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  3. Native American History

Native American History

Native American history spans an array of diverse groups and leaders, including Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and Tecumseh, and events like the Trail of Tears, the French and Indian War and the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

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Native American History Timeline

Long before Christopher Columbus stepped foot on what would come to be known as the Americas, the expansive territory was inhabited by Native Americans. Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, as more explorers sought to colonize their land, Native Americans responded in various stages, from cooperation to indignation to revolt. After siding with the French […]

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HISTORY: Native American Cultures

Native American Cultures

The Arctic The Arctic culture area, a cold, flat, treeless region (actually a frozen desert) near the Arctic Circle in present‑day Alaska, Canada and Greenland, was home to the Inuit and the Aleut. Both groups spoke, and continue to speak, dialects descended from what scholars call the Eskimo‑Aleut language family.  Because it is such an […]

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Circa 1975: During a protest gathering, some followers of AIM (American Indian Movement ) raise their fists to swear the Red Power oath.

American Indian Movement (AIM)

The American Indian Movement (AIM), founded in 1968, became the driving force behind the Indigenous civil rights movement.

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The Trail of Tears as depicted in a 1951 painting by Blackbear Bosin.

Trail of Tears

The Trail of Tears was the deadly route Native Americans were forced to follow when they were pushed off their ancestral lands and into Oklahoma by the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

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More to History: Native American Solidarity at Alcatraz

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3:57 minTV-PG
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Battle of the Little Bighorn

In 1876, General Custer and members of several Plains Indian tribes, including Crazy Horse and Chief Gall, battled in eastern Montana in what would become known as Custer’s Last Stand.

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1:52 minTV-PG

Native American Cultures

The buffalo was an essential part of Native American life, used in everything from religious rituals to teepee construction.

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2:47 minTV-PG

Proclamation of 1763

Explore 5 facts about the Proclamation of 1763, a decree originally enacted to calm the tension between Native Americans and colonials, but became one of the earliest causes of the American Revolution.

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3:09 minTV-PG

French and Indian War

The French and Indian War saw two European imperialists go head‑to‑head over territory and marked the debut of the soldier who would become America’s first president.

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October 1813: Death of Shawnee Chief Tecumseh, at the Battle of Thames in the War of 1812.

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Why the War of 1812 Was a Turning Point for Native Americans

The conflict was their last, best chance for outside military help to protect their homelands from westward expansion.

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Sequoyah, shown here in 1825, developed a Cherokee syllabary in 12 years.

How a Cherokee Leader Ensured His People’s Language Survived

Sequoyah spent 12 years working on a writing system for his nation’s language.

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Navajo Code Talkers

How Native American Code Talkers Pioneered a New Type of Military Intelligence

An overheard conversation between two Choctaw Indian soldiers serving in World War I led to a code that confounded German forces.

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Sioux boys arrive at the Carlisle School, October 5, 1879. (Credit: Corbis/Getty Images)

How Boarding Schools Tried to ‘Kill the Indian’ Through Assimilation

Native American tribes are still seeking the return of their children.

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This Day in History

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1968

American Indian Movement (AIM) is founded

Native American History
2021

Deb Haaland sworn in as first Indigenous cabinet secretary

Native American History
2020

Supreme Court rules in McGirt v. Oklahoma

Native American History
1934

Indian Reorganization Act is signed into law

Native American History
1949

Maria Tallchief debuts in “Firebird” as the first‑ever American prima ballerina

Native American History
1889

Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte becomes the first Native American woman to graduate from medical school

Native American History
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