"Indian Wars" redirects here. For wars fought by India, see List of wars involving India.
American Indian Wars
An 1899 chromolithograph of US cavalry pursuing American Indians (artist unknown)Date1609–1924 (intermittent)Location
United States, Canada
ResultSovereignty of various combatants extended or lostMany treaties, truces, and armistices made and broken by combatantsIndian reservations established in the United States and CanadaBelligerents
American Indians (1609–1924)
First Nations (1609–1924)
Inuit (1609–1924)
Aleut (1743–1924)
Yupik (1784–1924)
 State of Muskogee (1799–1803)
 Métis (1799–1924)
Provisional Government of Saskatchewan (1885)
 Spanish Empire (1609-1821)
 Kingdom of France (1609–1763)
 Kingdom of England (1610–1707)
 Kingdom of Scotland (1621–1707)
 British Empire (1707–1867)
 Dutch Empire (1614–1664)
 Swedish Empire (1638–1655)
 Hudson's Bay Company (1670–1924)
 Russian Empire (1743–1867)
 United States (1776–1924)
 Vermont Republic (1777–1791)
 North West Company (1779–1821)
 West Florida (1810)
 East Florida (1812)
 Danish Empire (1814–1924)
 Mexico (1821–1867)
Republic of Indian Stream (1832–1835)
 Republic of Texas (1836–1846)
 California Republic (1846)
 Confederate States (1861–1865)
 Dominion of Canada (1867–1924)Indigenous peoples
in CanadaFirst NationsInuitMétis 6park.com
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Politics[show] 6park.com
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Culture[show] 6park.com
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Demographics[show] 6park.com
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The American Indian Wars (also known as the Indian Wars or the First Nations Wars; French: Guerres des Premières Nations) is the collective name for the various armed conflicts that were fought by European governments and colonists, and later by the governments and settlers, against various American Indian and First Nation tribes. These conflicts occurred in North America from the time of the earliest colonial settlements in the 17th century until the early 20th century. The various wars resulted from a wide variety of factors, including cultural clashes, land disputes, and criminal acts committed by both sides. The European powers and their colonies also enlisted Indian tribes to help them conduct warfare against each other's colonial settlements.
After the American Revolution, many conflicts were local to specific states or regions and frequently involved disputes over land use; some entailed cycles of violent reprisal. In Canada, 11 Numbered Treaties covering most of the First Nations lands limited the number of such conflicts.
As American settlers spread westward across America after 1780, armed conflicts increased in size, duration, and intensity between settlers and various Indian tribes. The climax came in the War of 1812, when major Indian coalitions in the Midwest and the South fought against the United States and lost. Conflict with settlers became much less common and was usually resolved by treaty, often through sale or exchange of territory between the federal government and specific tribes. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 authorized the American government to enforce the Indian removal from east of the Mississippi River to the west on the American frontier, especially Oklahoma. The federal policy of removal was eventually refined in the West, as American settlers kept expanding their territories, to relocate Indian tribes to specially designated and federally protected and subsidized reservations. 6park.com
Contents

1Colonial period (1609–1774)2East of the Mississippi (1775–1842)2.1American Revolutionary War 1775–17832.2Cherokee–American wars2.3Northwest Indian War2.4Tecumseh, the Creek War, and the War of 18122.5Second Seminole War3West of the Mississippi (1811–1924)3.1Background3.2Texas3.3Pacific Northwest3.4Southwest3.5California3.6Great Basin3.7Great Plains3.7.1Dakota War3.7.2Colorado War, Sand Creek Massacre, and the Sioux War of 18653.7.3Sheridan's campaigns3.7.4Red Cloud's War and the Treaty of Fort Laramie3.7.5Black Hills War3.8Last conflicts4Effects on Indian populations5Historiography6List7See also7.1Comparable and related events8References8.1Citations8.2Sources9Further reading9.1Historiography9.2Primary sources10External links
Colonial period (1609–1774)[edit]

