1803, April 30. Louisiana Purchase. 828,000 square miles of the center of the North American Continent are purchased from France by the United States.
1812—14. War of 1812, arising from the effects of British blockades and the press gang. It is ended by the Treaty of Ghent on December 24, 1814, with a return to the status quo. This is the last British involvement with a major Indian attempt to defeat the United States.
1813, October 5. Battle of the Thames, near Chatham, Ontario, in which the British and Indian forces under the Shawnee leader Tecumseh are defeated and Tecumseh killed. Tecumseh had formed an important confederacy against the United States; his death marks the end of Indian resistance to US settlement in the mid-west.
1817-18. First Seminole War, started by a US attack on the Seminole.
1819, February 22. Treaty with Spain: Florida is ceded to the US.
1822—42. Removal of the Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole) from the Southeast to Indian Territory. The Cherokee are herded into camps and moved west by soldiers during the winter of 1838—39, calling their march the Trail of Tears'; a quarter of their number perishes en route.
1824, March 11. Thomas L. McKenney is appointed first chief of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The management of relations with native peoples is the responsibility of the War Department between its creation in 1789 and the founding of the Department of the Interior in 1849.
1832, July. Creation of the post of Commissioner of Indian Affairs to be responsible for the 'direction and management of all Indian affairs'.
1835-42. Second Seminole War. A war fought in repudiation of the treaty signed at Paynes Landing in 1832 which provided for the removal of the Seminole to Indian Territory. The defeat of the Seminole results in the exodus of most of their number from Florida.
1846-48. War with Mexico. By the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, 1848, Mexico cedes New Mexico and California to the US for $15,000,000, and gives up claims to Texas.
1846, June 15. Oregon Treaty. Settlement of the boundary dispute between the US and the UK. Under a treaty of 1818, renewed in 1827, the area between 42° and 54°40' has been jointly occupied. Now the boundary is set at 49° latitude, between the Great Lakes and Pacific coast.
1848, January 24. Discovery of gold on the estate of John Sutter, near Sacramento, California. This leads to the gold rush of 1849, and the displacement of the native population in that state.
1851. Fort Laramie Treaty. Representatives of the United States meet with the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Crow and Sioux to discuss the building of roads and forts in their territories. No lands are surrendered but despite the swearing of both sides 'to maintain good faith and friendship' the treaty will be broken and valueless within ten years: the wagon trains and forts will be followed by stage-coaches, the telegraph, more forts, the Pony Express, the Pike's Peak gold rush of 1858 and in 1859 the building of Denver. Finally, ten years after the signing of the treaty, in 1861, Colorado will be organized as a territory.
1853, December 30. Gadsden Purchase. Treaty with Mexico signed by James Gadsden, providing for the purchase of a tract south of the Gila River in the Southwest to enable the construction of a railway to California.
1860, April 3. First Pony Express mail leaves St Joseph, Missouri and delivers letters in Sacramento, California on April 13.
1861-65. United States Civil War. The conflict intensifies relations with the Indians, particularly in areas which have suffered
Confederate incursions and in Indian Territory amongst slave-owning Indians.
1861, February. Attempt by Lieutenant George N. Bascome to take Cochise, the Chiricahua Apache leader, hostage at Apache Pass leads to general guerilla warfare between the Apache and the US in the Southwest. This is led initially by Mangas Colorado, the Mimbreho Apache leader, but continues after Mangas' death in 1863 and Cochise's surrender in 1872 until the mid-1870s.
1862. Santee Sioux revolt led by Little Crow. The Santee had yielded most of their land in return for annuities, which were not paid on time; white traders tricked them out of much of their money. Little Crow's revolt is defeated by General Henry H. Sibley; Little Crow is killed the following year while on a raspberrypicking expedition.
1862, May 20. Homestead Act, which provides for the settlement of the West: 160 acres can be allotted to anyone who has created a farm and remained in occupation there for five years (as opposed to 25 years for Indians under the 1887 Dawes Act).
1863—64. Destruction of the Navaho by General James Carleton and Colonel Christopher (Kit) Carson. The destruction of food resources results in the surrender of several thousand Navaho and their enforced march in the spring of 1864 to Fort Sumner and the Bosque Redondo, New Mexico, known as the Navaho 'Long Walk'.
1864, November. Sand Creek massacre, Colorado. A camp of six hundred Cheyenne and Arapaho is attacked by Colonel John M. Chivington with a force of Colorado militia, despite assurances of safety from Major Scott C. Anthony and Major Edward W. Wynkoop. 105 women and children are killed, with 28 men. The effect of the massacre is to destroy the position of chiefs such as Black Kettle who wanted peace with the United States; it also paves the way for a treaty the following year which effectively means the abandonment of all Cheyenne and Arapaho claims to Colorado Territory.
1864, September 28. Camp Weld Council, near Denver, Colorado. An inconclusive meeting between Governor John Evans and the Cheyenne and Arapaho brought about at the insistence of Major Edward W. Wynkoop. Evans is reluctant to agree to any peace since he has obtained money to raise a Colorado militia to fight the Indians: he has to show Washington that there are Indians to fight. As a result of the meeting the Indians move nearer to Synkoop's fort, but Wynkoop is relieved shortly afterwards for being too friendly towards them.
1867-79. The Four Great Surveys: King, Wheeler, Hayden and Powell.
1868. Fort Laramie Treaty. Red Cloud refuses to sign the Treaty unless the government abandons the military forts on the Powder River (Indian country); it does so.
1868, June 1. Treaty with the Navaho creating the Navaho Reservation, the largest in the United States.
