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Jesuits are religious people who wanted to bring Christianity to new lands and built their ministries in order to convert Native people to their religion.  After the discovery of the new world, they started coming to South and North America.  They thought they were doing well, but most of the Native people did not take their religion.

Pocahontas, one of he most famous Native American woman in American History is born. Her legend lives on to today!

Massasoit who was also called Ousamequin which  means "yellow feather," was a chief of the Wampanoag tribe. He is famous for signing the first of many Indian treaties with white man. He did that on March 22, 1621 when he signed the peace treaty with Pilgrims.

Samoset was the first Indian who actually   had contact with Pilgrims.  He even new some English. He learned that from some fisherman in Main where his tribe the Algonquin lived.  He stayed with Pilgrims for couple of days and than returned with Squanto. In 1621 he signed  the  land deed , giving  twelve thousand acres to the Pilgrims.

The First Thanksgiving was not really the true event. There was a feast about that time but it was not something they did every year. For Pilgrims Thanksgiving was a religious service and not a huge feast. The huge three day feast they had in 1621 was probably a celebration of the harvest after a very difficult year.

Opechancanough uncle to Pocahontas and brother to Powhatan, decided to attack colonists after seeing their pattern of encroaching on Native Lands

Joliet and  Marquette were explorers who went up and down Mississippi river and made a map of the Mississippi River as far south as the Arkansas River. Native American guides helped them.

William Penn  was  a Quaker. You may recognize his name since the state of Pennsylvania was named after him.  signed a treaty with the Delaware Indians.  Quakers did not believe in wars and believed at the freedom of religion. So, the treaty was supposed to protect Delaware's land and religion. At the same time it would allow Quakers to live on the land peacefully.

Tuscarora Indians lived in North Carolina. For many years they were friends   with the colonists. Then some white settlers began to take advantage of the Tuscaroras,. They started taking more and more of their farmland, started cheating when they were trading. There were even reports of white people taking and selling Indian kids to slavery. Tuscarora had enough and they attacked farms in 1711. The war started. Colonists were helped by another Indian tribe. The last battle was in 1717 when colonists captain Moore rode into Tuscarora village and killed or captured more than 1,000 villagers.

Pequot Indians were moved from their land to the new piece of land  bear New Haven, Connecticut.  In 1655, the Pequot were resettled onto a strip of land near New Haven. But, colonist did not treat them fairly in their new land. They took away land for new farms, cut down trees on their land, and stole Pequot's crops. To solve problems, Pequots asked the Governor to help them. This is the first time that Native people petitioned government of new land to settle their issues.

French and Indian War was one of the first events that started the make up of America like kit is today. In this war French and many Indian tribes fought against British.  The biggest reason for the war was that French fur traders wanted to get rid of British fur traders in the Ohio valley. In the first parts of the war, French and Indians were winning. They knew more about the countryside and had better equipment to fight in the wilderness. British, with their shiny red coats were not ready to fight this kind of war. But as the war went on, British got better at it and at the end they won the war. But, war was very costly and it resulted  in tax acts on colonist that at the end led to the American revolution.

Often people think that Indians and colonists just fought. But that is not correct. In many cases Indians were helpful and friendly to new colonists. But many colonists considered themselves better than Indians. They thought Indian life was savage and uncivilized. One of the large tribes was Cherokees. They supported British during the French and Indian war. But, British were not always fair to them. In 1760 British and Cherokees had a big argument with British over some wild horses. In that argument British killed a tribesmen. Chief Oconostota was angry, so he decided to start raiding British farms and settlements. British fought back. To try to help situation King George III invited Cherokees to see him in England.

Cherokee group that arrived in London in 1762 gave the English their first real look at natives from the New World. It also gave Indians an idea of where colonists came from.

The Treaty of Paris signed in 1763, ended the French and Indian War. It also gave large portion  of Algonquian Indian land to Britain. This angered the great chief Pontiac. Pontiac, leader of a league of 18 Algonquian-speaking tribes, began a war against the British.

Through this proclamation settlements of east North America became British colonies. The Proclamation of 1763  separated Indian land from British colonies at the Appalachian mountains. Before this proclamation European settlers claimed that their land was from "sea-to-sea" . This proclamation actually gave Indians right to some of their land.

