Oglala Timeline
| 1000 | White Buffalo Calf Pipe comes to the Lakota. |
| 1640 | First recorded contact with the Dakota tribes of the Sioux by Jesuits in the area of present-day Green Bay, Wisconsin, and in the forests in southern Minnesota. The French had first become aware of the Sioux by 1640 (probably through the Ojibwa...hence the name Sioux from the French corruption of the Ojibwa name for an enemy |
| 1658 | first actual contact was made in 1658 by Radisson along the the shores of Lake Superior. The Sioux before this time had also become well aware of the French because Wisconsin had been overrun after 1640 with refugees from the east (Ojibwa, Fox, Sauk, Ottawa,
Wyandot, Potawatomi, etc.) who were fleeing an Iroquois offensive of annihilation during the Beaver Wars. To aid these allies against the Iroquois, the French had been trading guns to these peoples, and they had been using them not only against the Iroquois, but also to fight and seize territory from the resident Sioux. Needless to say to initial Sioux reception of the French was somewhat frigid. Some limited trade developed, but the French preferred to work with people who were more receptive (the Ojibwa) who were enemies of the Sioux and made sure that the French did not supply too many weapons to them. Although this arrangement was not really satisfactory, the majority of the Sioux were drawn into the web of French trade interests. |
| 1679 | Daniel Greysolon Dulhut (Duluth) held a council with the Dakota (Sioux) near Mille Lacs Lake. |
| 1680 | In 1680 the Teton or Lakota were identified as living further west, on the upper Mississippi in central Minnesota around Big Stone Lake. But the continuing wars between the eastern tribes over the fur trade had driven the Chippewa westward to this area. They were well-armed by the French, and gradually forced the Oceti Sakowin westward, out of their forest-and-lake range, and onto the Great Plains west of the Mississippi. In 1680 the French arranged a short-lived alliance
between the Sioux and Ojibwa to counter influence of the Cree and Assiniboine who were trading with the British. So it was that the Sioux and the |
| 1750 | Around 1750 - 1775, the Lakota split off from the main Dakota homeland in Minnesota, and moved west. During the late 1700s to early 1800s, the Lakota established dominance versus other tribes in their new home and hunting grounds in the Black Hills and on the northern plains, in areas that would become western South Dakota, eastern Montana, northern Wyoming and northern Nebraska. |
| 1759 | "Bands Separated In Winter" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1760 | "Fisher were killed" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1761 | "Eagle trapper killed" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1762 | "They Swam towards a buffalo" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1763 | "No Knifes" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1764 | "Ant was killed" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1765 | "Pouch was killed" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1766 | "Shooting Pine was captured" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1767 | "They helped both sides" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1768 | "Mixed bloods fought"- Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1769 | "Master was killed" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1770 | "The great mystery was crazy" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1771 | "They burnt the Mandan out" - Garnier Winter Count. The first major small pox outbreak. |
| 1772 | "Three wood peckers killed" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1773 | "Dogs also snow blind" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1774 | "Masquerader was killed" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1775 | "Two who went on the hill were killed" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1776 | "When home came" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1777 | "Club carrier was killed" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1778 | "Place of winter camp forgotten" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1779 | "Assiniboins came" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1780 | "Pennis body struck by wand" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1781 | "Horse came rushing" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1782 | "The measles" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1783 | "Man was a red robe killed" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1784 | "a Marshall froze" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1785 | "Oglala to ok a cedar"- Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1786 | "Iron-ornament while scouting" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1787 | "shades father killed by Cheyen" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1788 | "Two masqueraders killed" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1789 | "Many crows died" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1790 | "Two Mandan killed on ice" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1791 | "They carry an emblem every" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1792 | "They saw a white woman" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1793 | "A