Native Americans in the United States Timeline of Events

Home / Timelines / Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as intact political communities...

Timeline of Events

1614

4.5.1614

In Virginia, Native American Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe.

1635

10.9.1635

Founder of Rhode Island Roger Williams is banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a religious dissident after he speaks out against punishments for religious offenses and giving away Native American land.

1636

12.13.1636

The Massachusetts Bay Colony organizes three militia regiments to defend the colony against the Pequot Indians. This organization is recognized today as the founding of the United States National Guard.

1637

5.26.1637

Pequot War: A combined Protestant and Mohegan force under English Captain John Mason attacks a Pequot village in Connecticut, massacring approximately 500 Native Americans.

1778

9.17.1778

The Treaty of Fort Pitt is signed. It is the first formal treaty between the United States and a Native American tribe (the Lenape or Delaware Indians).

1782

3.8.1782

Gnadenhütten massacre: Ninety-six Native Americans in Gnadenhutten, Ohio, who had converted to Christianity are killed by Pennsylvania militiamen in retaliation for raids carried out by other Indians.

1791

11.4.1791

The Western Confederacy of American Indians wins a major victory over the United States in the Battle of the Wabash.

1830

5.28.1830

President Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act which relocates Native Americans.

1832

4.8.1832

Black Hawk War: Around three-hundred United States 6th Infantry troops leave St. Louis, Missouri to fight the Sauk Native Americans.

1870

1.23.1870

In Montana, U.S. cavalrymen kill 173 Native Americans, mostly women and children, in the Marias Massacre.

1876

1.31.1876

The United States orders all Native Americans to move into reservations.

1887

2.8.1887

The Dawes Act authorizes the President of the United States to survey Native American tribal land and divide it into individual allotments.

1911

8.29.1911

Ishi, considered the last Native American to make contact with European Americans, emerges from the wilderness of northeastern California.

1924

6.2.1924

U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs the Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States.

1929

3.4.1929

Charles Curtis becomes the first native-American Vice President of the United States.

1962

6.14.1962

The New Mexico Supreme Court in the case of Montoya v. Bolack, 70 N.M. 196, prohibits state and local governments from denying Indians the right to vote because they live on a reservation.