Key Events in the native north american history

TIMELINE FOR IMPORTANT EVENTS IN NATIVE NORTH AMERICAN HISTORY

1530s-1920s   “The Great Dying”: “Virgin Soil” epidemics reduce the populations of what is now the United States and Canada to 2% of its pre-contact levels, e.g., from ca. 12,000,000 to 250,000.

1778 – 1869: The U.S. Government negotiates Treaties with representatives of indigenous nations of North America. The treaties are ratified by the Senate and proclaimed by the President, thus giving them the same status as treaties with foreign nations. Through these treaties, the United States recognizes the sovereignty of native nations.

1794: The U.S. Government negotiates the “Pickering Treaty” of Peace and Friendship (named for the treaty negotiator) with the Six Nations, the Hodenosaunee (Iroquois). The Hodenosaunee commemorate this Treaty in a wampum belt.

1530s – 1800 – A “fur and skin trade” flourishes in much of the eastern United States and Canada.  Indians supply beaver, otter and ermine pelts and deer hides. Traders ship them to settlements and especially overseas to Europe.

1700 – 1861: A “plantation economy” is established in much of the southeastern United States and gradually supplants the skin trade. Crops are sugar cane, indigo and tobacco. Native Southeastern groups such as the Cherokee successfully compete with non-Indians. Some become wealthy plantation and slave owners.

1828: Gold is discovered in Georgia. Gold-seekers flood into Georgia and into the Cherokee Nation.

1829: The State of Georgia confiscates Indian lands within its borders; declares laws of Indian nations to be null and void; and abolishes the Cherokee Tribal Council.

1830: Congress passes the Indian Removal Act, authorizing removal of all Indians to “Indian Territory” west of the Mississippi. “Indian Territory” originally encompassed what is now Kansas and Oklahoma, but soon was shrunk to encompass only part of what is now Oklahoma.

1831-32: The U.S. Supreme Court hears several cases pertaining to Georgia’s actions of 1829. Chief Justice John Marshall issues the “Marshall Decisions”. These decisions affirm the sovereignty of Indian nations and the validity of treaties; declare the boundaries of Indian lands to be legally legitimate; and declare that Indian nations have a status higher than states. Therefore, states cannot confiscate Indian land; abolish Indian governments; or modify or nullify Indian law.

At the same time, the Marshall Decisions also declare that Indian nations are under the protection of the United States Government; that only the United States Government can deal with Indians unless it gives permission to states to do so; but that the United States Congress has the legal power to pass laws regulating Indian behavior and even abolishing Indian nations.

1830-1838: Many Indian groups resist removal. Some are successful, especially the Seminole and the Hodenosaunee, with the exception of one small group of Seneca and most of the Oneida.

1835: The U.S. Government finds some Cherokee leaders who sign a Treaty in which they agree to move west. Most Cherokee follow the lead of their elected chief, John Ross, and refuse to go. All except a few hundred are rounded up and forcibly marched at gun-point by the U.S. Army to Indian Territory, 1837-38. An estimated 10-15,000 die along the way.

1862: The U.S. Government adopts the “Reservation Policy”. All Indians are to be forced onto reservations or relocated to Indian Territory.

1869: The Government begins the “Forced Acculturation” policy. Indians are to be forced to abandon their languages, religions, social customs, and tribal organizations. This policy is implemented through government schools where only the Christian religion is taught and tolerated; children are punished for speaking their native languages; and they are forced to replace their own customs with those of average Anglo America.

1887: The Government adopts the “Allotment Policy” to go along with the “Forced Acculturation” policy. Indians are to either join the work force as semi-skilled or unskilled laborers or are to become yeoman farmers. The allotment policy dictates that reservations will be divided into tracts of land, mostly quarter-sections (40 acres), where Indian families are to build houses and start farms. The remaining acreage of the reservations is sold off, cheap (like, $1 an acre), to non-Indians for homesteading, or leased out to them, cheap (like 10-15 cents an acre per year for grazing.

For 25 years the Government will hold an allotment “in trust”. After 25 years the Indian owners will get title to it and can do whatever they want with it. Many are persuaded to sell, following unsuccessful efforts at farming. Some non-Indians end up with nice, large tracts of land, 2-300 acres of former allotments.

At the end of the allotment period, Indians collectively have lost more than 100,000 acres of reservation land. Some reservations end up with 95% of the land under non-Indian ownership.

1933: Franklin Roosevelt takes office as President and appoints idealist activist John Collier to head the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
1934-36: It is acknowledged that the Forced Acculturation/Allotment policies were disasters. Indian communities have the highest disease, death and poverty rates of any populations in the country. The Indian New Deal, through the Indian Reorganization Act, “freezes” allotments in trust status; stops the allotment process; stops forced acculturation; declares religious freedom for Indians; declares the equality and dignity of native cultures and languages; and sets up ways for Indian communities to have government-approved tribal governments.

1946-52: The Termination Era begins. The Indian New Deal policies are reversed. Congress declares that it wants to abolish Indian tribes and reservations and bring Indians into the cash economy as laborers. Indians are encouraged to move to cities. Over tribes, nations and communities are abolished, that is, they are declared to be no longer Indian.

1970-present: The Self-Determination Era begins. The U.S. Government abandons the Termination policy. It begins a process whereby Indians can be restored to federally recognized tribal status. There is an effort to promote economic development on Indian reservations. Tribal governments are permitted to take control of schools, law enforcement and environmental regulation if they want to do so. Congress specifically promotes development of natural resources, especially non-renewable ones on reservations and also gives the green light to casinos on reservations.

2003: Indians are largely an urban population. 600,000 live on reservations. 800,000 live in cities but maintain ties to Native communities or tribal affiliations. An additional 4-500,000 people have Native American heritage but no on-going ties to Native American communities and live mainly in cities.