truce with the money" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1794 | "Man with little face killed" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1795 | "Man with very long hair killed" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1796 | Man standing with a vessel killed" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1797 | "Man with war bonnet killed" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1798 | "Found a woman the great mystery" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1799 | "Many pregnant woman died" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1800 | "one who could not eat a heart made a vow" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1801 | "Second measles" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1802 | "Good white man came" - Garnier Winter
Count. There are an estimated 60
million buffalo on the Plains. Federal Law prohibits the sale of liquor to
Indians. Congress appropriates funds to "educate" and "civilize" the Indians. |
| 1803 | "They brought iron claws" - Garnier Winter Count. The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France. The westward expansion that follows eventually leads to depletion of the buffalo, an animal central to the Lakota way of life. |
| 1804 | "They brought curly horses" - Garnier Winter Count. The Sioux meet the Lewis and Clark expedition. Trading posts established throughout the West to take advantage of established trade networks. Fur trading becomes an important part of Oglala life. Oglala and other Lakota tribes expand their region of influence and control to cover most of the current regions known as North and South Dakota, westward to the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming and south to the Platte River in Nebraska. |
| 1805 | "They did ceremony with horses Tail" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1806 | "Eight were killed" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1807 | "When trapping eagles they were killed"- Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1808 | "Man with red shirt intercepted and killed" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1809 | "Blue blanket's father killed by a Ree" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1810 | "Little beavers tipi burned" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1811 | "They brought beaded tails" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1812 | "They killed four Rees" - Garnier Winter Count. Missouri Territory organized - South Dakota included within its borders. |
| 1813 | "Big Roads father killed by Ree" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1814 | "A Kiowa skull was crushed" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1815 | "No bow lived in a big lodge" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1816 | "Again in this lodge" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1817 | "They built tipis of dead branches" - Garnier Winter Count. The Indians in this area traded almost exclusively with the French until about 1817 (the Louisiana Purchase was in 1803) when the American traders began to compete for the buffalo fur business. The American Fur Company, under the leadership of John Jacob Astor, began operations in Minnesota. |
| 1818 | "Third measles" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1819 | "Joseph built a house rotten wood" - Garnier Winter Count. The United States established Fort St. Anthony (renamed Fort Snelling in 1825) to protect the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers. |
| 1820 | "Two arrows had a magical tipi fastener" - Garnier Winter Count. In the 1820's the Oglala's lay claim to an area in the vicinity of the Bad and Cheyenne Rivers. Many Oglala frequent the Missouri River fur traders. |
| 1821 | "A moving star roared" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1822 | "Pealing froze his leg"- Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1823 | "Much corn was bad"- Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1824 | "Throwce killed by exhaustion"- Garnier Winter Count. Bureau of Indian Affairs is organized under War Department. |
| 1825 | "They drowned" - Garnier Winter Count. In the Early Spring of 1825 a Yankton village camped near the mouth of the Moreau River is sweep away by a flash flood from a breaking ice dam. |
| 1826 | "Kaiwayo died coming back" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1827 | ""They boiled rushes" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1828 | "They killed many Mandan"- Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1829 | "Trickled face was held" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1830 | "Many white buffalos wounded" - Garnier Winter Count. Kansa, Iowa, Omaha, Otoe, Yankton Sioux are starving and poorly dressed |
| 1831 | "Burning lake" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1832 | "One-horn broke his leg"- Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1833 | "The stars fell" - Garnier Winter Count. Leonid meteor shower. A winter count hide by No Ears made note of this Leonid meteor shower (Walker, 1982, p. 138). His drawing of the shower is reproduced in Figure 1. Additional images of the 1833 Leonid shower and other showers were recorded by Mallery (1886, p. 116). Chamberlain notes the universal appearance of this event on plains Indian winter count hides (1984). These events made an impression on the Lakota. What appears in any Lakota discussion concerning a comet or meteor, is that the apparition is considered to fit into the larger picture of how the universe works. The meaning of the event is intricately connect to what is wakan or sacred. |