Chief Pontiac rebelled against settlers. This is known as Pontiac's Rebellion. On December 14, 1763, bunch of settlers from Paxton, Pennsylvania, raided a tribe of peaceful Conestoga Indians. They  burned down  their village and killed six peaceful tribe members. They did this because they were angry at Pontiac and his tribe and wanted to take revenge on all Indians. They really did not care that Conestoga did not side with Pontiac. The settlers thought all Indians the same.

The Iroquois League was made of six Native American tribes that joined together  to protect themselves and make their lives betters.  During the Revolutionary War (1775-1783), the Iroquois League decided to side with the British against the Americans and helped British by attacking colonists. This helped British in the beginning of the American revolution when they were winning.

Great Sioux Nation gets large and powerful. They rule the northern Plains,  of North and South Dakota and Nebraska.

Settlers that are going west keep killing the buffalo. Buffalo is the important animal for Sioux because they use it for everything including food and clothes.  By this time there is almost no buffalo left!

Sacagawea was a Shoshone who was captured as a child by Minnetaree Indians. In 1804 the same year in which the Lewis and Clark expedition hired her as a guide. Her knowledge and wisdom helped Lewis and Clark successfully complete their exploration.

William Henry Harrison took a militia of a thousand men and marched on the Indian settlement of Prophetstown. This settlement was made by the famous chief Tecumseh.

At the Broken Arrow Council, Creek Indians decided to put a stop on selling their land. They made a law that said if you sell Creek land you will be sentenced to death.  Unfortunately, they couldn't stop the white settlers from taking over because the United States government kept passing laws slowly taking their land away

The famous battle of the Horseshoe Bend left 750 Creeks lay dead. US Army was led by the  major General Andrew Jackson.  The battle ended Creek military power in the South, and made it easier for settlers to steal the land.

On February 12, 1825  Creek Indian Chief  William McIntosh signed the Treaty of Indian Springs. This treaty  resulted in state of Georgia getting most of the Creek land.

In August, 1825 the grand council at Prairie du Chien met in Wisconsin. Members of  Chippewa, Sauk, Fox, Menominee, Iowa, Sioux, Winnebago, Ottawa, and Potawatomi tribes came together at this event. The tribes made an agreement with government representatives to set specific boundaries for their land. Unfortunately for them,  they gave the U.S. government the right to figure out the final boundaries. This resulted in most of the Indian land being given to settlers. Many tribes had to relocate because they had no place to hunt and no source for food.

Cherokees started their own newspaper named Phoenix . It was written  English and Cherokee and helped keep the tribes informed. Cherokee alphabet was invented by Sequoya in late 18th century. This was very important because it helped save the native language.

In 1830 US Government passed an Indian Removal Act. This acted decided that all Indians living east of the Mississippi river had to relocate somewhere else and give up their  land to settlers.  They were relocating to the new land for Indians in what today is Oklahoma.Tribes that had to move were  Shawnee, Potawatomis, Sacs and Foxes, Kickapoos, and Winnebagos.

Trail of Tears was one of the most horrible events in the Indian history.President Andrew Jackson ordered  federal troops to remove the Cherokees and some other Tribes from their land in Georgia and send them to new land. He had no right to do that because the US Supreme Court had two cases (Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831) and Worcester v. Georgia (1832)) in which they said that Cherokees have right to stay on their land. Jackson did not care. He order to remove Cherokees during the very cold winter of 1838. The Trail of Tears resulted in huge number of deaths.

Black Hawk  was the leader  of the Sauk Indians in Illinois. He wanted to stop the settlers coming to their land. So, he decided to support   the British in the war against Americans.  They started attacking Americans.  The battle ended the  in the The Battle of Bad Axe. Most of the Sauk warriors were killed and Black Hawk was captured.

When Andrew Jackson became President, he decided to force Seminoles to move out of Florida.  Seminoles refused. They  were also giving refuge to runaway slaves. Jackson sent the Army  and they attacked, terrorized, and tortured Seminoles. They even arrested Osceola while he was waving the white flag which is the sign of truce.