Further information: European colonization of the Americas 6park.com
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Indian massacre of 1622 6park.com
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Siege of Fort Detroit during Pontiac's Rebellion in 1763 6park.com
The colonization of America by the English, French, Spanish, Dutch, and Swedish was resisted by some Indian tribes and assisted by other tribes. Wars and other armed conflicts in the 17th and 18th centuries included:
Beaver Wars (1609–1701) between the Iroquois and the French, who allied with the AlgonquiansAnglo-Powhatan Wars (1610–14, 1622–32, 1644–46), including the 1622 Jamestown Massacre, between English colonists and the Powhatan Confederacy in the Colony of VirginiaPequot War of 1636–38 between the Pequot tribe and colonists from the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Connecticut ColonyKieft's War (1643–45) in the Dutch territory of New Netherland (New Jersey and New York) between colonists and the Lenape peoplePeach Tree War (1655), the large-scale attack by the Susquehannocks and allied tribes on several New Netherland settlements along the Hudson RiverEsopus Wars (1659–1663), conflicts between the Esopus tribe of Lenape Indians and colonial New Netherlanders in Ulster County, New YorkKing Philip's War (1675–78) in New England between colonists and the Narragansett peopleTuscarora War (1711–15) in the Province of North CarolinaYamasee War (1715–17) in the Province of South CarolinaDummer's War (1722–25) in northern New England and French Acadia (New Brunswick and Nova Scotia)Pontiac's War (1763–66) in the Great Lakes region[1]Lord Dunmore's War (1774) in western Virginia (Kentucky and West Virginia)
In several instances, warfare in America was a reflection of European rivalries, with American Indian tribes splitting their alliances among the powers, generally siding with their trading partners. Various tribes fought on each side in King William's War, Queen Anne's War, Dummer's War, King George's War, and the French and Indian War, allying with British or French colonists according to their own self interests.[2]
East of the Mississippi (1775–1842)[edit]

Further information: Sixty Years' War, Origins of the War of 1812, and War of 1812
Indian Wars
East of the Mississippi (post-1775)American Revolution (1775–1783)Cherokee–American wars (1776–1794)Northwest Indian War (1785–1795)Nickajack Expedition (1794)Sabine Expedition (1806)War of 1812 (1811–1815)Tecumseh's War (1811–1813)Creek War (1813–1814)Peoria War (1813)First Seminole War (1817–1818)Winnebago War (1827)Black Hawk War (1832)Creek War (1836)Florida–Georgia Border War (1836)Second Seminole War (1835–1842)
British merchants and government agents began supplying weapons to Indians living in the United States following the Revolution (1783-1812) in the hope that, if a war broke out, they would fight on the British side. The British further planned to set up an Indian nation in the Ohio-Wisconsin area to block further American expansion.[3] The US protested and went to war in 1812. Most Indian tribes supported the British, especially those allied with Tecumseh, but they were ultimately defeated by General William Henry Harrison. The War of 1812 spread to Indian rivalries, as well.
Many refugees from defeated tribes went over the border to Canada; those in the South went to Florida while it was under Spanish control. During the early 19th century, the federal government was under pressure by settlers in many regions to expel Indians from their areas. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 offered Indians the choices of assimilating and giving up tribal membership, relocation to an Indian reservation with an exchange or payment for lands, or moving west. Some resisted fiercely, most notably the Seminoles in a series of wars in Florida. They were never defeated, although some Seminoles did remove to Indian Territory. The United States gave up on the remainder, by then living defensively deep in the swamps and Everglades. Others were moved to reservations west of the Mississippi River, most famously the Cherokee whose relocation was called the "Trail of Tears."
American Revolutionary War 1775–1783[edit]

Main article: Western theater of the American Revolutionary War



This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
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The American Revolutionary War was essentially two parallel wars for the American Patriots. The war in the east was a struggle against British rule, while the war in the west was an "Indian War". The newly proclaimed United States competed with the British for control of the territory east of the Mississippi River. Some Indians sided with the British, as they hoped to reduce American settlement and expansion. In one writer's opinion, the Revolutionary War was "the most extensive and destructive" Indian war in United States history.[4] 6park.com
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The abduction of Jemima Boone by Shawnee in 1776 6park.com
Some Indian tribes were divided over which side to support in the war, such as the Iroquois Confederacy based in New York and Pennsylvania who split: the Oneida and Tuscarora sided with the American Patriots, and the Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga, and Onondaga sided with the British. The Iroquois tried to avoid fighting directly against one another, but the Revolution eventually forced intra-Iroquois combat, and both sides lost territory following the war. The Crown aided the landless Iroquois by rewarding them with a reservation at Grand River in Ontario and some other lands. In the Southeast, the Cherokee split into a pro-patriot faction versus a pro-British faction that the Americans referred to as the Chickamauga Cherokee; they were led by Dragging Canoe. Many other tribes were similarly divided.
When the British made peace with the Americans in the Treaty of Paris (1783), they ceded a vast amount of Indian territory to the United States. Indian tribes who had sided with the British and had fought against the Americans were enemy combatants, as far as the United States was concerned; they were a conquered people who had lost their land.
Cherokee–American wars[edit]