1868, August 13. The 370th US—Indian Treaty, and the last, signed with the Nez Perce.
1868, September. Battle of Beecher's Island, Colorado, between the Cheyenne and the Sioux and a scouting party, led by George A. Forsyth for General Philip Sheridan. This follows on the failure of the US forces at Fort Lamed to provide food or ammunition. Roman Nose of the Cheyenne is killed in the battle.
1869, April 10. Establishment of the Board of Commissioners for the administration of Indian affairs by President Grant to effect his peace policy. Grant appoints a Seneca, Ely Parker (Donehogawa), to be the first Indian Commissioner. He is involved especially in negotiations with Sioux leaders, for instance Red Cloud, and is only partially successful in resolving misunderstandings with the Indians. Parker resigns in 1871 after accusations of fraud have been levelled at him.
1869, May 10. Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads meet at Promontory Point, Utah, marking the completion of the first transcontinental railway.
1870—90s. Ghost Dance religion, the revitalization movement to unite Indian tribes. A result was the tragedy at Wounded Knee.
1871, April 30. Massacre of 144 Avaraipa Apache near Camp Grant Arizona. Following an agreement between Eskiminzin, head chief of the Avaraipa Apache, and Lieutenant Royal E. Whitman, the Avaraipa settle near Whitman's camp, giving up their firearms. Responding to a raid by another group of Apaches on a US settlement, a group of 140 men led by William S. Oury from Tucson attack the camp and kill most of the Avaraipa women and children.
1873, October 3. Execution of Captain Jack or Kintpuash, leader of the Modocs, in the War of 1872—73 in the lava beds of northern California. Captain Jack had led his men against the United States army in an attempt to avoid moving from California to Oregon, then to avoid surrendering Hooker Jim, a Modoc responsible for the reprisal killing of Americans. At the time of Captain Jack's surrender on June 1 he was the leader of 71 Indians facing 985 US soldiers; the 153 Modocs remaining after Captain Jack's death are sent into exile in Indian Territory.
1876. Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, including substantial collections made by Spencer F. Baird for the Smithsonian Institution.
1876, June 25. Battle of the Little Bighorn and the Custer massacre. The Indians summarily defeat the American forces.
1876, September 9. Battle of Slim Buttes. The rout of American Horse's village of Oglalas and Miniconjous followed by the death of American Horse.
1877, September 5. Death of Crazy Horse, last of the Sioux war chiefs. He was pursued by Colonel Nelson Miles and General George Crook before being persuaded to surrender to Crook through the promise of a reservation in the Powder River country; however, later in the year, he became disillusioned and decided to leave the camp. He is captured, taken to Fort Robinson, Nebraska, and killed during a scuffle.
1879. End of the Great Surveys and formation of the Bureau of Ethnology, later the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE).
1879, November 1. Opening of the first nonreservation residential school at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with 136 pupils from Rosebud, Pine Ridge and other reservations, through the efforts of General R. H. Pratt.
1886, September 4. Surrender of Geronimo, the Chiricahua Apache leader, marking the end of Indian warfare in the United States.
1887, February 8. Dawes (or General Allotment) Act. This provides for the division of Indian reservations: 160 acres are to go to each family after 25 years of occupation. Between 1887 and 1934 the amount of tribally held lands is reduced from 138,000,000 to 48,000,000 acres.
1890, December 29. Battle of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Massacre of the Sioux, following their surrender, by Major James W. Forsyth. This brings to an end the disturbances caused by the Ghost Dance religion among western Indians.
1893. Columbian International Exposition. The anthropological exhibits organized by E. W. Putnam include Kwakiutl, Penobscot, Apache, Navaho, Iroquois, and 58 Labrador Inuit, as well as innumerable people from Africa, Malaya, Asia, the Pacific and South America.
1898—1900. Alaskan gold rush. In the first Alaskan census of 1880, 430 people out of the total of 33,426 were white. There is an influx of 30,000 whites in a brief period — the first substantial settlement of the territory.
1898. Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition (Indian Congress) held in Omaha, Nebraska. Photographs of Indians by A. F. Muhr are copyrighted by the official exposition photographer, F. A. Rinehart.
1901. The Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, NY. Seven hundred Indians from 42 tribes include US prisoners Geronimo and Crazy Snake.
1904. Louisiana Purchase Universal Exhibition, St Louis, Missouri, held to celebrate its 100th anniversary. The anthropological section, organized by W. J. McGee, includes Cocopa, Dakota, Pawnee, Puebloan, Pima and Northwest Coast people as well as representatives of the peoples of the Philippines, Patagonia, Ainux and Africans.
1907, November 16. Oklahoma becomes a state. Set aside as Indian Territory in 1834 to receive the displaced peoples from east of the Mississippi, nevertheless in 1889 it was opened to homestead settlement, and in 1890 organized as a territory. As Indian Territory, Oklahoma was used as a place to send unwanted Indian tribes — from the west as well as the east, from the north as well as the south.
These tribe listings by cultural area follow the National Geographic Society map The Indians of North America (1979), except that the Woodlands and Plains have been further subdivided. Although it overlaps with the Southern Plains and the Southeastern cultures, the Indian Territory has also been included as it was an important photographic center. Only those states which have special relevance to the history of photography of the North American Indians are featured on the map, and only those tribes generally found in photographs are listed here. Many, such as the Dakota/Sioux and the Apache, have further subdivisions. Textual references to these divisions are always accompanied by the name of the larger tribal affiliation. For a detailed breakdown of tribes, specialized sources should be consulted.
World History
