American Indian History

Since the Battle of the Little Bighorn, George Armstrong Custer and the 7th Cavalry have become associated with a relatively insignificant battle during America’s Indian Wars, but one that has become one of the country’s most mythologized events and continues to fascinate Americans more than 140 years later. That’s because the Battle of the Little Bighorn, fought in June 1876, was one of the US military’s biggest debacles. Eventually, Custer and the 7th Cavalry’s “Last Stand” would become a symbol for American heroism in the face of overwhelming odds.

On the morning of November 29, 1864, Colonel John Chivington led 700 militiamen in a surprise attack against Cheyenne leader Black Kettle's camp at Sand Creek. Chivington was a fire and brimstone Methodist minister who had publicly advocated indiscriminately killing Native American children because "nits makes lice."

Indian lore of the Cuyamaca Mountains and surrounding region in San Diego County, California, abounds in myths and legends handed down from generation to generation by tribal song and squaw-tale. Yet so swiftly has the hand of civilization wiped out the old traditions and customs, that but few Indians remain who remember them, and fewer still are those willing to divulge them. Only when one comes into intimate contact with them is one accorded the privilege and honor of hearing the tales of their ancestors.

Insightful, telling, ironic, and moving, 14 Native-American legends reflect a nomadic non-property-owning culture, with a reverence for all things natural.

The Apache of the American Southwest have achieved almost legendary status for their fierceness and their tenacity in fighting the US Army. Names like Nana, Cochise, and Geronimo are synonymous with bravery and daring, and the tribe had that reputation long before the Americans arrived. Indeed, among all the Native American tribes, the Spanish, Mexicans, and Americans learned the hard way that the warriors of the Apache were perhaps the fiercest in North America. Based in the Southwest, the Apache fought all three in Mexico and the American Southwest.

Arguably the last Indians living in Central Florida in 1883 were all massacred because the chief's favorite squaw loved White Man Cow. John asked the President of the United States to send soldiers to remove the Indians. John didn't think his request was out of line; after all the government had earlier been moving Indians to the "Indians Territory" (now Oklahoma) for years. But the President wouldn't do it. So John had to do it. He killed every man, woman and child. This is the story of why he did it.

The war gets its name from British colonists’ two primary enemies: the French settlers and the Native Americans who sided with them. The title is a bit misleading, however, as the British also had Native Americans on their side at various points of the war. The conflict goes by "The Seven Years’ War" in Europe because it took place from 1756 to 1763. Britain’s victory solidified the future of the English-speaking North America we know today. However, it also led to the massacre of countless Native peoples throughout North America.

Some of these plans were intended to wipe out Native Americans entirely while some others were meant to curtail efforts of Native Americans, push them away, keep them in controlled environments, completely subjugated, while forcing them to cede nearly all of their lands, at the most minimal of prices, keeping them forever subservient to and dependent upon their white "masters."

Il nome collettivo Indiani, o Indios, venne applicato alle popolazioni native americane dagli esploratori spagnoli, e in generale europei, nell’età moderna. Ma cinquecento anni prima, intorno all'anno 1000, da quanto ci viene raccontato nelle saghe vichinghe giunte fino a noi, i nativi americani avevano già avuto qualche incontro più o meno benevolo con gli europei.

“Als wir noch jenseits des Großen Wassers wohnten, gab es zwölf Stämme, die zu den Cherokee-Indianern gehörten ...“ So beginnt die traditionelle Geschichte des Stammes, die zum Fest des Großen Mondes, dem Neujahrsfest, rezitiert und den jungen Cherokee bei Zusammenkünften gelehrt wurde. Sie wurde von Cornsilk alias William Eubanks, einem Zeitungsschreiber im Indian Territory, 1896 aufgezeichnet, basierend auf der ursprünglichen Erzählung in der Sprache der Cherokee, wie sie George Sahkiyah „Soggy“ Sanders, ebenfalls Mitglied in der Keetoowah Society.