On This Day
Native American genocide  Native American

Source. Indigenous Peoples Issues and Resources

On This Day (5/14/1864): In 1864 a group of Cheyenne were hunting on their traditional grounds in Kansas when they encountered a group of soldiers. Lean Bear (Awoninahku) and a group of the Cheyenne peacefully approached the soldiers to talk with them. On his chest, Lean Bear wore with pride his peace medal that he had received on his trip to Washington D.C. in 1862, and in his hand he held an official document, signed by President Abraham Lincoln, stating that he was peaceful and friendly with whites. They were unarmed, and Lean Bear approached the soldiers alone to show his peaceful intentions. The soldiers, under the command of Lieutenant George Eayre, had been ordered by Colonel John M. Chivington, to kill Indians on sight, and Eayre ordered his men to shoot Lean Bear. Lean Bear was shot off his horse, and was then shot repeatedly by the soldiers as he lay on the ground. Lean Bear was killed, along with several others. The troops were composed of Colorado volunteers, but the fight took place in Kansas, meaning that the troops opened fire outside of their jurisdiction.

26 May 1637..The Pilgrims made famous by Thanksgiving legend and folklore sneaked into a Pequot village of 700 women and children just before dawn and set it ablaze.. A circle of musketmen surrounded the village and shot any of the natives attempting to flee the fire. Hundreds of Native AMERICAN Babies, Toddlers, Tykes, Preteens, and Teens were butchered in a matter of a couple hours................ 29 November 1864.. 700 Soldiers wearing US Army uniforms led by John Chivington attacked a peaceful Arapaho/Cheyenne encampment at Sand Creek Colorado..There were 200 Native AMERICANS in the village with 2/3 of them being women and Children under 12..In a bloodlust frenzy US Soldiers butchered over 100 women , babies and children....................

29 Decemeber 1890, Dawn @ Wounded Knee Creek ,South Dakota. 7th Calvery, US Army .....500 Calvery Soldiers with 22 artillery men with 4 hotchkiss guns led by James Forsyth opened fire on a Peaceful Lakota encampment of 300 souls. Over 200 Native AMERICAN women, Babies and children were butchered by US Soldiers in the annihilation of the Lakota village. Many of the women were found laying over the babies protecting them...These are just three massacres of hundreds carried out against Native AMERICANS in the name of GOD..All so white man could steal this continent and all it's wealth from the Native AMERICANS..!

On This Day (5/21/1877): In 1877 the US Government ordered the Ponca to move to a new reservation in Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) in retaliation for the Custer defeat. The Ponca had nothing to do with the battle, and refused, citing an earlier 1858 treaty. The Government ignored the Ponca chiefs, and forced them to move to lands that were unsuitable for agriculture. In their new location, the Ponca struggled with malaria, a shortage of food and the hot climate. One in four members died within the first year.

On This Day (5/19/1848): In 1848 Mexico ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (signed on February 2, 1848) in which they ceded California, Nevada, Utah and parts of six other modern-day states to the United States for $15 million. No indigenous groups were consulted in this massive transfer of land. Articles VIII and IX of the treaty ensured the safety of existing property rights of Mexican citizens living in the transferred territories, yet no part of the treaty considered the indigenous people or their rights in the lands transferred

On This Day (5/15/1850): In 1850 the Bloody Island Massacre (also called the Clear Lake Massacre) occurred on an island called in the Pomo language, Bo-no-po-ti or Badon-napo-ti (Old Island), at the north end of Clear Lake, Lake County, California. It was a place where the Pomo had traditionally gathered for ceremonies. After this event, it became known as Bloody Island. When the cavalry came upon a group of Pomo on Bonopoti, they slaughtered many including women and children. Estimates of the number of people killed on the island vary between 60 and 400. The army later killed 75 more Natives along the Russian River.

