Native Americans

Examples of Native Americans in the following topics:

• Settlers and Native Americans

  • Settlers' relations with Native Americans were difficult and fueled by conflicts over land.
  • Most Native Americans who joined the struggle sided with the British, based both on their trading relationships and their hopes that colonial defeat would result in a halt to further colonial expansion onto Native American land.
  • The British made peace with the Americans in the Treaty of Paris (1783) , through which they ceded vast Native American territories to the United States without informing or consulting with the Native Americans.
  • Native American tribes led the Northwest Indian War in an attempt to repulse American settlers.
  • Describe the role of the Native American tribes in the Revolutionary War

• The Year of Blood

  • "The Year of Blood" refers to the carnage that took place in 1782, between militia-supported settlers and Native Americans allied with the British.
  • In May 1782, Colonel William Crawford led a campaign to destroy enemy Native American settlements along the Sandusky River in the Ohio Country with the hope of ending Native American attacks on American settlers.
  • Crawford led 500 volunteer militiamen deep into Native American territory and engaged with Native Americans and their British allies from Detroit.
  • The Native Americans executed these captives in retaliation for the Gnadenhütten massacre.
  • This execution was widely publicized in the United States, worsening the already-strained relationship between Native Americans and European Americans.

• Bacon's Rebellion

  • Bacon's Rebellion was an uprising in Virginia in 1676 against the colonial Governor's friendly policies toward Native Americans.
  • In 1674 a group of yeomen farmers on the Virginia frontier demanded that Native Americans living on treaty-protected lands be driven out or killed.
  • In September 1675, a series of violent conflicts between Virginians and Native Americans began.
  • When Berkeley refused to go against the Native Americans, farmers gathered to form a raiding party, of which Nathaniel Bacon was elected leader.
  • Bacon and his men led several more raids against Native Americans and on September 19, 1676, burned Jamestown to the ground .

• Indian Resistance and Survival

  • Indian tribes fought over 40 wars for survival, killing at least 19,000 white settlers and soldiers and at least 30,000 American Indians.
  • As American expansion continued, Native Americans resisted settlers' encroachment in several regions of the new nation (and in unorganized territories), from the Northwest to the Southeast, and then in the West, as settlers encountered the tribes of the Great Plains.
  • Native American nations on the plains in the West continued armed conflicts with the United States throughout the 19th century through what were called generally "Indian Wars. " The Battle of Little Bighorn (1876) was one of the greatest Native American victories.
  • Census Bureau estimated that about 0.8% of the U.S. population was of American Indian or Alaska Native descent.

• The Treaty of Fort Stanwix

  • The Treaty of Fort Stanwix was one of several treaties signed between Native Americans and the United States after the American Revolution.
  • The Treaty of Fort Stanwix was a treaty signed in October 1784 between the United States and its Native Americans at Fort Stanwix (located in present-day Rome, New York).
  • It was one of several treaties between Native Americans and the United States after the American victory in the Revolutionary War.
  • The treaty served as a peace treaty between the Iroquois and the Americans, since the Natives had been ignored in the Treaty of Paris.
  • Many of the Ohio Country natives, including the Shawnee, the Mingo and Delaware tribes rejected the treaty.

• Discontent on the Frontier

  • Conflict with the Native Americans arose out of political issues, viz. who would rule.
  • A new wave of Scots-Irish immigrants encroached on Native American land in the back country.
  • The ruthlessness of these conflicts reflected a growing divide between the British colonists and Native Americans.
  • The proclamation acknowledged that Native Americans owned the lands on which they were then residing, and white settlers in the area were to be removed.
  • As a result, the boundary line was adjusted in a series of treaties with Native Americans.

• New France and the Native Americans

  • French traders in America quickly realized the economic benefits of working with Native Americans to exploit fur and timber exports.
  • The Native Americans helped them to hunt for food and to use the furs from their prey to keep warm during the winter months.
  • The career and policies of Frontenac, Governor of New France from 1672 to 1682 and from 1689 to 1698, illustrates New France's conflicted policies toward Native Americans.
  • The fur trade allowed Native Americans access to metal tools that would make their lives easier.
  • This is a scene from the French and Indian War (1754–1763), depicting the alliance of French and Native American forces.

• American Indian Policy

  • As settlers moved west, Native American tribes were coerced into signing treaties giving away their land.
  • The lands that natives resided on, Nebraska and Kansas territories, ended up being taken from the natives by the government and given to settlers.
  • This act intended to give natives a sense of land ownership and integrate agricultural lifestyle with the tribes, much like that of the Americans and Europeans.
  • The Bureau of Indian Affairs was used during this time to keep a commanding hold of all aspects of native life, thus upholding the goal of "civilizing" natives.
  • The stated objective of the Dawes Act was to stimulate assimilation of Indians into American society.

• American Indians and the War Effort

  • Some 44,000 Native Americans served in the United States military during World War II, which was one-third of all able-bodied Indian men.
  • Indian Commissioner in 1945, "caused the greatest disruption of Native life since the beginning of the reservation era," affecting the habits, views, and economic well-being of tribal members.
  • American Indians first saw action in the Pacific Theater along with the rest of the American army and navy.
  • American Indians were also among the first Americans to enter Germany and played a role in the Liberation of Berlin.
  • In 1940, only 5 percent of Native Americans lived in cities.

• Nativism

  • Nativism was an anti-immigration movement which favored those descended from the inhabitants of the original thirteen colonies.
  • The largest of these movements was nativism, which took its name from the "Native American" parties.
  • In this context, "native" did not mean indigenous or American Indian, but rather those descended from the inhabitants of the original British thirteen colonies.
  • In 1856, Millard Fillmore was the American Party candidate for President and trumpeted anti-immigrant themes.
  • Nativism caused much splintering in the political landscape