| 1834 | "A return Cheyenne killed" - Garnier Winter Count. Fur Company (owned by John Jacob Astor), he sent messengers to the Oglala encouraging them to trade at Fort Laramie. Bull Bear moved 4,000 Oglala to Fort Laramie and made this area the center of Oglala activity for the next 40 years. Bull Bear brought his band the next year. Subsequently Sublette sold the Fort to the American Fur Company. While the Oglala drove other tribes from the Fort Laramie area, other Sioux bands would spend time in the area. By the 1860's many Brulé bands moved to the area. Campbell and Sublette establish their most successful trading post at the mouth of the Laramie River. |
| 1835 | "A fat buffalo bull wounded"- Garnier Winter Count. Fort St. Vrain on South Platte. |
| 1836 | "They throw Ice on each other" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1837 | "Face half painted-red was killed" - Garnier Winter Count. A major smallpox outbreak on the plains. |
| 1838 | "Son of Crazy-Horse was killed" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1839 | "Starving on the warpath" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1840 | "They killed two of Little Thunder's brothers" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1841 | "They captured many brown ears horses" - Garnier Winter Count. Bull Bear is killed (Chief of the Koya Oglalas). |
| 1842 | "Feather ear-ring killed a horse herder" - Garnier Winter Count. Crazy Horse is born. |
| 1843 | "Captives brought" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1844 | "He Crows killed" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1845 | "Fourth measles" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1846 | "Man with with testicles killed" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1847 | "Crow Eagle stabbed" - Garnier Winter Count. Some Otoe massacred by Ponca and Sioux |
| 1848 | "A hermaphrodite was killed" - Garnier Winter Count. Gold is discovered in California which begins Gold Rush. Fort Kearny is established along the Oregon Trail |
| 1849 | "Cramps" - Garnier Winter Count. The U.S. government purchased Fort Laramie from the American Fur Company and brought troops in. |
| 1850 | "Smallpox" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1851 | "Great distribution" - Garnier Winter Count. Treaty of 1851. Early relations between the traders at the Fort and the Indians were amicable, but as the tide of emigrants swelled along the Oregon Trial, resentments and friction began to emerge. In an effort to end hostilities, a council attended by representatives of the United States and more than 10,000 Indians was called near Fort Laramie in 1851. The council give birth to the Treaty of 1851 that was signed by the United States and tribal representatives. In return for $50,000 per year of annuities, the Indians agreed to stop harassing the wagon trains. |
| 1852 | "Winter of deep snow" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1853 | "A bear raped a virgin" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1854 | "Conquering bear was killed" - Garnier Winter Count. First outbreak of armed hostilities between the United States Government and Plains Indians (Brule and Lakota). One-hundred-thirty Brule warriors are killed. Others taken into custody at Fort Laramie. Congress creates the Nebraska Territory |
| 1855 | "Hornet would not give up" - Garnier Winter Count. Colonel William Harney uses 1300 soldiers to massacre an entire Brulé village in retribution for the killing of 30 soldiers who were killed in retribution for the killing of the Brulé chief, Conquering Bear, in a dispute over a cow. |
| 1856 | "Crows with the whites" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1857 | "Crows kill ten whites" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1858 | "Yellow blanket killed" - Garnier Winter Count. Colorado Gold Rush. |
| 1859 | "Big Crow killed" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1860 | "Many babies died" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1861 | "Spotted horse killed" - Garnier Winter Count. U.S. Civil War. 1861 - 65 |
| 1862 | "A boy scalped" - Garnier Winter Count. The Homestead Act A flood of settlers was unleashed upon the Indian lands. The mass execution of 38 mostly innocent Sioux men in Mankato, MN for crimes during the Sioux Uprising. The trials of almost every adult male who had voluntarily surrendered to General Sibley, at a rate of up to 40 a day, were conducted under the premise of guilty until proven innocent. Originally 303 men were condemned to death. President Lincoln intervened and ordered a complete review of the records. This resulted in a reduced list of 40 to be executed. One was reprieved by the military because he had supplied testimony against many of the others. A last minute reprieve removed one more from the list. A mix-up in properly recording the names of the men and in associating the records with the proper men resulted in one man being ordered released for saving a woman's life, a day after he was hung. |