On This Day (5/14/1832): In 1832 the Battle of Stillman's Run, also known as the Battle of Sycamore Creek or the Battle of Old Man's Creek took place. The battle was named for Major Isaiah Stillman and his detachment of 275 Illinois militia which fled in a panic from a large number of Sauk warriors after suffering a major defeat. The engagement was the first battle of the 1832 Black Hawk War which had ignited after Black Hawk crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois with his "British Band" of Sauk and Fox. Following a failed attempt at truce negotiations by emissaries sent by Black Hawk, the militia pursued a group of Sauk scouts back to the main British Band camp. During the engagement 12 militia men were killed while making a stand on a small hill. The rest of the militia fled back to Dixon's Ferry where they spread news of a terrible slaughter at Stillman's Run.

On This Day (5/13/1859): In 1859 Captain Earl Van Dorn and his troops attacked a band of Comanche in the Valley of Nessentunga, Kansas. The Penateka band of Comanche, under the leadership of Buffalo Hump, were unprepared for the attack, as they were peacefully engaged in their spring food gathering activities. Forty-nine Comanche warriors were killed in the battle, and thirty-two women were taken prisoner. A few weeks earlier, Buffalo Hump and his band had signed a formal peace treaty with the U.S. at Fort Arbuckle. After the attack, Buffalo Hump led his band to the Kiowa-Comanche reservation in Oklahoma where in spite of his enormous sadness at the end of the Comanches' traditional way of life, he asked for a house and farmland so that he could set an example for his people.

On This Day (5/12/1858): In 1858 the Massacre of Little Robe Creek, also called the Battle of Antelope Hills, took place on Little Robe Creek in Oklahoma. The battle was undertaken against the laws of the United States at the time, which strictly forbade such an incursion into the Indian Territories of Oklahoma by Texas Rangers, and marked a significant escalation of the Indian Wars. Comanche Chief Iron Jacket and 75 other Comanche warriors were killed. The U.S. Army would adopt many of the tactics used in the battle, including attacking women and children, as well as destroying their food supply, the Buffalo.

On This Day (5/4/1863): In 1863 770 Santee Sioux boarded a steamboat in St. Paul, Minnesota for Dakota Territory. The Santee Sioux were forced to move after their lands and reservations were abolished by the US Congress as a result of the Minnesota Uprising (also known as the Dakota War of 1862). Over 1,300 Santee Sioux were forced to move to lands that could barely support life. During the first year, over 300 Santee Sioux died because of the conditions on the new reservations.

On This Day (4/24/1885): In 1885 at Fish Creek, Saskatchewan, 200 Métis achieved a remarkable victory over a superior government force numbering 900 soldiers who were sent to quell the rebellion, which was part of the North-West Rebellion in Saskatchewan. The reversal, though not decisive enough to alter the outcome of the war, temporarily halted Major General Frederick Middleton's column's advance on Batoche, which is where the Métis would later make their final stand

On This Day (4/19/1884): In 1884 an amendment to the Indian Act in Canada was passed making the potlatch illegal. Largely passed at the urging of missionaries and government agents who considered it "a worse than useless custom" that was seen as wasteful, unproductive, and contrary to "civilized" values. Section 3 of the Act read, "Every Indian or other person who engages in or assists in celebrating the Indian festival known as the "Potlatch" or the Indian dance known as the "Tamanawas" is guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be liable to imprisonment for a term not more than six nor less than two months in any goal or other place of confinement; and, any Indian or other person who encourages, either directly or indirectly, an Indian or Indians to get up such a festival or dance, or to celebrate the same, or who shall assist in the celebration of same is guilty of a like offence, and shall be liable to the same punishment." The ban was only repealed in 1951.

On This Day (3/18/1877): In 1877 the Battle of Yellow House Canyon took place near present-day Lubbock, Texas. It was a battle between a force of Comanches and Apaches and a group of bison hunters. It was the final battle of the Buffalo Hunters' War, and was the last major fight between non-Natives and Native Americans on the High Plains of Texas. On February 1, 1877, Marshall Sewell discovered a herd of buffalo, and after setting up station, picked the animals off one by one with his rifle before running out of ammunition. Black Horse witnessed this, and with his warriors surrounded the hunter on his way back to camp and killed him for his senseless slaughter of the buffalo. In retaliation, local buffalo hunters attacked the Comanche and Apache camp, killing 21 and wounding another 20+ people. During the 19th century bison were relentlessly killed and slaughtered by the US Army, commercial agents, and others in an attempt to starve Native peoples and open land for cattle. The total number of bison killed is unknown, but some statistics paint a gruesome picture: one professional hunter killed 20,000 on his own, and commercial hide firms were killing between 2,000 to 100,000 bison PER DAY.

