colorado
Territory,
to the U.S. government. This was the desired end of the Sand Creek
massacre.
- October, 1865 - Connor returns to Fort Laramie
- leaving 2 companies of soldiers at the fort they had constructed at
the
fork of the Crazy Woman Creek and the Powder River. Red
Cloud and his warriors
kept these men isolated and without supplies all winter. Many died of
scurvy,
malnutrition and pneumonia before winter's end. They were not relieved
until June 28
by Col. Carrington's company.
- Late Fall, 1865 - Nine
treaties signed with the
Sioux
- Including the Brulés, Hunkpapas, Oglalas and Minneconjous.
These
were widely advertised as signifying the end of the Plains wars although
none
of the war chiefs had signed any of these treaties.
- April 1, 1866 - Congress overrides President Johnson's
veto
- of the Civil Rights Bill, giving equal rights to all persons born in
the U.S.
(except Indians). The President is empowered to use the Army to enforce
the law.
- Late Spring 1866 - War chiefs Red
Cloud,
Spotted Tail, Standing Elk, Dull Knife
- and others come to Fort Laramie to negotiate a treaty concerning
access to the Powder
River Basin. Shortly after the beginning of the talks, on June 13, Col.
Henry
Carrington and several hundred infantry men reached Fort Laramie to build
forts along the Bozeman trail. It was clear to the chiefs that the treaty
was a mere
formality; the road would be opened whether they agreed or not.
This was the beginning Red
Cloud's War.
- June 13, 1866 - Fourteenth
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,
- giving negroes rights of citizenship, is forwarded to the states for
ratification.
- July 13, 1866 - Col. Carrington begins building Fort Phil
Kearney
- He halts his column between the forks of the Little Piney and the Big
Piney
Creeks, in the best hunting grounds of the Plains Indians, and pitches
camp.
The Cheyenne visit and decide that the camp is too strong for them to
attack
directly and begin plans for harassing the soldiers who leave the camp and
for
drawing out soldiers by using decoys. All summer they harasses the
soldiers and
make alliances with other Plains groups, forming a coalition of Lakota,
Cheyenne,
Arapaho and Crow groups.
- December 21, 1866 - Fetterman Massacre
- Early in December the young Lakota warriors, including Crazy
Horse, executed an elaborate decoy
manuever to draw soldiers out of the fort. They were very successful and
killed
several officers and severely wounded several other soldiers. In the next
weeks
an ambush was carefully planned and a location for a trap was chosen. Two
thousand
warriors moved south and set up camp two miles north of the chosen trap
location.
Ten young warriors were selected from the different tribal groups
represented
for the most dangerous job of decoying the soldiers. These decoys
performed
elaborate manuevers to lure the soldiers into the trap. When they were all
inside
the trap, the decoys signaled to the concealed warriors who rose up and
killed
all 80 of the soldiers. Nonetheless, casualties among the Indians were
great because
they were poorly armed to compete with the new repeating rifles of the
soldiers.
The Indians named this battle The Battle of the Hundred Slain.
The whites knew it as the Fetterman Massacre because the soldiers were led
by
Captain Fetterman, who had boasted that he could defeat the entire Sioux
Nation
with a single company of cavalrymen.
Col. Carrington was appalled by the mutilation of the bodies they found.
Had he
seen the bodies of the Indians slain at Sand Creek, the condition of these
bodies would
have come as no surprise.
- Summer, 1867 - Grand Council of 6,000 tribes at Bear
Butte,
- the sacred mountain of the Cheyenne, attended by Crazy
Horse, Red
Cloud, and
Sitting
Bull, among other great
leaders, pledged to end further encroachment by the whites.
- Treaty
of 1868 - The Army agrees to abandon the forts on the Bozeman
Trail
- The
treaty creates the Great
Sioux Reservation and agrees that the Sioux do
not cede their hunting grounds in Montana and Wyoming territories. The
Indians
agree to become "civilized." George
Armstrong Custer established himself as a
great Indian fighter by leading the Massacre on the Washita in Indian
Territory
(Oklahoma) in which Black
Kettle is killed.