| 1863 | "Eight were killed" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1864 | "Four Crows were killed" - Garnier Winter Count. Massacre at Sand Creek. Colonel Chivington, a sometimes Methodist minister, leads a troop of volunteers and soldiers to Black Kettle's camp at Sand Creek with the sole purpose of killing peaceful Indians. They kill 105 Indian women and children and 28 men, many standing together under a U.S. and a white flag. Afterward, they mutilated the bodies horribly and wore the severed parts on their saddles and their hats. |
| 1865 | "All the horses were killed" - Garnier
Winter Count. General Patrick Conner organizes 3 columns of soldiers to begin an invasion of the Powder River Basin, from the Black Hills, Paha Sapa, to the Big Horn Mountains. They had one order: "Attack and kill every male Indian over twelve years of age." Conner builds a fort on the Powder River. Wagon trains begin to cross the Powder River Basin on their way to the Montana gold fields. Battle of Platte Bridge (July 24-26 1865) The Cheyenne and Lakota besiege the most northerly outpost of the U.S. army and succeed in killing all members of a platoon of cavalrymen sent out to meet a wagon train as well as the wagon drivers and their escorts. |
| 1866 | "A hundred white men killed" - Garnier Winter Count. War chiefs Red Cloud, Spotted Tail, Standing Elk, Dull Knife and others come to Fort Laramie to negotiate a treaty concerning access to the Powder River Basin. Shortly after the beginning of the talks, on June 13, Col. Henry Carrington and several hundred infantry men reached Fort Laramie to build forts along the Bozeman trail. It was clear to the chiefs that the treaty was a mere formality; the road would be opened whether they agreed or not. This was the beginning Red Cloud's War. - Late Spring 1866 - Col. Carrington begins building Fort Phil Kearney He halts his column between the forks of the Little Piney and the Big Piney Creeks, in the best hunting grounds of the Plains Indians, and pitches camp. The Cheyenne visit and decide that the camp is too strong for them to attack directly and begin plans for harassing the soldiers who leave the camp and for drawing out soldiers by using decoys. All summer they harasses the soldiers and make alliances with other Plains groups, forming a coalition of Lakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho and Crow groups. |
| 1867 | "A Shoshone that came in to camp was killed" - Garnier Winter Count. Grand Council of 6,000 tribes at Bear Butte, the sacred mountain of the Cheyenne, attended by Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, and Sitting Bull, among other great leaders, pledged to end further encroachment by the whites. Summer, 1867. |
| 1868 | "Hornet-thunder escorted" - Garnier Winter Count. Treaty of Fort Laramie. The various phases of action taken by the government against the Native Americans served to increase both its territorial boundaries and its economic security. The most poignant examples of this can be seen through the government's dealing s in the negotiation, formation, and implementation of treaties. The Oglala Lakota Indians and their struggle with the government over the Black Hills of South Dakota perhaps best exemplifies this Native American Experience. |
| 1869 | "Old woman killed by a tree" - Garnier Winter Count. Transcontinental railroad completed. |
| 1870 | "High-road killed" - Garnier Winter Count. There are an estimated 13 million buffalo on the Plains. |
| 1871 | "Branches lost" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1872 | "Anus-on-both-sides killed two crows" - Garnier Winter Count. United States Government sends out a survey team to plot a course for the Northern Pacific Railroad through the Sitting Bull's territory. Warned to stay away, the Government complied. |
| 1873 | "Two Omaha killed" - Garnier Winter
Count. Custer and the Seventh Cavalry come to the northern plains to guard the
surveyors for the Northern Pacific Railroad. He has a chance encounter with Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.
Red Cloud Agency moved to new site on the White River in northwest Nebraska. |
| 1874 | "Last time they went across" - Garnier Winter Count. An expedition led by Custer finds gold in the Black Hills, Paha Sapa. Acting agent Frank Appleton killed by warrior at Red Cloud Agency; Lt. Levi Robinson ambushed and killed while on wood train escort from Fort Laramie by Indians from Red Cloud Agency. The 949-man Sioux Expedition leaves Fort Laramie to protect the Red Cloud Indian Agency. Tent camp established near agency, named Camp Red Cloud Agency. March 2-7, .Camp Robinson moved a mile and a half west of the agency, near the confluence of Soldier Creek and White River, where the permanent post was later built. |
| 1875 | "Seven Loafers killed" - Garnier Winter Count. The U.S. government attempts to purchase Paha Sapa and fails. |
| 1876 | "Horses taken from Red Cloud" - Garnier Winter Count. The Battle of the Little Bighorn. The U.S. government issues an ultimatum that all Sioux who are not on the Great Sioux Reservation by January 31 will be considered hostile. The winter is bitter and most Sioux do not even hear of the ultimatum until after the deadline. |
