timeline

ABBREVIATED HISTORICAL TIMELINE OF INDIAN HISTORY Adapted from: []

1990 Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act (Public Law 101-601), United States, requires museums and federal agencies to return human remains, funerary and sacred objects and objects of cultural patrimony to tribes that can show they had belonged to the tribe and had been removed without the tribe's consent. Trafficking in human remains is prohibited.

1987 Congress passes the Indian Gaming Act limiting tribes to gaming ventures allowed by states.

1978 Indian Child Welfare Act, United States, protecting Indian tribes' interest in retaining custody of their children.

1975 Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, establishing policy to permit greater governmental and administrative powers to Indian tribes.

1968 American Indian Movement founded in Minneapolis

1960 Canada grants citizenship to Indians.

1949-1960 Relocation. The Bureau of Indian Affairs relocated some 35,000 Indians from reservations to cities.

1934 Wheeler-Howard (Indian Reorganization) Act, permitted tribes to organize and write constitutions for self- government, and directed the government to consolidate and conserve Indian lands, and encouraged education and economic plans for Indians; the Johnson-O'Malley Act authorized contracts with states to administer educational, medical, and welfare programs on Indian reservations. In 1974, the Johnson-O'Malley Act was amended to encourage Indian direction of such programs.

1924 United States Indians given citizenship, although right to vote denied by several states; Utah the last to enfranchise Indians, in 1960, in state elections.

1906 United States Antiquities Act establishes national jurisdiction over antiquities.

1903 Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock, the Supreme Court ruled that Lone Wolf, a Kiowa, could not obstruct the implementation of allotment on Kiowa land, regardless of Kiowa consent: the case established Congress' power to unilaterally break treaties. The Court declared the Indians to be "an ignorant and dependent race" that must be governed by the "Christian people" of the United States.

1902 Cherokee Nation v. Hitchcock, the Supreme Court held the United States has the power to overrule Cherokee laws.

1890 Ghost Dance Movement led by the Paiute prophet Wovoka gains influence among western Indians. At Wounded Knee, United States troops massacre 300+ Sioux Indians en route to a Ghost Dance celebration.

1887 Dawes Allotment Act, authorizes the break-up of Indian reservations into individual allotments usually of 160 acres, and the sale of "surplus" lands remaining after enrolled tribal members had received allotments (no provision for later generations)

1884 Congress acknowledges the rights of Eskimos to Alaskan territorial lands. 1881 Sitting Bull and his band of 187 surrender to officials at Fort Buford, North Dakota.

1879 Richard Pratt founds the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, with the philosophy of assimilating Indians into white culture.

1879-85 Many "Friends of the Indian" organizations are founded, including Indian Protection Committee, Indian Rights Association, Women's National Indian Association, and National Indian Defense Association.

1877 Flight of the Nez Perce under Chief Joseph in the Northwest.

1876-77 Sioux War for the Black Hills, involving the Sioux, Cheyennes, and Arapahos, under Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. In 1876, the Battle of Little Bighorn.

1871 Gold discovered in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Treaties protecting Indian lands ignored by miners.

1869-70 Smallpox epidemic among Canadian Plains Indian including Blackfeet, Piegans, and Bloods.

1868 Indians are denied the right to vote as a result of the 14th Amendment.

1867 "Peace Commission" makes a survey of Indian affairs and recommends that the current treaty process be abandoned. This commission and the Nez Perce Indians negotiate the last of 370 treaties between the federal government and tribes.

1862-63 Santee Sioux stage an uprising in Minnesota under Chief Little Crow. In 1863-64, it spreads to North Dakota and involves the Teton Sioux as well. Thirty-eight Indians are sentenced and hanged.

1853-56 United States acquires 174 million acres of Indian lands through 52 treaties, all of which are subsequently broken by whites.

1844 The first issues of the Cherokee Advocate are published in Oklahoma. Federal soldiers confiscate the press.

1835 Texas declares itself a republic independent from Mexico. The Texas Rangers are organized to campaign against the Comanches.

1834 Congress reorganizes the Indian offices, creating the U.S. Department of Indian Affairs (still within the War Department). The Trade and Intercourse Act redefines the Indian Territory and Permanent Indian Frontier, and gives the army the right to quarantine Indians.

1831 Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the Indians form "domestic dependent nations" over which the United States is guardian, as over wards.

1830 Indian Removal Act narrowly passes Congress, calling for relocation of eastern Indians to an Indian territory west of the Mississippi River. Cherokees contest it in court, and in 1832, the Supreme Court decides in their favor, but Andrew Jackson ignores the decision. From 1831-39, the Five Civilized tribes of the Southeast are relocated to the Indian Territory. The Cherokee "Trail of Tears" takes place in 1838-39.

1789 U.S. Constitution, several clauses relate the importance and place of American Indians in the new republic.