The first wagon train set out on the long trail across the plains and through the Rocky Mountains  and started what we know as the Oregon trail. By 1845 more than five thousand pioneers had made the journey.

Gold is discovered at Sutter's Mill, California.  Indians attacked mining camps for food. Indians caused so much trouble for miners, that in 1851 the governor of California allowed miners to attack and kill California Indians.

Treaty of Fort Laramie was signed between the U.S. government and several Plains tribes .This Treaty forced the Indians to agree to allow settlers to pass through their territory on their way to the far west.

The Brule Sioux  in Wyoming started attacking whites. This started a war with the US army.

Navajo Indians and American military start the  Navajo War. During a final standoff at Canyon de Chelly  Navajo surrendered  to Kit Carson and his troops. Carson ordered that Indian property be destroyed  and sent them to Reservation. Their journey is known as  the Long Walk of the Navajo.

American Civil War Begins. Many tribes  side with the south because they promised to respect Indian land.  After the end of the War, the U.S. government punished Indians by taking their land away.

Cheyenne and Arapaho wanted to surrender when they were attacked . This is known as the Sand Creek Massacre. US Army killed more than 120 people. Those were mostly women and children.

In return for the Sand Creek Massacre Plains tribes came together and declared war on the United States.

Attacks by the Red Cloud close the Bozeman Trail. This was an important trail that  led to the Montana gold mines.

Treaty of Medicine Lodge was signed  between U.S. and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Nations. They agreed to send the two tribes  to a reservation in Indian Territory. Their reservation is created out of lands taken from the tribes who had been forced to give them up because of they supported  the South during the Civil War.

Sioux Indians sign a treaty that gave them rights to the Black Hills of Dakota.

Union Pacific Railroad gets the right of way through the Green River Valley over the Indian territory.

George Custer fights Battle of the Washita in November 1868. This was a raid on Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle's camp on Oklahoma. They did those as a pay back for Cheyenne raids on Kansas settlements.

The Buffalo War was the last try by the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Comanche and Kiowa to save the  buffalo herds from poachers.

Expedition led by George A. Custer discovers gold in the Black Hills, which were given to Sioux. Gold miners swarmed in and Sioux went on the war path.

On June 25, George Custer and his soldiers attacked a camp of several Indian tribes on a Little Big Horn River in Montana. Indians fought back and  defeat Custer and the 7th Cavalry. General Custer and 250 soldiers were killed.

Nez Perce fought a war against the US army until they finally surrendered. The U.S. government makes them relocate to Indian Territory. This also meant that the US government  broke its promise to allow them to return to their land.

After fighting US government for more than 20 years, Geronimo is  sent by train to Florida and put in prison at St. Augustine.

Act was passed that forced Indians to live on small family farms. Every Indian would receive 160 acres of land. The remaining land would be sold. This way the ancient way of living in tribes was over. Also, there was a lot of land for new white settlers. Within the first ten years of this act more than 80 million acres of Indian land were given to whites.

An act of the U.S. Congress in March 1889 was made in order to  split the Great Sioux Reservation into six smaller reservations. The same year, South Dakota becomes a state.

Massacre at the Wounded Kneed Creek  happened after the Lakota Sioux held the Ghost Dance to send away the whites. Indian Agent asked for the troops. They came and started firing at Sioux, including women and children.  More than 200 people were killed.This was the last major war  between the U.S. Army and the Great Sioux Nation.

U.S. government decided to make Indians  "civilized" . They did this by sending Indian kids away to boarding schools. There they burned their clothes and cut their hair. They were not allowed to speak their language.

The Citizenship Act was passed. This act made all Native American U.S. citizens.  Also, they funded the research that discovered the Indians were living in poverty and even starving. This report made Congress increase funding for Indian health and education.

Indian Reorganization Act allows the teaching of art  and culture in  Indian schools Tribes are required to adopt a tribal constitution.

Termination Policy  meant that US government does not have to aid tribes any more. They stopped health and education services and closed reservations. Often, Indians moved to cities. E By 1990, more than half  of Indians lived in cities.

President Richard Nixon  ended the Termination policy. Indian tribes could now get help from the government.