| 1877 | "Crazy Horse killed" - Garnier Winter Count. The Manypenny Agreement is ratified by Congress, taking the Paha Sapa and confining the Indians to reservations. Sitting Bull escapes to Canada. He has about 300 followers with him. Crazy Horse surrenders at Fort Robinson with his band of 889 persons at Camp Robinson. The end of the Great Sioux War when a small band of Minicoµjou Sioux is defeated by General Miles. Crazy Horse is murdered at the hands of soldiers and Scouts at Fort Robinson. Red Cloud Agency moved to new site on the Missouri River, later relocated to present site of Pine Ridge Agency in South Dakota. |
| 1878 | "Cheyenne man killed" - Garnier Winter Count. Red Cloud's people move to Pine Ridge Agency on the White Clay River. Commission finds the Indian Bureau permeated with "cupidity, inefficiency, and the most barefaced dishonesty." The department's affairs were "a reproach to the whole nation." Carl Schurz had already dismissed the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, John Q. Smith on September 27, 1877. He now discharged many more Bureau employees and began a reorganization of the Indian agents. A band of 149 Cheyenne led by Chief Dull Knife captured by troops from Camp Robinson and taken into custody at the post. The Cheyenne had escaped from Indian Territory (Oklahoma) a month earlier and were on their way to their northern homeland. |
| 1879 | "Spotted wolf killed" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1880 | "Man with spotted testicles killed" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1881 | "Spotted Tail killed" - Garnier Winter Count. Spotted Tail is assassinated by Crow Dog. White officials dismiss the killing as a simple quarrel, but the Sioux feel that it was the result of a plot to wrest control from a strong Indian leader. Sitting Bull and 186 of his remaining followers surrender at Fort Buford. He is sent to Fort Randall for 2 years as a prisoner of war instead of being pardoned, as promised. |
| 1882 | "Drums son committed suicide" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1883 | "Burnt face broke his neck" - Garnier Winter Count. Sitting Bull is allowed to go to the Standing Rock Reservation where he lived the rest of his life across the Grand River from his birthplace. "Buffalo Bill" Cody stages his first Wild West Show at the Omaha fairgrounds, featuring a herd of buffalo and a troupe of cowboys, Indians and vaqueros who re-enact a cattle round-up, a stagecoach hold-up and other scenes drawn from Cody's own life on the frontier. A group of clergymen, government officials and social reformers calling itself “The Friends of the Indian” meets in upstate New York to develop a strategy for bringing Native Americans into the mainstream of American life. Their decisions set the course for U.S. policy toward Native Americans over the next generation and result in the near destruction of Native American culture. |
| 1884 | "White bull murdered his his" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1885 | "Fire-man banished" - Garnier Winter Count. Sitting Bull tours with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West show. |
| 1886 | "Turn over accidentally killed" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1887 | "Shaman accidentally killed" - Garnier
Winter Count. The Dawes Act Congressman Henry Dawes, author of the act, once expressed his faith in the civilizing power of private property with the claim that to be civilized was to "wear civilized clothes...cultivate the ground, live in houses, ride in Studebaker wagons, send children to school, drink whiskey [and] own property." (U. S. Statutes at Large, Vol. XXIV, p. 388 ff.) An act to provide for the allotment of lands in severalty to Indians on the various reservations, and to extend the protection of the laws of the United States and the Territories over the Indians, and for other purposes. Be it enacted, That in all cases where any tribe or band of Indians has been, or shall hereafter be, located upon any reservation created for their use, either by treaty stipulation or by virtue of an act of Congress or executive order setting apart the same for their use, the President of the United States be, and he hereby is, authorized, whenever in his opinion any reservation or any part thereof of such Indians is advantageous for agricultural and grazing purposes to cause said reservation, or any part thereof, to be surveyed, or resurveyed if necessary, and to allot the lands in said reservations in severalty to any Indian located thereon in quantities as follows: To each head of a family, one-quarter of a section; To each single person over eighteen years of age, one-eighth of a section; To each orphan child under eighteen years of age, one-eighth of a section; and, To each other single person under eighteen years now living, or who may be born prior to the date of the order of the President directing an allotment of the lands embraced in any reservation, one-sixteenth of a section; . . . ... SEC. 5. That upon the approval of the allotments provided for in this act by the Secretary of the Interior, he shall . . . declare that the United States does and will hold the land thus allotted, for the period of twenty-five years, in trust for the sole use and benefit of the Indian to whom such allotment shall have been made, . . . and that at the expiration of said period the United States will convey the same by patent to said Indian, or his heirs as aforesaid, in fee, discharged of such trust and free of all charge or encumbrance whatsoever: . . . SEC. 6. That upon the completion of said allotments and