
government developed the Bozeman Trail through Indian territory to allow miners and settlers access to gold in Montana Territory via the Powder River. When they set up camp at Sand Creek, volunteer Colorado soldiers attacked, scattering them while slaughtering 148 men, women and children.

The Sand Creek Massacre (1864) occurred after about 750 peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho led by Chief Black Kettle were forced to abandon their winter campsite near Fort Lyon in southeastern Colorado. The battle, known as the Black Hawk War, was a disaster for the Indians who were greatly outnumbered by the U.S. In 1832, Chief Black Hawk led around 1,000 Sauk and Fox Indians back to Illinois to reclaim their land. The involuntary relocation fueled the Indians’ anger toward the U.S. Over 3,000 Indians died on the grueling route, known as the Trail of Tears. In 1838, the government forcibly removed around 15,000 Cherokee from their homeland and made them walk more than 1,200 miles west. government to relocate Indians from their land east of the Mississippi River.

In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, allowing the U.S. After being outgunned and outnumbered, most of them agreed to move to Indian reservations in Oklahoma. The Third Seminole War (1855-1858) was the Seminole’s last stand. In the Second Seminole War (1835-1842), the Indians fought to retain their land in the Florida Everglades but were almost wiped out. In the First Seminole War (1816-1818), the Seminoles, assisted by runaway slaves, defended Spanish Florida against the U.S. The battle ended with the signing of the Treaty of Fort Jackson and the Creeks ceding almost two million acres of land. At the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in Alabama on March 27, American militia fought alongside Lower Creeks to defeat Upper Creeks. Tecumseh died in the battle, leading many Indians to abandon the British cause.īy 1814, pro-American Creeks (Lower Creeks) and Creeks who resented Americans (Upper Creeks) were fighting a civil war. At the Battle of Thames (one of many battles in the War of 1812) along the Thames River in Ontario, British troops and Tecumseh’s coalition were outnumbered and easily defeated again. Tecumseh’s defeat at the Battle of Tippecanoe led him to support the British. The War of 1812 was fought between Britain and the United States and their respective Indian allies. Harrison prevailed, however, and the Shawnee retreated north. Tecumseh’s brother, “The Prophet,” ignored the cease-fire and attacked. Territorial Governor William Henry Harrison led a force of soldiers and militia to destroy the Shawnee’s village but agreed to a temporary cease-fire. After the war, some Americans retaliated against those Indian tribes that had supported the British.Īt the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, Shawnee Chief Tecumseh formed a coalition to slow the flow of settlers into Illinois and Indiana. They were left out of peace talks and lost additional land. Others, including the Potawatomi and the Delaware, sided with American patriots.īut no matter which side they fought on, Native Americans were negatively impacted.

Many tribes such as the Iroquois, Shawnee, Cherokee and Creek fought with British loyalists. Indians had to choose sides or try to stay neutral when the American Revolution broke out. Two peace treaties forced the Cherokee to give up millions of acres of land to settlers, provoking them to fight for the British in the Revolutionary War, hoping to keep what land they had left.
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In 1759, a series of battles known as the Cherokee Wars began from the valleys of Virginia to North Carolina and southward. Army decisively defeated the Indians and the battle ended with the adoption of the Treaty of Greenville. The Battle of Fallen Timbers happened on August 20, 1794, along Ohio’s Maumee River between regional Indians (Miami, Shawnee, Lenape) and the United States. When a British retaliatory assault plan on Pontiac’s village was discovered, the Indians attacked and killed many British soldiers during the Battle of Bloody Run on July 31. During Pontiac's War, the Ottawa Chief Pontiac rallied support among other tribes and laid siege to Britain’s Fort Detroit. In 1763, Pontiac Indians of the Ohio River became incensed upon learning King George III expected them to become British loyalists.