Main article: Cherokee–American wars
The frontier conflicts were almost non-stop, beginning with Cherokee involvement in the American Revolutionary War and continuing through late 1794. The so-called "Chickamauga Cherokee", later called "Lower Cherokee," were from the Overhill Towns and later from the Lower Towns, Valley Towns, and Middle Towns. They followed war leader Dragging Canoe southwest, first to the Chickamauga Creek area near Chattanooga, Tennessee, then to the Five Lower Towns where they were joined by groups of Muskogee, white Tories, runaway slaves, and renegade Chickasaw, as well as by more than a hundred Shawnee. The primary targets of attack were the Washington District colonies along the Watauga, Holston, and Nolichucky Rivers, and in Carter's Valley in upper eastern Tennessee, as well as the settlements along the Cumberland River beginning with Fort Nashborough in 1780, even into Kentucky, plus against the Franklin settlements, and later states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The scope of attacks by the Chickamauga and their allies ranged from quick raids by small war parties to large campaigns by four or five hundred warriors, and once more than a thousand. The Upper Muskogee under Dragging Canoe's close ally Alexander McGillivray frequently joined their campaigns and also operated separately, and the settlements on the Cumberland came under attack from the Chickasaw, Shawnee from the north, and Delaware. Campaigns by Dragging Canoe and his successor John Watts were frequently conducted in conjunction with campaigns in the Northwest Territory. The colonists generally responded with attacks in which Cherokee settlements were completely destroyed, though usually without great loss of life on either side. The wars continued until the Treaty of Tellico Blockhouse in November 1794.[5]
Northwest Indian War[edit]

Main article: Northwest Indian War 6park.com
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The Battle of Fallen Timbers 6park.com
In 1787, the Northwest Ordinance officially organized the Northwest Territory for settlement, and American settlers began pouring into the region. Violence erupted as Indian tribes resisted, and so the administration of President George Washington sent armed expeditions into the area. However, in the Northwest Indian War, a pan-tribal confederacy led by Blue Jacket (Shawnee), Little Turtle (Miami),[6] Buckongahelas (Lenape), and Egushawa (Ottawa) defeated armies led by Generals Josiah Harmar and Arthur St. Clair. General St. Clair's defeat was the most severe loss ever inflicted upon an American army by Indians. The Americans attempted to negotiate a settlement, but Blue Jacket and the Shawnee-led confederacy insisted on a boundary line that the Americans found unacceptable, and so a new expedition was dispatched led by General Anthony Wayne. Wayne's army defeated the Indian confederacy at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. The Indians had hoped for British assistance; when that was not forthcoming, they were compelled to sign the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, which ceded Ohio and part of Indiana to the United States.[7]
Tecumseh, the Creek War, and the War of 1812[edit]
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Treaty of Fort Jackson with the Creeks, 1814 6park.com
By 1800, the Indian population was approximately 600,000 in the continental United States. By 1890, their population had declined to about 250,000.[8] In 1800, William Henry Harrison became governor of the Indiana Territory, under the direction of President Thomas Jefferson, and he pursued an aggressive policy of obtaining titles to Indian lands. Shawnee brothers Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa organized Tecumseh's War, another pan-tribal resistance to westward settlement.
Tecumseh was in the South attempting to recruit allies among the Creeks, Cherokees, and Choctaws when Harrison marched against the Indian confederacy, defeating Tenskwatawa and his followers at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. The Americans hoped that the victory would end the militant resistance, but Tecumseh instead chose to ally openly with the British, who were soon at war with the Americans in the War of 1812. The Creek War (1813–14) began as a tribal conflict within the Creek tribe, but it became part of the larger struggle against American expansion. Tecumseh was killed by Harrison's army at the Battle of the Thames, ending the resistance in the Old Northwest. The First Seminole War in 1818 resulted in the transfer of Florida from Spain to the United States in 1819.
Second Seminole War[edit]