the patenting of the lands to said allottees, each and every member of the respective bands or tribes of Indians to whom allotments have been made shall have the benefit of and be subject to the laws, both civil and criminal, of the State or Territory in which they may reside; . . .And every Indian born within the territorial limits of the United States to whom allotments shall have been made under the provisions of this act, or under any law or treaty, and every Indian born within the territorial limits of the United States who has voluntarily taken up, within said limits, his residence separate and apart from any tribe of Indians therein, and has adopted the habits of civilized life, is hereby declared to be a citizen of the United States, and is entitled to all the rights, privileges, and immunities of such citizens, whether said Indian has been or not, by birth or otherwise, a member of any tribe of Indians within the territorial limits of the United States without in any manner impairing or otherwise affecting the right of any such Indian to tribal or other property Š.. . Reprinted from the International Journal on World Peace (1993) "...the real aim of [the Dawes Act] is to get at the Indians land and open it up for resettlement." - Senator Henry M. Teller, 1881 The United States Government has been trying unsuccessfully to register Native American Indians for over a hundred years. The infamous Dawes Act of 1887 was the first such effort on a large-scale. The purported aim of the Act was to protect Indian pro perty rights during the Oklahoma Land Rush. By registering, Indians were told, they would be allotted 160 acres of land per family in advance of the Land Rush and thus be restituted for 100 years of genocide against them. The purpose of the Dawes Act, ostensibly to protect Indian welfare, was viewed with suspicion by many Indians hurt by government's clumsy relocation efforts of the past. Indians who had refused to submit to previous relocations refused to register on t he Dawes Rolls for fear that they would be caught and punished. To get on the Dawes Rolls, Native Americans had to "anglicize" their names. Rolling Thunder thus became Ron Thomas and so forth. This bit of "melting pot" chicanery allowed agents of the government, sent to the frontier to administer the Act, to slip t he names of their relatives and friends onto the Dawes Rolls and thus reap millions of acres of land for their friends and cronys. The abuses of the Dawes Act were revealed and set forth in the Miriam Report of 1928. A Group of 1001 Native Americans and prominent citizens were charged by Congress to look into widespread allegations of corruption and abuse of the Dawes Act. The 800 page report documented massive fraud and misappropriation by the very government agents sent to administer the Act. It was found in one state alone that Indian held land, which totaled 138 million acres in 1887 at the time the Dawes Act was signed into l aw, had been reduced to 47 million acres of land by 1934 when the Act was repealed. The Miriam Report led to the repeal of the Dawes Act although repeal did not mean that land obtained thru fraud was restored. The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, written specifically to indemnify Native Americans for the abuses of the Dawes Act simply "grandfathered in" the existing deeds and that was that. As compensation, Indians were to benefit from a credit fund designed to encourage small businesses and self-sufficiency. The government stepped up efforts to recruit Natives into posts in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, set up an Indian Court system to d eal with non-federal crimes, and established a mechanism for Indians to pool their land, purchase new parcels and own land as a corporate entity. By 1954, it had become clear that the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 was failing. Implementation of the Act was plagued by the same incompetence and corruption created by the Dawes Act. |
| 1888 | "They opened packages" - Garnier Winter Count. Red Cloud Indian School was founded as Holy Rosary Mission in 1888 by the Jesuit Fathers and Brothers and the Franciscan Sisters at the request of the historic Chief Red Cloud. The Oglala Sioux, or the Lakota, were by then residing on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Chief Red Cloud had continually petitioned the U.S. government to allow the "Blackrobes" (the "Jesuits") to come to the Reservation, in order to establish a school. His continual efforts brought about the development of Holy Rosary Mission and today's Red Cloud Indian School. (Grades pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12) |
| 1889 | "Red Shirts sister committed suicide" - Garnier Winter Count. Sioux sign an agreement with the U.S. government breaking up the great Sioux Reservation. The Sioux will get six separate small reservations. The major part of their land was thrown open to settlers. South Dakota and North Dakota enter the federal Union as states created out of the Dakota Territory. |
| 1890 | "Big Foot killed" - Garnier Winter Count. Massacre at Wounded Knee. Sitting Bull is murdered on December 15 by Indian policemen, acting on behalf of the U.S. government. |
| 1891 | "Infantry enlisted" - Garnier Winter Count. Arrangements are made allowing whites to lease Indian lands. |
