What were the American Indian Wars? -

Mention the American Indian Wars and most minds think of the Old West and the Cowboy and Indian movies made by Hollywood and set mostly during the late 1800s. In fact, the American Indian Wars are the United States' most protracted conflict to date, stretching from 1775, at the beginning of the American Revolution, all the way until 1924. To retrace the events over this 250-year-plus period in American history is to recall a time when Europeans sought to control newly settled American land as wars raged between Native Americans and the frontiersmen who encroached on their territory, resources, and trade. Some of these confrontations are well known—the Battle of the Little Bighorn, for example. But there are numerous other military engagements of this kind that while perhaps less compelling are equally important when examining and understanding the role Indigenous peoples have played in shaping the nation we today call the United States of America.

Intrigued? Then click through and learn more about the American Indian Wars.

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Jamestown Massacre -

What became known as the Jamestown Massacre took place on March 22, 1622 at Jamestown in the English Colony of Virginia, when Powhatan Chief Opechancanough led an attack that left nearly 350 of some 1,200 colonists dead. Constant expansion and seizure of Powhatan lands by the settlers ultimately led to the raid, but retaliation was swift. The English assailed Native American villages, destroying crops and driving the Powhatan from their land.

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Pequot War -

The Pequot War was fought in 1636–37 by the Pequot people against a coalition of English settlers in Colonial Connecticut. Effectively the first sustained conflict between Native Americans and Europeans in northeastern North America, it was an especially brutal war that ended in hundreds of Pequot deaths, many of them children and women. Defeated, the Pequots abandoned their land, with the colonial authorities eventually classifying the people as extinct.

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Beaver Wars -

Named for the prized beaver pelts traded with the English for firearms, tools, and other provisions, the Beaver Wars pitted the Iroquois Confederacy against French-supported Algonquian-speaking tribes. The bloody conflict began in 1640 and lasted 60 years, ending in 1701 after the Iroquois defeated and dispersed their foe, thus expanding their territory and monopolizing the lucrative fur trade with European markets.

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King Philip's War -

Known also as the Great Narragansett War and fought from 1675 to 1676, this deadly 12-month conflict pitted Native Americans against English settlers and their Indian allies. Wampanoag Chief Metacom—named King Philip by the English—had sought revenge for the execution of three of his people and further encroachment by colonialists on Native American land. Taking place over modern-day Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and even coastal Maine, King Philip's War ended with Metacom's death on August 12, 1676.

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Pueblo Revolt -

The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 was a revolution against Spanish religious, economic, and political institutions imposed upon the Pueblo Indians. Led by Popé (also known as Po'pay), the Pueblos laid siege to Santa Fe, destroying Spanish settlements and forcing the colonists into a 12-year retreat. The rebellion remains the only successful Native uprising against a colonizing power in North America. Pictured is the 1692 document detailing the terms of surrender presented to the Pueblos after Don Diego de Vargas, the Spanish governor of the New Spain territory of Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico, reconquered the city.

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King William's War -

Historians regard King William's War as the first French and Indian War. Fought from 1689 to 1697, the conflict was the North American theater of the Nine Years' War and saw England, allied with the Iroquois Confederacy, take up arms against France, with support from the Wabanaki Confederacy, in a struggle for fur trade rights and territory control in Colonial Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New York. Pictured is Louis de Buade de Frontenac, governor of New France in North America, receiving the envoy of Sir William Phipps, the governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in 1990.

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Schenectady Massacre -

On February 8, 1690, a party of more than 200 Frenchmen and allied Mohawk and Algonquin warriors attacked the Dutch and English settlement in Colonial New York, leaving 60 dead and nearly 30 captured. Pictured is a French soldier or militiaman in winter war dress around 1690.