Main articles: Second Seminole War and Seminole Wars
American settlers began to push into Florida, which was now an American territory and had some of the most fertile lands in the nation. Paul Hoffman claims that covetousness, racism, and "self-defense" against Indian raids played a major part in the settlers' determination to "rid Florida of Indians once and for all".[9] To compound the tension, runaway black slaves sometimes found refuge in Seminole camps, and the result was clashes between white settlers and the Indians residing there. Andrew Jackson sought to alleviate this problem by signing the Indian Removal Act, which stipulated the relocation of Indians out of Florida—by force if necessary. The Seminoles were relatively new arrivals in Florida, led by such powerful leaders as Aripeka (Sam Jones), Micanopy, and Osceola, and they had no intention of leaving their new lands. They retaliated against the settlers, and this led to the Second Seminole War, the longest and most costly war that the Army ever waged against Indians.
In May 1830, the Indian Removal Act was passed by Congress which stipulated forced removal of Indians to Oklahoma. The Treaty of Paynes Landing was signed in May 1832 by a few Seminole chiefs who later recanted, claiming that they were tricked or forced to sign and making it clear that they would not consent to relocating to a reservation out west. The Seminoles' continued resistance to relocation led Florida to prepare for war. The St. Augustine Militia asked the US War Department for the loan of 500 muskets, and 500 volunteers were mobilized under Brig. Gen. Richard K. Call. Indian war parties raided farms and settlements, and families fled to forts or large towns, or out of the territory altogether. A war party led by Osceola captured a Florida militia supply train, killing eight of its guards and wounding six others; most of the goods taken were recovered by the militia in another fight a few days later. Sugar plantations were destroyed along the Atlantic coast south of St. Augustine, Florida, with many of the slaves on the plantations joining the Seminoles. 6park.com
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Attack of the Seminoles on the blockhouse in December 1835 6park.com
The US Army had 11 companies (about 550 soldiers) stationed in Florida. Fort King (Ocala) had only one company of soldiers, and it was feared that they might be overrun by the Seminoles. Three companies were stationed at Fort Brooke (Tampa), with another two expected imminently, so the army decided to send two companies to Fort King. On December 23, 1835, the two companies totaling 110 men left Fort Brooke under the command of Major Francis L. Dade. Seminoles shadowed the marching soldiers for five days, and they ambushed them and wiped out the command on December 28. Only three men survived, and one was hunted down and killed by a Seminole the next day. Survivors Ransome Clarke and Joseph Sprague returned to Fort Brooke. Clarke died of his wounds later, and he provided the only account of the battle from the army's perspective. The Seminoles lost three men and five wounded. On the same day as the massacre, Osceola and his followers shot and killed Agent Wiley Thompson and six others during an ambush outside of Fort King.
On December 29, General Clinch left Fort Drane with 750 soldiers, including 500 volunteers on an enlistment due to end January 1, 1836. The group was traveling to a Seminole stronghold called the Cove of the Withlacoochee, an area of many lakes on the southwest side of the Withlacoochee River. When they reached the river, the soldiers could not find the ford, so Clinch ferried his regular troops across the river in a single canoe. Once they were across and had relaxed, the Seminoles attacked. The troops fixed bayonets and charged them, at the cost of four dead and 59 wounded. The militia provided cover as the army troops then withdrew across the river. 6park.com
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The Dade Massacre was the US Army's worst defeat at the hands of Seminoles 6park.com
In the Battle of Lake Okeechobee, Colonel Zachary Taylor saw the first major action of the campaign. He left Fort Gardiner on the upper Kissimmee River with 1,000 men on December 19 and headed towards Lake Okeechobee. In the first two days, 90 Seminoles surrendered. On the third day, Taylor stopped to build Fort Basinger where he left his sick and enough men to guard the Seminoles who had surrendered. Taylor's column caught up with the main body of the Seminoles on the north shore of Lake Okeechobee on December 25.
The Seminoles were led by "Alligator", Sam Jones, and the recently escaped Coacoochee, and they were positioned in a hammock surrounded by sawgrass. The ground was thick mud, and sawgrass easily cuts and burns the skin. Taylor had about 800 men, while the Seminoles numbered fewer than 400. Taylor sent in the Missouri volunteers first, moving his troops squarely into the center of the swamp. His plan was to make a direct attack rather than encircle the Indians. All his men were on foot. As soon as they came within range, the Indians opened with heavy fire. The volunteers broke and their commander Colonel Gentry was fatally wounded, so they retreated back across the swamp. The fighting in the sawgrass was deadliest for five companies of the Sixth Infantry; every officer but one was killed or wounded, along with most of their non-commissioned officers. The soldiers suffered 26 killed and 112 wounded, compared to 11 Seminoles killed and 14 wounded. No Seminoles were captured, although Taylor did capture 100 ponies and 600 head of cattle. 6park.com
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Marines searching for the Seminoles among the mangroves 6park.com
By 1842, the war was winding down and most Seminoles had left Florida for Oklahoma. The US Army officially recorded 1,466 deaths in the Second Seminole War, mostly from disease. The number killed in action is less clear. Mahon reports[citation needed] 328 regular army killed in action, while Missall reports[citation needed] that Seminoles killed 269 officers and men. Almost half of those deaths occurred in the Dade Massacre, Battle of Lake Okeechobee, and Harney Massacre. Similarly, Mahon reports[citation needed] 69 deaths for the Navy, while Missal reports[citation needed] 41 for the Navy and Marine Corps. Mahon and the Florida Board of State Institutions agree[citation needed] that 55 volunteer officers and men were killed by the Seminoles, while Missall says[citation needed] that the number is unknown. A northern newspaper carried a report[citation needed] that more than 80 civilians were killed by Indians in Florida in 1839. By the end of 1843, 3,824 Indians had been shipped from Florida to the Indian Territory.
