15,000-11,000 B.C.E. Earliest archeological evidence of human presence in Americas
10,000 B.C.E. Clovis Point Technology Emerges
9,000 B.C.E. Extinction of Big Game Animals
8,500 B.C.E. Evidence of group hunting in Colorado
8,000 B.C.E. Beginning of Archaic Period
7,000 B.C.E. Cultivation of plants in Mexican Highlands begins
4,000 B.C.E. Old Copper Culture of Great Lakes Region Begins
2,500 B.C.E. Gulf Formation Period begins
2,000B.C.E. Pecos Culture Begins
1,700 B.C.E. Mound Builders Culture Begins
1,100 B.C.E. Anasazi build cliff cities at Mesa Verde, CO
1,000 B.C.E. Beginning of Adena Period: Urban Cultures in Mexico
1450 Formation of Iroquois Confederacy
1492 Christopher Columbus is discovered by American Indians
1496 Santo Domingo becomes first European permanent settlement
1524 First kidnapping in America took place. Florentine explorers kidnapped an Indian child and brought them to France
1528 First major Spanish exploration of Florida
1637 First Exchange of Indians for Africans in slave trade
1680 Pueblo Revolt (Popé’s Rebellion) – Pueblo peoples successfully repel Spanish forces
1756-1763 French Indian Wars
1775-1783 Revolutionary War
1776 U.S. gains Independence
1778 U.S. signs first treaty with Indian Nation: Treaty of Fort Pitt
1824 Bureau of Indian affairs founded under Department of War
1823-1832 Marshall Trilogy (1823 Johnson v McIntosh, 1831: Cherokee Nation v Georgia, 1832: Worcester v Georgia)
1830 Indian Removal
1835 Treaty of New Echota Signed, giving way to U.S. forced removal of Cherokee
1841 Bartleson-Bidwell Party make first wagon crossing from Missouri to California
1846 Donner Party makes their way for California
1848 Gold found in Sutter’s Mill, CA
1849 California Gold Rush and Bureau of Indian Affairs Transferred to Department of Interior
1851 First Treaty of Fort Laramie Signed
1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act
1854-1891 Sioux War (1854: Grattan Fight, 1862: Dakota War of 1862, 1863-1865: Colorado War, 1865: Powder River War, 1866-1868: Red Cloud’s War, 1876: Battle of Little Big Horn)
1860 Paiute War
1861-1864 American Civil War
1862 Homestead Act
1863 Ruby Valley Treaty Signed
1864 Sand Creek Massacre
1868 Second Treaty of Fort Laramie Signed
1869 Transcontinental Railroad built
1878 Bannock War
1878 Standing Bear v Crook – First time Indians recognized as people under U.S. Law
1883 Ex Parte Crow Dog
1884 Elk v Wilkins
1885 Major Crimes Act
1886 United States v Kagama
1887 Dawe’s General Allotment Act
1890 Massacre at Wounded Knee
1924 Indian Citizenship Act
1928 Merriam Report
1934 Indian Reorganization Act
1941-1945 U.S. involvement in WWII- Navajo Code Talkers integral part of war
1944 National Congress of American Indians founded
1946 Indian Claims Act
1953 House Concurrent Resolution 108, also known as Indian Termination Act, passed
1968 American Indian Religious Freedom Act AND American Indian Movement founded
1969-1971 Occupation at Alcatraz
1972 Trail of Broken Treaties
1973 Siege of Wounded Knee
1975 Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act
1978 Indian Child Welfare Act