Indian Wars

Indian Wars
   The name commonly given to conflict between indigenous North American peoples, referred to almost uniformly as “Indians,” and European settlers encroaching on their territory, starting in the sixteenth century and lasting into the late nineteenth century. In the United States clashes of either settlers or soldiers with various Indian peoples over enormous tracts of territory in the American interior were almost continuous between the 1840s and 1890s, but most accounts of American history set the period of the Indian Wars between the conclusion of the American Civil War in 1865 and the Battle of Wounded Knee in December 1890, the last major engagement between the United States Army and indigenous American peoples. The most storied campaigns were those waged against the Apache, Comanche, Cheyenne, Modoc, Navajo, Nez Percé, and Sioux tribes, many of them organized by General Philip H. Sheridan, a veteran commander in the Union army during the Civil War and commander of the entire U.S. Army between 1883 and 1888. There was immense savagery on both sides and, as most of the campaigns were badly reported or ignored altogether by the press, an equally immense popular mythology constructed about the nature and nobility of the relentless campaign to bring ever more territory under white settlement.
   A parallel campaign took place in Canada to the north. Although the scale of westward settlement was smaller and the reaction less violent, where resistance to settlement became an inconvenience, force was routinely used to effect the “resettlement” of tribes such as the Cree, Crow, and Blackfoot by frontier constabularies such as the Northwest Mounted Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The most famous of these was the Red River Rebellion of 1869–1870, actually a rising of Métis people of mixed French-Canadian and Indian ancestry led by Louis Riel, to this day a hero of French-Canadian and Métis history.
   FURTHER READING:
    Morris, R. B. The Indian Wars. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications, 1985;
    Ostler, Jeffrey. The Plains Sioux and U.S. Colonialism from Lewis and Clarke to Wounded Knee. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004;
    Steele, Ian. Warpaths: The Invasion of North America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
   CARL CAVANAGH HODGE

Encyclopedia of the Age of Imperialism, 1800–1914. 2014.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Indian Wars — Indian Wars, the the wars in the US between white Europeans and Native Americans in the 18th and 19th centuries. The fighting increased after 1830, when the government began to force Native American tribes to leave their land and live on… …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • Indian wars — n [pl] the general name given to the various armed conflicts between Native Americans and people who later settled in America, mostly from Europe, and those who were descended from them. These battles began at Jamestown in 1622. The great Indian… …   Universalium

  • American Indian Wars — An 1899 chromolithograph of US cavalry pursuing Native Americans, artist unknown Date 1622–192 …   Wikipedia

  • List of Medal of Honor recipients for the Indian Wars — v · …   Wikipedia

  • Texas–Indian Wars — The Texas Indian Wars were a series of conflicts between settlers in Texas and Plains Indians. These conflicts began when the first settlers moved into Spanish Texas, and continued through Texas s time as part of Mexico, as its own nation,… …   Wikipedia

  • French and Indian Wars — The French and Indian Wars is a name used in the United States for a series of conflicts in North America that represented the actions there that accompanied the European dynastic wars. In Quebec, the wars are generally referred to as the… …   Wikipedia

  • Mexican Indian Wars — The Conquest of Tenochtitlán, circa 1675. Date …   Wikipedia

  • Department of the Missouri (Indian Wars) — Department of the Missouri was a sub division of the Department of the Missouri of the United States Army that functioned through the Indian Wars. In 1865 at the end of the Civil War the Department of the Missouri was renamed the Division of the… …   Wikipedia

  • Henry Johnson (Indian Wars soldier) — Infobox Military Person name=Henry Johnson born= birth date|1850|6|11 died= death date and age|1904|1|31|1850|6|11 placeofburial= Arlington National Cemetery caption=Sergeant Henry Johnson nickname= placeofbirth=Boydton, Virginia placeofdeath=… …   Wikipedia

  • Klamath and Salmon Indian Wars — was an American Indian battle which occurred in Oregon Territory and Idaho [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/ fraber/wars.htm U.S. War Involvement] ] in the first few months of the year 1855, (January March). The Klamath are a Native… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”