West of the Mississippi (1811–1924)[edit]
Indian Wars
West of the MississippiArikara War (1823)Osage Indian War (1837)Texas–Indian wars (1836–1877)Comanche Wars (1836–1877)Antelope Hills expedition (1858)Comanche Campaign (1867–1875)Red River War (1874–1875)Buffalo Hunters' War (1876–1877)Cayuse War (1847–1855)Apache Wars (1849–1924)Jicarilla War (1849–1855)Chiricahua Wars (1860–1886)Tonto War (1871–1875)Victorio's War (1879–1880)Geronimo's War (1881–1886)Post 1887 Apache Wars period (1887–1924)Yuma War (1850–1853)Ute Wars (1850–1923)Battle at Fort Utah (1850)Walker War (1853–1854)Tintic War (1856)Black Hawk War (1865–1872)White River War (1879)Ute War (1887)Bluff War (1914–1915)Bluff Skirmish (1921)Posey War (1923)Sioux Wars (1854–1891)First Sioux War (1854-1856)Dakota War (1862)Colorado War (1863–1865)Powder River War (1865)Red Cloud's War (1866–1868)Battle of Beecher Island (1868)Great Sioux War (1876–1877)Northern Cheyenne Exodus (1878-1879)Ghost Dance War (1890–1891)Rogue River Wars (1855–1856)Yakima War (1855–1858)Puget Sound War (1855–1856)Coeur d'Alene War (1858)Mohave War (1858–1859)Navajo Wars (1849–1866)Paiute War (1860)Yavapai Wars (1861–1875)Snake War (1864–1869)Hualapai War (1865–1870)Modoc War (1872–1873)Nez Perce War (1877)Bannock War (1878)Crow War (1887)Bannock Uprising (1895)Yaqui Uprising (1896)Battle of Sugar Point (1898)Crazy Snake Rebellion (1909)Last Massacre (1911)Battle of Kelley Creek (1911)Battle of Bear Valley (1918)
The series of conflicts in the western United States between Indians, American settlers, and the United States Army are generally known as the Indian Wars. Many of these conflicts occurred during and after the Civil War until the closing of the frontier in about 1890. However, regions of the West that were settled before the Civil War saw significant conflicts prior to 1860, such as Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Oregon, California, and Washington state.
Various statistics have been developed concerning the devastation of these wars on the peoples involved. Gregory Michno used records dealing with figures "as a direct result of" engagements and concluded that "of the 21,586 total casualties tabulated in this survey, military personnel and civilians accounted for 6,596 (31%), while Indian casualties totaled about 14,990 (69%)" for the period of 1850–90. However, Michno says that he "used the army's estimates in almost every case" and "the number of casualties in this study are inherently biased toward army estimations". His work includes almost nothing on "Indian war parties", and he states that "army records are often incomplete".[10]
According to Michno, more conflicts with Indians occurred in the states bordering Mexico than in the interior states. Arizona ranked highest, with 310 known battles fought within the state's boundaries between Americans and Indians. Also, Arizona ranked highest of the states in deaths from the wars. At least 4,340 people were killed, including both the settlers and the Indians, over twice as many as occurred in Texas, the second highest-ranking state. Most of the deaths in Arizona were caused by the Apaches. Michno also says that 51 percent of the battles took place in Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico between 1850 and 1890, as well as 37 percent of the casualties in the country west of the Mississippi River.[11]
Background[edit]
American settlers and fur trappers had spread into the western United States territories and had established the Santa Fe Trail and the Oregon Trail. Relations were generally peaceful between American settlers and Indians. The Bents of Bent's Fort on the Santa Fe Trail had friendly relations with the Cheyenne and Arapaho, and peace was established on the Oregon Trail by the Treaty of Fort Laramie signed in 1851 between the United States and the Plains Indians and the Indians of the northern Rocky Mountains. The treaty allowed passage by settlers, building roads, and stationing troops along the Oregon Trail. 6park.com
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Battles, army posts, and the general location of tribes in the American West 6park.com
The Pike's Peak Gold Rush of 1859 introduced a substantial white population into the Front Range of the Rockies, supported by a trading lifeline that crossed the central Great Plains. Advancing settlement following the passage of the Homestead Act and the growing transcontinental railways following the Civil War further destabilized the situation, placing white settlers into direct competition for the land and resources of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountain West.[12][13] Further factors included discovery of gold in the Black Hills resulting in the gold rush of 1875–1878, and in Montana during the Montana Gold Rush of 1862–1863 and the opening of the Bozeman Trail, which led to Red Cloud's War and later the Great Sioux War of 1876–77.[14]
Miners, ranchers, and settlers expanded into the plain, and this led to increasing conflicts with the Indian populations of the West. Many tribes fought American settlers at one time or another, from the Utes of the Great Basin to the Nez Perce tribe of Idaho. But the Sioux of the Northern Plains and the Apaches of the Southwest waged the most aggressive warfare, led by resolute, militant leaders such as Red Cloud and Crazy Horse. The Sioux were relatively new arrivals on the Plains, as they had been sedentary farmers in the Great Lakes region previously. They moved west, displacing other Indian tribes and becoming feared warriors. The Apaches supplemented their economy by raiding other tribes, and they practiced warfare to avenge the death of a kinsman.
During the American Civil War, Army units were withdrawn to fight the war in the east. They were replaced by the volunteer infantry and cavalry raised by the states of California and Oregon, by the western territorial governments, or by the local militias. These units fought the Indians and kept open communications with the east, holding the west for the Union and defeating the Confederate attempt to capture the New Mexico Territory. After 1865, national policy called for all Indians either to assimilate into the American population as citizens, or to live peacefully on reservations. Raids and wars between tribes were not allowed, and armed Indian bands off a reservation were the responsibility of the Army to round up and return.
Texas[edit]

