Indian Wars

The second major period of warfare between whites and Native Americans took place in the quarter century following the War of 1812; this was a transitional period dominated by the imposition and consequences of a new policy: the removal of Native American peoples to lands west of the Mississippi, referred to as Indian Territory. Although removal had been going on to some degree since the early 1800s, it was given new impetus by the Indian Removal Act of 1830, largely implemented during Andrew Jackson’s presidency (1829-1837). This act resulted in the uprooting of entire tribes from their homelands and their forced resettlement beyond the Mississippi.

Several wars stemmed from the refusal of some Native Americans to accept resettlement. The effort of the Sac (Sauk) and Fox to return to their homeland in early 1832 resulted in the Black Hawk War in Illinois and Wisconsin, which ended on August 3, 1832, with the Bad Axe Massacre, in which most of the remaining Native Americans were killed as they tried to cross the Mississippi River into Iowa. Concurrently, the Cherokee were removed from Georgia, and in Mississippi and Alabama the remaining Creek were also expelled. The Second Seminole War (Seminole Wars) in Florida (1835-1842) was distinguished by the evasive tactics of the Seminole, who for a long time escaped attempts of the U.S. Army to round them up. When this period came to an end in the 1850s, only scattered groups of Native Americans remained in the eastern half of the United States.

From the 1840s to the 1880s U.S. forces fought numerous battles (usually small skirmishes) in an effort to clear routes west for white emigrants and to establish government control over the vast territory. Ultimately the federal government organized a reservation system as a way of separating the Native Americans from white settlers.

The gold rush of 1849 brought devastation to the Native Americans of the Far West. The Bannock and Shoshone of Oregon and Idaho, the Ute of Nevada and Utah, and the Apache and Navajo of the Southwest mounted a more organized resistance against white encroachment, but were ultimately defeated and confined to reservations.

The central conflict took place on the Great Plains, where the Native Americans had been promised sanctuary. Into this land were crowded remnants of many native peoples displaced from the east. They had great difficulty in adapting their ways of life to a very different environment, and the Plains Native Americans resented the presence of the newcomers. White settlers were also moving into the territory, causing further hostilities.

The Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Sioux fought white encroachment on their territory in the 1860s and 1870s; the fighting was ferocious on both sides. Among all the battles, only the Battle of the Little Bighorn is well known: On June 25, 1876, much of the 7th Cavalry Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer was wiped out by a combined force of Sioux and Cheyenne under Sioux chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. Within a year, however, most of the Sioux and Cheyenne surrendered, and some were relocated to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). Other Native Americans fought on—Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce in the late 1870s, Geronimo and the Apaches as late as the 1880s. The warfare largely ended with the massacre at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on December 29, 1890, when Sioux warriors, women, and children were slaughtered by the U.S. cavalry.