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Queen Anne's War -

The beginning of the new century witnessed continued fighting in North America involving the colonial empires of Great Britain, France, and Spain and their Indian allies—conflict which took place from 1702 to 1713 and which was named for the reign of Anne, Queen of Great Britain—for control of territory in New England, the colony of South Carolina, and Spanish Florida. A particularly brutal confrontation was the raid on Deerfield on February 29, 1704, when the French and their Native American allies attacked the British-ruled Massachusetts settlement, leaving scores dead and over 100 captured.

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Tuscarora War -

Between 1711 and 1715, during a near four-year conflict between the Tuscarora people and British colonialists, over 200 settlers and around 1,000 Indians lost their lives in what has been described as Colonial North Carolina's bloodiest war. Pictured are Tuscarora Indians tracking their foe.

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Yamasee War -

The conflict known as the Yamasee War (1715–1718) was a confrontation between Native Americans, mainly Yamasee, and British colonists in the southeastern area of South Carolina, triggered by treaty violations, encroachments, and fur trade battles. A win for the colonialists resulted in the collapse of Indian power in that area and the subsequent retreat by many of the vanquished to Florida, where they formed the Seminole tribe. Pictured is a 1724 English copy of a deerskin Catawba map of the tribes between Charleston (left) and Virginia (right) following the Yamasee War.

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French and Indian War -

While King William's War is considered the first French and Indian War, the conflict that began in 1754 that pitted France and its Native American allies against Great Britain and the Iroquois Confederacy was part of a wider imperial conflict between France and Great Britain known as the Seven Years' War. Hostilities ceased with the Treaty of Paris in 1763, which ended the Revolutionary War.

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Anglo-Cherokee War -

Despite the British and the Cherokee having once been been allies, what became known as the Anglo-Cherokee War saw the two sides engage in hostilities in the Carolinas in 1759 after attacks and land encroachment by European settlers provoked retaliation by the Cherokee. This photograph depicts the locations of several Cherokee towns following the end of the Anglo-Cherokee War in 1761.

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Pontiac's Rebellion -

Land grabbing, trade restrictions, and an overriding sense of betrayal led the Algonquian, Iroquoian, Muskogean, and Siouan-speaking tribes across the Ohio River Valley and Great Lakes regions, and Virginia, to attack British forts over a two-year period, from 1763 to 1765. The war, named after Odawa leader Pontiac—the most prominent of many Indigenous leaders in the conflict—led to the British ceding land to the various tribes.

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Lord Dunmore's War -

Named for Virginia's royal governor, John Murray, Lord Dunmore (pictured), Lord Dunmore's War refers to the 1774 attack by Virginia militia on the Shawnee Indians of Kentucky, who were defending their land against encroachment by European settlers. The Battle of Point Pleasant on October 10, 1774 effectively ended the conflict, with land south of the Ohio River being ceded to the British.

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Chickamauga Cherokee Wars -

The Chickamauga Cherokee Wars of 1776–1794 represent the Cherokee struggle during and after the American Revolutionary War, who were opposed to continued encroachment by American frontiersmen out of the former British colonies into Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. Eventually, after huge numbers of casualties, the Cherokee were forced to cede large areas of land. Those who remained were later moved to Oklahoma. Pictured is Chief Tecumseh of the Western Confederacy, whom the Cherokee aligned with against Anglo settlers.

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Battle of Fallen Timbers -

The Battle of Fallen Timbers on August 20, 1794 is considered the final battle of the American Revolution. A military engagement between the United States and the Northwest Indian Confederation that took place on the Maumee River near what is now Toledo, Ohio, the Battle of Fallen Timbers resulted in the Treaty of Greenville, opening a vast swath of land (that would become Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin) to be settled.

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Battle of Tippecanoe -

A major confrontation between forces under the command of Major General William Henry Harrison and the Shawnee, led by "The Prophet" Laulewasikau, the brother of the aforementioned Tecumseh, the Battle of Tippecanoe on November 7, 1811 ultimately led to the defeat of the Shawnee. Harrison was later elected the ninth president of the United States, but died just 31 days after his inauguration in 1841—the shortest presidency in US history.