- A photograph of
Gen. William
T. Sherman and commissioners in council with Indian chiefs at Ft. Laramie,
Wyo. ca. 1867-68. is available in the Gallery of the Frontier.
- January 23,
1870 - The Massacre on the Marias
-
173 Blackfeet men, women and children were slaughtered by U.S. soldiers on
the Marias River in Montana in response for the killing of Malcolm Clarke
and the wounding of his son by a small party of young Blackfeet men.
- 1873 - Custer
and the Seventh Cavalry come to the northern plains
- to
guard the surveyers for the Northern Pacific Railroad. He has a chance
encounter with
Sitting
Bull and Crazy
Horse.
- 1873 - The panic of 1873 is followed by the collapse of the
economy.
- A depression that lasts until 1877 follows.
- 1874 - An expedition led by Custer
finds gold in the Black Hills,
Paha Sapa.
A photograph of a
column of cavalry,
artillery, and wagons, commanded by Gen.
George A. Custer, crossing the
plains of Dakota Territory. By W. H. Illingworth, 1874 Black Hills
expedition is
available in the Gallery of the Frontier.
A photograph of a
panoramic
view of the camp at Hidden Wood Creek. By Illingworth, 1874, during
Custer's
Black Hills expedition.
A photograph of
"Our First
Grizzly, killed by Gen. Custer and Col. Ludlow." By Illingworth, 1874,
during
Black Hills expedition.
A photograph of a
Hunting and
camping party of Custer (standing in center) and invited guests. Fort
A. Lincoln
on the Little Heart River, Dak. Terr., 1875.
- 1875 - The U.S. government attempts to
purchase Paha Sapa and fails.
- 1876 - The U.S. government issues an ultimatum that all Sioux
- who are not on the Great Sioux Reservation by January 31 will
be considered
hostile. The winter is bitter and most Sioux do not even hear of
the
ultimatum until after the deadline.
- A photograph of
Deadwood in
1876. General view of the Dakota Territory gold rush town from a
hillside
above. By S. J. Morrow.
A photograph of
Gayville in
Deadwood Gulch, Black Hills [Dak. Terr.], 1876. Log cabins under
construction
at the foot of a hillside.
- March 17, 1876 - General
George Crook's advance
column attacks a Sioux/Cheyenne
- camp
on the Powder River. The people were driven from their lodges and many
were killed.
The lodges and all the winter supplies were burned and the horse herd
captured.
That night, the warriors recaptured the horse herd. The people then sought
refuge
in Crazy
Horse's camp an few miles away.
- A photograph of
cinching
and loading pack mule with flour during starvation march of Gen.
George Crook's
expedition into the Black Hills. By S. J. Morrow, 1876.
- A photograph of
a
horsedrawn stretcher carrying a wounded man from the Battle of Slim
Buttes, Dak.
Terr. By Morrow, 1876.
- A photograph of
Valentine
T. McGillycuddy, surgeon and topographer on hunger march with General
Crook's
expedition to the Black Hills, Dak. Terr., 1876.
- A photograph of
Gen.
Crook's headquarters in the field at Whitewood [Dak. Terr.]. On
starvation march
1876." Closeup of a camp scene shows tents improvised from wagon frames
during the
Black Hills expedition.
- Spring 1876 - Sitting
Bull organizes the greatest gathering of Indians
-
on the northern plains.
- June 17, 1876 - In the Battle of the Rosebud, General
Crook is forced
-
to retire from the "pincers" campaign.
- June 25, 1876 - The Battle
of the Little Bighorn, where General
- George
Armstrong Custer and 210 men under his command are killed. The news
reaches the east for the Independence Day Centennial celebrations.
- A photograph of
the scene
of Gen. Custer's last stand, looking in the direction of the ford
and the Indian
village." A pile of bones on the Little Big Horn battlefield is all that
remains, ca. 1877.