Main articles: Texas–Indian wars and Comanche-Mexico War
In the 18th century, Spanish settlers in Texas came into conflict with the Apaches, Comanches, and Karankawas, among other tribes. Large numbers of American settlers reached Texas in the 1830s, and a series of armed confrontations broke out until the 1870s, mostly between Texans and Comanches. During the same period, the Comanches and their allies raided hundreds of miles deep into Mexico (see Comanche–Mexico Wars). 6park.com
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Josiah P. Wilbarger being scalped by Comanches, 1833 6park.com
The first notable battle was the Fort Parker massacre in 1836, in which a huge war party of Comanches, Kiowas, Wichitas, and Delawares attacked the Texan outpost at Fort Parker. A small number of settlers were killed during the raid, and the abduction of Cynthia Ann Parker and two other children caused widespread outrage among Texans.
The Republic of Texas was declared and secured some sovereignty in their war with Mexico, and the Texas government under President Sam Houston pursued a policy of engagement with the Comanches and Kiowas. Houston had lived with the Cherokees, but the Cherokees joined with Mexican forces to fight against Texas. Houston resolved the conflict without resorting to arms, refusing to believe that the Cherokees would take up arms against his government.[15] The administration of Mirabeau B. Lamar followed Houston's and took a very different policy towards the Indians. Lamar removed the Cherokees to the west and then sought to deport the Comanches and Kiowas. This led to a series of battles, including the Council House Fight, in which the Texas militia killed 33 Comanche chiefs at a peace parley. The Comanches retaliated with the Great Raid of 1840, and the Battle of Plum Creek followed several days later. 6park.com
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Quanah Parker, son of a Comanche Chief and a Texas settler; his family's story spans the history of the Texas–Indian wars 6park.com
The Lamar Administration was known for its failed and expensive Indian policy; the cost of the war with the Indians exceeded the annual revenue of the government throughout his four-year term. It was followed by a second Houston administration, which resumed the previous policy of diplomacy. Texas signed treaties with all of the tribes, including the Comanches. In the 1840s and 1850s, the Comanches and their allies shifted most of their raiding activities to Mexico, using Texas as a safe haven from Mexican retaliation.
Texas joined the Union in 1846, and the Federal government and Texas took up the struggle between the Plains Indians and the settlers. The conflicts were particularly vicious and bloody on the Texas frontier in 1856 through 1858, as settlers continued to expand their settlements into the Comancheria. The first Texan incursion into the heart of the Comancheria was in 1858, the so-called Antelope Hills Expedition marked by the Battle of Little Robe Creek.
The battles between settlers and Indians continued in 1860, and Texas militia destroyed an Indian camp at the Battle of Pease River. In the aftermath of the battle, the Texans learned that they had recaptured Cynthia Ann Parker, the little girl captured by the Comanches in 1836. She returned to live with her family, but she missed her children, including her son Quanah Parker. He was the son of Parker and Comanche Chief Peta Nocona, and he became a Comanche war chief at the Second Battle of Adobe Walls. He ultimately surrendered to the overwhelming force of the federal government and moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma in 1875.
Pacific Northwest[edit]