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War of 1812 -

The inevitable declaration of war between the United States and Great Britain over trade and maritime sovereignty in June 1812 saw several Indigenous nations side with the British. The conflict was a byproduct of the broader conflict between Great Britain and France over who would dominate Europe and the wider world. Fought on land and sea, the conflict effectively ended in a draw with the Treaty Ghent, ratified in 1815 to leave the British in control of Canada and its maritime rights. The US gained considerable kudos across Europe, but the outcome led to increased westward expansion, the death of Chief Tecumseh (pictured), and further threats to Native Americans.

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Battle of Horseshoe Bend -

The Battle of Horseshoe Bend, fought on March 27, 1814, effectively ended Creek nation resistance to American advances into the southeast, opening up the Mississippi Territory for pioneer settlement. US forces led by Andrew Jackson (later the seventh president of the United States) and supported by Cherokee and (pro-American) Lower Creek Indians won a decisive victory at the village of Tehopeka, held by the Upper Creek Red Sticks, who resisted American interference with their traditional way of life.

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Seminole Wars -

The three related military conflicts known collectively as the Seminole Wars pitched US forces against the Seminole Indians of Florida in the period before the Civil War. The First Seminole War (1816–1818) was declared on the Seminole people in part to recapture runaway slaves who had escaped from southern plantations into Spanish Florida. American victories and the widespread destruction of Seminole villages led Spain to cede Florida to the US under the Transcontinental Treaty, giving it control of the area and the power to relocate tribes to Oklahoma. The Second Seminole War (1835–1842) broke out as a direct result of those forced expulsions, the bloody resistance ending with the loss of 1,500 American soldiers and 3,000 Seminoles removed from their land. Relentless attacks and harassment by authorities caused the Third Seminole War (1855–1858), an action that eventually caused the tribe's population to dwindle to just 200.

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Arikara War -

The Arikara War is the first Plains Indian War, an armed conflict between the United States, their allies from the Sioux (or Dakota) tribe, and Arikara Native Americans that took place on June 2, 1823 along the Missouri River in present-day South Dakota. Encroachment and deterioration in the relationship with white settlers were the principal causes of the war. Pictured is a Arikara warrior from the period.

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Black Hawk War -

Named for Sauk warrior Chief Black Hawk, the Black Hawk War began in 1832 after he led a group of Sauks across the Mississippi River from Iowa to reclaim surrendered land in Illinois. The incursion alerted the US Army who, allied with other tribes and state militias, intercepted the party. Hostilities ensued, from April to August, during which most of the Sauk were killed or captured. Black Hawk and other leaders briefly evaded capture before surrendering at Fort Crawford in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin (pictured). They were imprisoned for a year.

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Comanche War -

The Comanche Wars were a series of armed conflicts fought between Comanche peoples and Spanish, Mexican, and American militaries and civilians in the United States and Mexico from as early as 1706 until at least the mid-1870s. Much of their tribal land, known as Comancheria, which stretched across most of the southern Great Plains, was eventually ceded as a burgeoning pioneer population forced them to leave their ancestral homeland.

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Sand Creek Massacre -

The Sand Creek Massacre is a Civil War-era conflict that took place on November 29, 1864. A 675-man force of the Third Colorado Cavalry attacked a village of Cheyenne and Arapaho people, killing upwards of 650 mostly unarmed women, children, and elderly. The massacre was one of the ugliest episodes in the long-running battle for control of eastern Colorado's Great Plains.

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Red Cloud's War -

Following the discovery of gold in Montana, European Americans blazed the Bozeman Trail across Indian territory to Wyoming. Angered by this clear breach of a treaty securing the land as their own, Red Cloud (pictured), leader of the Oglala, teamed with the Arapaho and Cheyenne, including Crazy Horse and High-Back-Bone, to ambush pioneers and settlers along the trail in what became known as Red Cloud's War (1866–1867). With the signing of the Treaty of Laramie drawn up between the US government and the Sioux Nation, the United States recognized the Black Hills as part of the Great Sioux Reservation, set aside for exclusive use by the Sioux people. It's considered the sole American Indian War win against the United States.