- October 1876 - Colonel
Nelson "Bear Coat" Miles arrived
- on the Yellowstone River
to take command of the campaign against the
northern plains indians. The Manypenny Commission demands that the Sioux
give up Paha Sapa or starve. Having no choice, Red
Cloud,
Spotted Tail and the
other reservation chiefs signed over Paha Sapa.
- Early May -1877 - Sitting
Bull escapes to Canada.
-
He has about 300 followers with him.
- On May 6, 1877 - Crazy
Horse surrenders at Fort Robinson.
- On May 7, 1877 - a small band of
Minneconjou Sioux is defeated
- by General
Miles, thus ending the Great Sioux Wars.
- On September 6, 1877 - Crazy
Horse is killed at the hands of soldiers
- and some of his
own people.
- The Manypenny Agreement is ratified by Congress,
-
taking Paha Sapa and confining the Indians to reservations.
- January, 1878 - A Commission finds the Indian Bureau permeated
with
-
"cupidity, inefficiency, and the most barefaced dishonesty." The
department's
affairs were "a reproach to the whole nation." Carl Schurz had already
dismissed
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, John Q. Smith on September 27, 1877.
He now
discharged many more Bureau employees and began a reorganization of the
Indian
agents.
- July 19, 1881 - Sitting
Bull and 186 of his remaining followers surrender
- at Fort
Buford.
He is sent to Fort Randall for 2 years as a prisoner of war instead of
being pardoned, as promised.
- Late Summer, 1881 -
Spotted Tail is assassinated by Crow Dog.
- White officials dismiss the killing as a simple quarrel, but the
Sioux feel that
it was the result of a plot to wrest control from a strong Indian leader.
- 1883 - Sitting
Bull
is allowed to go to the Standing Rock Reservation
- where he
lived the rest of his life across the Grand River from his birthplace.
- 1885 - Sitting
Bull tours with Buffalo
Bill's Wild West Show.
- 1887 - The Dawes
Severalty Act, otherwise known as the
- General
Allotment Act, gives the President power to reduce the landholdings of
the Indian nations across the country by allotting 160 acres to the heads
of Indian
families and 80 acres to individuals. The "surplus lands" on the
reservations were opened up to settlement.
- 1889 - The Sioux sign an agreement with the U.S.
government
- breaking up the great Sioux Reservation. The Sioux
will get six separate small reservations. The major part of their land was
thrown open to settlers.
- Mid-1890 - A prophet
from the Paiutes in Nevada, Wovoka,
-
introduces a new religion, based on the Ghost
Dance, to all Indian
people.
- 1890 - The
Ghost Dance religion sweeps across the Sioux reservation.
- Sitting
Bull is killed on
December 15 by Indian policemen,
acting on behalf of the U.S. government. On December 29, Big Foot's band
of Minneconjous, trying to reach Pine Ridge and the protection of Red
Cloud after
hearing of Sitting
Bull's death,
are massacred at Wounded
Knee Creek on December 29
by Custer's old outfit, the Seventh Cavalry.
- A photograph of
officers
in tent by fire during the Pine Ridge campaign, 1890-91.
A photograph of the
return of
Casey's scouts from the fight at Wounded Knee, 1890-91." Soldiers on
horseback
plod through the snow.
- A photograph of
Big Foot,
leader of the Sioux, captured at the battle of Wounded Knee, S.D."
Here he lies
frozen on the snow-covered battlefield where he died, 1890. Note the
completely
incorrect caption material!
Other timelines are available online:
- Annotated
Chronology for Bear Butte in the Black Hills, and
- Milestones
for
the Great Sioux Nation
- A
broader timeline of Native American - Euro-American
contact from the Heard Museum
- A timeline
from
15,000 years ago until 1492! from Maricopa College.
- A Cherokee
History timeline
This timeline is based upon the following references:
Strom, Karen. Hanksville Internet Native American Narrative Project.
http://hanksville.phast.umass.edu.
Brown, Dee, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, 1970, Holt,
Rinehart &
Winston.
Fuess, Claude M., Carl Schurz, Reformer, 1932, Dodd, Mead,
NY.
Welch, James, 1994, Killing Custer, 1994, W.W. Norton, New
York.