Main articles: Cayuse War, Yakima War, Puget Sound War, Rogue River Wars, Spokane – Coeur d'Alene – Paloos War, Snake War, Nez Perce War, Bannock War, and Sheepeater Indian War
A number of wars occurred in the wake of the Oregon Treaty of 1846 and the creation of Oregon Territory and Washington Territory. Among the causes of conflict were a sudden immigration to the region and a series of gold rushes throughout the Pacific Northwest. The Whitman massacre of 1847 triggered the Cayuse War, which led to fighting from the Cascade Range to the Rocky Mountains. The Cayuse were defeated in 1855, but the conflict had expanded and continued in what became known as the Yakima War (1855–1858). Washington Territory Governor Isaac Stevens tried to compel Indian tribes to sign treaties ceding land and establishing reservations. The Yakama signed one of the treaties negotiated during the Walla Walla Council of 1855, establishing the Yakama Indian Reservation, but Stevens' attempts served mainly to intensify hostilities. Gold discoveries near Fort Colville resulted in many miners crossing Yakama lands via Naches Pass, and conflicts rapidly escalated into violence. It took several years for the Army to defeat the Yakama, during which time war spread to the Puget Sound region west of the Cascades. The Puget Sound War of 1855–1856 was triggered in part by the Yakima War and in part by the use of intimidation to compel tribes to sign land cession treaties. The Treaty of Medicine Creek of 1855 established an unrealistically small reservation on poor land for the Nisqually and Puyallup tribes. Violence broke out in the White River valley, along the route to Naches Pass and connecting Nisqually and Yakama lands. The Puget Sound War is often remembered in connection with the Battle of Seattle (1856) and the execution of Nisqually Chief Leschi, a central figure of the war.[16] 6park.com
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Nisqually Chief Leschi was hanged for murder in 1858. He was exonerated by Washington State in 2004. 6park.com
In 1858, the fighting spread on the east side of the Cascades. This second phase of the Yakima War is known as the Coeur d'Alene War. The Yakama, Palouse, Spokane, and Coeur d'Alene tribes were defeated at the Battle of Four Lakes in late 1858.[16]
In southwest Oregon, tensions and skirmishes escalated between American settlers and the Rogue River peoples into the Rogue River Wars of 1855–1856. The California Gold Rush helped fuel a large increase in the number of people traveling south through the Rogue River Valley. Gold discoveries continued to trigger violent conflict between prospectors and Indians. Beginning in 1858, the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush in British Columbia drew large numbers of miners, many from Washington, Oregon, and California, culminating in the Fraser Canyon War. This conflict occurred in Canada, but the militias involved were formed mostly of Americans. The discovery of gold in Idaho and Oregon in the 1860s led to similar conflicts which culminated in the Bear River Massacre in 1863 and Snake War from 1864 to 1868.
In the late 1870s, another series of armed conflicts occurred in Oregon and Idaho, spreading east into Wyoming and Montana. The Nez Perce War of 1877 is known particularly for Chief Joseph and the four-month, 1,200-mile fighting retreat of a band of about 800 Nez Perce, including women and children. The Nez Perce War was caused by a large influx of settlers, the appropriation of Indian lands, and a gold rush—this time in Idaho. The Nez Perce engaged 2,000 American soldiers of different military units, as well as their Indian auxiliaries. They fought "eighteen engagements, including four major battles and at least four fiercely contested skirmishes", according to Alvin Josephy.[17] Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce were much admired for their conduct in the war and their fighting ability.[18]
The Bannock War broke out the following year for similar reasons. The Sheepeater Indian War in 1879 was the last conflict in the area.
Southwest[edit]