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Battle of the Little Bighorn -

Commonly referred to as "Custer's Last Stand," the Battle of the Little Bighorn, fought June 25–26, 1876, is one of the most infamous clashes ever recorded between the US Army and Native American tribes. George Armstrong Custer and 700 soldiers of the US 7th Cavalry were outmaneuvered by their enemy and ended up on an open hilltop. In what became the most significant action of the Great Sioux War of 1876, five of the 7th Cavalry's 12 companies were annihilated and Custer slain.

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Red River War -

The Red River War was the final campaign involving the US Army and Southern Plains Indians—among them the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Comanche, Kiowa, and Kataka. Hostilities began in 1874 when a number of tribes confined to reservations in Texas and Oklahoma broke away and attacked white settlers. Retaliation by the army was swift, with some 3,000 troops targeting over 500 Indians in Texas' Red River Valley. Pictured is a Kiowa ledger drawing possibly depicting the Buffalo Wallow battle in 1874, an armed confrontation between Southern Plains Indians and the US Army during the war, which ended in 1875.

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Wounded Knee Massacre -

The slaughter of hundreds of Lakota men, women, and children at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota, by US soldiers on December 29, 1890 followed an earlier botched attempt to disarm the Lakota camp. More than 500 troops later attacked the encampment. Lakota warriors returned fire with what little weaponry they had left, but were quickly subdued. Twenty soldiers were subsequently awarded the medal of honor for their role in what at the time was described as a victory against an intractable enemy.

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Battle of Sugar Point -

Sometimes referred to as "the last Indian Uprising in the United States," the Battle of Sugar Point was fought on October 5, 1898 between the 3rd US Infantry and members of the Pillager Band of Chippewa Indians. The idea was to apprehend Chief Pillager Ojibwe Bugonaygeshig. Instead, a skirmish ensued with a handful of young Pillager men holding off approximately 100 US infantrymen on the shores of Sugar Point in Minnesota. Pictured is the October 9, 1898 front page of the Minnesota newspaper The St Paul Globe showing pictures of US Army casualties of the battle.

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Battle of Kelley Creek -

The Battle of Kelley Creek of February 25, 1911 is also known as the Last Massacre, as it's often defined as one of the last known armed conflicts between Native Americans and forces of the United States during the Indian Wars era. On January 11 of that year, a small band of Shoshone Indians killed four men in an incident that was quickly dubbed as the Last Massacre. A posse was dispatched to find the culprits, an action that led to a shoot-out the following month at a place called Kelley Creek in Nevada. Eight members of the same Shoshone family were killed in the exchange of fire, plus one American. Pictured is the site of an Indian camp after the confrontation.

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Battle of Bear Valley -

The final official battle between Native Americans and the US Army occurred on January 9, 1918 when a Cavalry unit chanced upon 30 armed Yaquis in Bear Valley, Arizona. A short firefight ensued, which resulted in the death of the Yaqui commander and the capture of nine others.

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Posey War -

While the Battle of Bear Valley is regarded as the last official armed confrontation of the Indian Wars era, the Posey War of March 20–23, 1923 marked the final Indian uprising, a skirmish involving the US Army and Ute and Paiute Native Americans as they were relocating from their land around Bluff, Utah, to the deserts of Navajo Mountain, led by a chief named Posey. The violence was sparked after two of Posey's band were arrested for supposedly killing livestock. The pair later escaped and a posse was formed to give chase. The lawmen eventually met Posey's band and during the subsequent gunfight the Indian chief was killed. The fighting quickly ended with the Ute and Paiute surrendering. By 1924 the Indian Wars had been brought to a close.

Sources: (History of Yesterday) (Indian Pueblo Cultural Center) (South Carolina Encyclopedia) (Seminole County) (National Archives) (Leech Lake News)

See also: Movies with an American Civil War backdrop

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