Native+American+Timeline

=Timeline of Important Events:=

1492: Columbus and his crew are the first people to see the Native Americans. After describing them as an inferior race on good land, Columbus set up a hypocrisy to exploit Native Americans for nearly five centuries of hardships by numerous other civilizations. The Spanish, the Mexicans, and later, even the Americans all made life harder for the peaceful native inhabitants of America.

1500-1599: Native Americans of multiple tribes in the South are ravaged many times. Conquistadors slaughtered thousands of Natives while also bringing foreign diseases to them such as small pox. Thousands more died from this diseases and the living were either used as slaves or slaughtered for not conforming with the Spanish religions and traditions. Many tribes during this time did not want to swear eternal loyalty to the Spanish king and fought back with their arrows but the Spanish were quite great in numbers and had cavalry. The Europeans believed that the small pox disease killing off many Natives was a benevolent act of god to rid the world of the non-believing race. The Natives did resist though, or tried to at least. By the end of most of the Spanish attacks on the Natives in the early 1600’s, most tribes began to rebuild themselves. After the loss of many from sickness and battles, the rebuilding went slowly.

1600-1699: By this time, the first colonists began arriving from Europe in search of freedom and settled in Jamestown. About a year later, the colonists were dying of starvation but the local Natives brought food and supplies and soon got along. Sadly, the colonists brought with them many diseases which eventually killed off the tribe that tried to help them. Later, the small pox that ravaged the Natives of Jamestown nearly eliminated the entire native American population of New England. Many of the remaining, the Pequod Native Americans in Massachusetts were made into slaves but refused to do so. Thus the non working Pequod slaves were traded for black slaves from Bermuda. In the mid 1600’s, the first treaty between an Native American tribe and colonists was made. The Wampanoag tribe and the pilgrims in Plymouth signed the treaty granting peace between the two. This treaty was broken in 1675 when “King Philip’s War” began. The war started because Native Americans began fighting back when the colonists began expanding into their land. 3,000 natives were killed in a one year period.

1700-1799: This century was full of conflicts between tribes and settlers. The Tuscarora Indian War also began and lasted for two years starting in 1711. It was another war caused by the settlers taking Native American land. After multiple slaughters of both Native Americans and settlers, the Yamasee tribe in retaliation to settlers killing Native Americans, slaughters hundreds of Carolina citizens. This leads to the eventual downfall of the Yamasee tribe as South Carolina citizens overpower and destroy their tribe. In the 1751, French military forces from Canada caught and enslaved about 150 Native Americans. These Native Americans were kept in the French houses which were in what is today Illinois. The slaves were from many different tribes and considered themselves prisoners of war. Also, three years later, the first Indian reservation was created. During this time a similar thing was happening with the English. Settling way too fast for the Natives to handle, the native Americans retaliated by attacking English settlements. The conflict was so great that King George III made it law that English tribes couldn’t make settlements west of the Appalachian mountains. He did this to try to improve relationships with the Native Americans. At the end of the 1700’s, the Indian Trade and Intercourse Act was passed. It allowed free trade between Native American and non-natives. Also, it was made a crime for non-natives to harm a Native American. Lastly, Native American tribes were given the right to govern themselves. This was a huge step forward in Native American rights.

1808-1812: The Shawnee tribe founded a town called “Prophetstown” This town was made exclusively for other Native Americans who believed in keeping their cultures and religions strong for future generations. The citizens of Prophetstown. They believed that signing treaties could destroy their ways of life. They made a confederacy of Native American tribes who all wanted the same thing - turning the Ohio River into the boundary between the United States and Native American land. The governor of Ohio refused to let this happen and invaded the town and destroyed it and its civilians. Many speakers for Native American culture died.