Main articles: Navajo Wars, Yuma War, Mohave War, Apache Wars, Black Hawk War (1865–1872), Apache–Mexico Wars, Long Walk of the Navajo, and Yavapai Wars 6park.com
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Geronimo (right) and his warriors in 1886 6park.com
Conflicts arose in the southwestern United States following the acquisition of Alta California and Santa Fe de Nuevo México from Mexico at the end of the Mexican–American War in 1848, and the Gadsden Purchase in 1853. These spanned from 1846 to at least 1895. The first conflicts were in the New Mexico Territory, and later in California and the Utah Territory during and after the California Gold Rush.[citation needed]
Indian tribes in the southwest had been engaged in cycles of trading and fighting with one another and with settlers for centuries prior to the United States gaining control of the region. These conflicts with the United States involved every non-pueblo tribe in the region and often were a continuation of Mexican–Spanish conflicts. The Navajo Wars and Apache Wars are perhaps the best known. The last major campaign of the military against Indians in the Southwest involved 5,000 troops in the field, and resulted in the surrender of Chiricahua Apache Geronimo and his band of 24 warriors, women, and children in 1886.[citation needed]
California[edit]

Main articles: California Indian Wars, Gila Expedition, Mariposa War, Klamath and Salmon River War, Modoc War, Bald Hills War, Pitt River Expedition, Mendocino War, Owens Valley Indian War, and Snake War



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The U.S. Army kept a small garrison west of the Rockies, but the California Gold Rush brought a great influx of miners and settlers into the area. The result was that most of the early conflicts with the California Indians involved local parties of miners or settlers. During the American Civil War, California volunteers replaced Federal troops and won the ongoing Bald Hills War and the Owens Valley Indian War and engaged in minor actions in northern California. California and Oregon volunteer garrisons in Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, New Mexico, and the Arizona Territories also engaged in conflicts with the Apache, Cheyenne, Goshute, Navajo, Paiute, Shoshone, Sioux, and Ute Indians from 1862 to 1866. Following the Civil War, California was mostly pacified, but federal troops replaced the volunteers and again took up the struggle against Indians in the remote regions of the Mojave Desert, and in the northeast against the Snakes (1864–1868) and Modocs (1872–1873).
Great Basin[edit]

Main articles: Ute Wars, Walker War, Paiute War, Bear River Massacre, Goshute War, Snake War, Black Hawk War (Utah), Bannock War, and White River War
The tribes of the Great Basin were mostly Shoshone, and they were greatly affected by the Oregon and California Trails and by Mormon pioneers to Utah. The Shoshone had friendly relations with American and British fur traders and trappers, beginning with their encounter with Lewis and Clark.
The traditional way of life of the Indians was disrupted, and they began raiding travelers along the trails and aggression toward Mormon settlers. The California militia stationed in Utah responded to complaints, which resulted in the Bear River Massacre.[19] Following the massacre, various Shoshone tribes signed a series of treaties exchanging promises of peace for small annuities and reservations. One of these was the Box Elder Treaty which identified a land claim made by the Northwestern Shoshone. The Supreme Court declared this claim to be non-binding in a 1945 ruling,[20][21] but the Indian Claims Commission recognized it as binding in 1968. Descendants of the original group were compensated collectively at a rate of less than $0.50 per acre, minus legal fees.[22]
Most of the local groups were decimated by the war and faced continuing loss of hunting and fishing land caused by the steadily growing population. Some moved to the Fort Hall Indian Reservation when it was created in 1868. Some of the Shoshone populated the Mormon-sanctioned community of Washakie, Utah.[23]
Great Plains[edit]

Main articles: Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851), Treaty of Fort Wise, Dakota War of 1862, Sand Creek Massacre, Colorado War, Powder River Expedition (1865), Red Cloud's War, Great Sioux War of 1876–77, Battle of the Little Bighorn, and Wounded Knee Massacre 6park.com
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Massacre Canyon monument and historical marker in Nebraska 6park.com
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Wagon Box Fight, near Fort Phil Kearny, 1867 6park.com
Initially relations between participants in the Pike's Peak gold rush and the Native American tribes of the Front Range and the Platte valley were friendly.[24][25] An attempt was made to resolve conflicts by negotiation of the Treaty of Fort Wise, which established a reservation in southeastern Colorado, but the settlement was not agreed to by all of the roving warriors, particularly the Dog Soldiers. During the early 1860s tensions increased and culminated in the Colorado War and the Sand Creek Massacre, where Colorado volunteers fell on a peaceful Cheyenne village killing women and children,[26] which set the stage for further conflict.
The peaceful relationship between settlers and the Indians of the Colorado and Kansas plains was maintained faithfully by the tribes, but sentiment grew among the Colorado settlers for Indian removal. The savagery of the attacks on civilians during the Dakota War of 1862 contributed to these sentiments, as did the few minor incidents which occurred in the Platte Valley and in areas east of Denver. Regular army troops had been withdrawn for service in the Civil War and were replaced with the Colorado Volunteers, rough men who often favored extermination of the Indians. They were commanded by John Chivington and George L. Shoup, who followed the lead of John Evans, territorial governor of Colorado. They adopted a policy of shooting on sight all Indians encountered, a policy which in short time ignited a general war on the Colorado and Kansas plains, the Colorado War.[27]
Raids by bands of plains Indians on isolated homesteads to the east of Denver, on the advancing settlements in Kansas, and on stage line stations along the South Platte, such as at Julesburg,[28][29] and along the Smoky Hill Trail, resulted in settlers in both Colorado and Kansas adopting a murderous attitude towards Native Americans, with calls for extermination.[30] Likewise, the savagery shown by the Colorado Volunteers during the Sand Creek massacre resulted in Native Americans, particularly the Dog Sol