Immigration... Native American: Disaster at Wounded Knee



Disaster at Wounded Knee

	Such violent conflicts were common throughout many territories, and it was not long before the last official military action against Native Americans took place on December 29, 1890. Government officials banned a growing religion known as the Ghost Dance on a South Dakota reservation that month. The Medacine [i.e. Medicine] Man History of the American West, 1860-1920

As part of the crackdown against the Ghost Dance, the army arrested Chief Big Foot and his Lakota tribesmen and confined them to a camp near Wounded Knee Creek. The day after the arrest, the military attempted to recover the prisoner’s weapons. A gun was accidentally discharged and soldiers opened fire. When the shooting stopped, more than 300 Lakota Indians were dead. Burial of the dead History of the American West, 1860-1920

The massacre exemplified a culture at war with the Native Americans on various fronts. Books such as Recollections of a Virginian in the Mexican, Indian, and Civil Wars (1894) describes the physical and psychological warfare involved in fighting Native Americans in the territories: He told me he hanged all of his prisoners, because the Indians had a great and superstitious horror of hanging; for they believe that no man's soul will be received into the happy hunting grounds that does not pass through the throat, which is impossible when that route is closed by a rope; it must seek another road of exit, and all such souls are rejected at the gates of Paradise. He said a fine moral effect was produced upon the Indians by this method of execution.


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1786

The United States establishes its first Native American reservation and the policy of dealing with each tribe as an independent nation.

1864		Thousands of Navajo Indians endure “Long Walk,” three-hundred mile forced march from a Southwest Indian territory to Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

1830		Congress passes the Removal Act, forcing Native Americans to leave the United States and settle in the Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River.

1868

A clause in the 14th Amendment, “excluding Indians not taxed”, prevents Native-American men from receiving the right to vote.

1838

Federal soldiers and Georgia volunteers force Cherokee Indians on a thousand-mile march to the established Indian Territory. Approximately 4,000 Cherokees died on this “Trail of Tears.”

1887

The Dawes Act dissolves many Indian reservations.

1924

President Calvin Coolidge signs bill granting Native Americans full citizenship.

1929

Congress makes annual immigration quotas permanent.

1948

The United States admits persons fleeing persecution in their native lands; allowing 205,000 refugees to enter within two years

1950

Bureau of Indian Affairs terminates federal services for Native Americans in lieu of state supervision.

1952		Immigration and Nationality Act: individuals of all races eligible for naturalization; reaffirms national origins quota system, limits immigration from Eastern Hemisphere; establishes preferences for skilled workers and relatives of U.S. citizens and permanent resident aliens; and tightens security and screening standards and procedures

1953		Congress amends 1948 refugee policy to allow for the admission of 200,000 more refugees

1980

The Refugee Act redefines criteria and procedures for admitting refugees

1986

Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) legalizes illegal aliens residing in the US unlawfully since 1982.

1876		General Custer with 264 soldiers died during the Battle of the Little Big Horn in Black Hills, Montana.

1889		Unoccupied lands in Oklahoma made available to white settlers.

1890		More than 300 Lakota Indians died at Wounded Knee.

1970

American Indian Movement members symbolically buried Plymouth Rock.