On This Day (3/9/1728): In 1728 the remaining Yamassee people were attacked by Colonel John Parker and 250 Carolina volunteers near St. Augustine, Florida. The Yamasee had fled south from their traditional homelands in coastal Georgia after the Yamasee war with the British. Over 30 warriors were killed, and most of the other Yamassee were taken to become slaves. A few are reported to have escaped and to have joined the Seminoles. Today, the Yamassee are considered an extinct Native tribe by the federal government – however, Yamassee descendants continue to keep Yamassee culture and heritage alive in parts of Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas.

On This Day (3/8/1782): In 1782 the Gnadenhutten massacre, also known as the Moravian massacre took place. It was the killing of ninety-six Lenape (Delaware) by colonial American militia from Pennsylvania during the American Revolutionary War. The incident took place at the Moravian missionary village of Gnadenhütten, Ohio, near present-day Gnadenhutten. The Lenape were going hungry because of insufficient rations, so in February 1782, more than 100 returned to their old Moravian villages to harvest the crops and collect stored food they had been forced to leave behind. In early March, the Lenape were surprised by a raiding party of 160 Pennsylvania militia led by Lieutenant Colonel David Williamson. The militia rounded up the Lenape and accused them of taking part in raids into Pennsylvania. Although the Lenape denied the charges, the militia held a council and voted to kill them. The next morning on March 8, the militia tied the Lenape, stunned them with mallet blows to the head, and killed them with fatal scalping cuts. In all, the militia murdered and scalped 28 men, 29 women, and 39 children. They piled the bodies in the mission buildings and burned the village down.

On This Day (1/24/1848): In 1848 the California Gold Rush began. The gold rush started when James W. Marshall found gold at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California. Over the next two years, over 300,000 people arrived in California looking for gold. The human and environmental costs of the Gold Rush were substantial. Native Americans, dependent on traditional hunting, gathering and agriculture, became the victims of starvation and disease, as gravel, silt and toxic chemicals from prospecting operations killed fish and destroyed habitats and the surge in miners brought new diseases to the area. The explosion in the mining population also resulted in the disappearance of game and food gathering locales as gold camps and other settlements were built amidst them. Later farming spread to supply the camps, taking more land from the use of Native Americans. In 1850 The Act for the Government and Protection of Indians was passed by the California Legislature, which allowed settlers to continue the Californio practice of capturing and using Native people as bonded workers. It also provided the basis for the enslavement and trafficking in Native American labor, particularly that of young women and children, which was carried on as a legal business enterprise. Native American villages were regularly raided to supply the demand, and young women and children were carried off to be sold, the men and remaining people often being killed in genocidal attacks. To this day, Native peoples of California have never been compensated for the millions of dollars in gold taken from their lands, the theft of their land, or for the genocide perpetuated upon them.

On This Day (1/19/1847): In 1847 the Taos Revolt began. This was an effort by Pueblo and Mexican peoples against the United States’ occupation of present-day northern New Mexico. Over the course of the following months, several campaigns took place, during which the United States military killed over 100 Pueblo people, wounded over 250, and captured more than 400. The following year the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed between Mexico and the United States, in which present-day New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado were given to the United States, all without any consent or acknowledgement of the indigenous populations.

On This Day: In 1791 Delaware and Wyandot Natives successfully attacked and defeated an Ohio Company of Associates settlement on their traditional lands. The attack took place near present-day Stockport now in Morgan County, Ohio. The Ohio Company of Associates was a group of people from New England who purchased land from the United States and promoted Western expansion. The Company never properly obtained the land from the Native people, and tensions quickly rose as more and more settlers moved onto traditional lands of the Delaware and Wyandot peoples. The attack is known as a massacre in standard history books because of the twelve settlers that were killed. No mention, however, is made in history books or on historical markers about the illegal taking and settling of the Native land, nor the violation of two previous treaties between the tribes and the U.S. government