| 1892 | "Two Sticks killed cowboys" - Garnier Winter Count. Rosebud Reservation in Gregory Co. thrown open to homesteaders. 1892 - 1904 |
| 1893 | "Big school burned" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1894 | ""Two sticks hanged" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1895 | "Big council organized" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1896 | "Winter of white bird" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1897 | "Meat house burned" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1898 | "Fence built" - Garnier Winter Count. Curtis Act dissolves tribal governments; institutes civil governments for Indian Territory. |
| 1899 | "The winter of fire" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1900 | "Distribution stopped" - Garnier Winter Count. There are fewer than 1,000 buffalo on the Plains. 6,827 Oglalas at Pine Ridge from census. |
| 1901 | "The winter of smallpox" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1902 | "Old woman disappeared" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1903 | "Deer hunters killed" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1904 | The winter of first allotment" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1905 | "Gray war-bonnet son committed suicide" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1906 | "Utes captured" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1907 | "Allottees benefits received" - Garnier Winter Count. |
| 1908 | "The winter of American Horse" - Garnier Winter Count. Surplus lands on Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Reservations opened for settlement. |
| 1909 | Red Cloud Dies at Pine Ridge Agency |
| 1910 | U.S. government forbids Sun Dance of Plains Indians for reason of self-torture. |
| 1912 | Surplus lands in Bennett, Mellette, and Washabaugh Counties opened for homesteads. |
| 1914 | World War I. Many Indians enlist, fight and die for U.S. 1914 -18 |
| 1917 | For the first time in 50 years, Indian births exceed deaths. U.S. guardianship of Indian lands ends. Many Indians lose their land to corrupt individuals. 1917 - 20. Surplus lands in Tripp County, SD. opened for homesteads. |
| 1921 | Department of Interior is responsible for Indian education, medical and social services. |
| 1922 | Cuny Table School is established and closes in 1961. |
| 1923 | American Indian Defense Association is established. |
| 1924 | The Citizenship Act of 1924 naturalizes Indians born within the territorial limits of the United States. |
| 1926 | National Council of American Indians is founded. |
| 1934 | The Indian Reorganization Act recognizes tribal governments as sovereign nations. |
| 1939 | SD Badlands made a National Monument. |
| 1941 - 45 | World War II. More than 25,000 Indians serve on active duty. Land at Cuny Table are taken for the "Bombing Range." |
| 1952 | Federal Relocation Policy (Concurrent House Resolution 109), was a new manner of ripping away the indigenous people from their land. Passed on August 1, 1952 and gaining recognition as the "Termination" policy, it affected 109 indigenous nations, and portions of other nations, by unilaterally dissolving them through congressional action between 1953 and 1958 |
| 1961 | Indian tribes are given first opportunity to purchase lands offered for sale by individual Indians. |
| 1964 | Billy Mills, the Olympic gold medal winner in Tokyo, 1964 was the first American to ever win the 10,000 meter race and was an Oglala Lakota. |
| 1968 | The American Indian Movement is established. Civil Rights Act extends Bills of Rights to reservation Indians; decrees states cannot assume law and order jurisdiction without tribes' consent. "Project Own" is established for Indians to open small businesses on the reservations. |
| 1970 | Federal policy of Indian self-determination is established. |
| 1972 | Little Wound High School was established in 1972 in Kyle,SD.
Occupation of the BIA Office. In November of 1972, members from the activist Native American group AIM (American Indian Movement) led the "Trail of Broken Treaties" caravan to protest the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters in Washington D.C. The protest was an attempt to convince the government to renew the treaty relationship that had once existed. However, the demonstration was halted and it transformed into a week-long takeover of the BIA office by the Native American protesters. Indian Education Act provides educational programs for Indians. |
| 1973 | Occupation of Wounded Knee. On February 28, 1973, just three months after AIM made national press in their takeover of the BIA headquarters in Washington they made the headlines once again when they seized the village for a seventy-one day takeover of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation of South Dakota. |
| 1978 | Congress passes the American Indian Religious Freedom Act affirming religious freedom for Indian people. |
| 1980 | Supreme Court Decision. After signing the Treaty of Ft. Laramie of 1868, the US government allowed the land of the Black Hills to be taken away from the Sioux Indians of South Dakota. This continued until the Lakota people decided to take action. The Sioux filed suit in 1923, claiming the Black Hills were appropriated without just compensation, violating the 5th Amendment. The case was dismissed and reopened several times. In 1975, the Court of Claims held that "a more ripe and rank case of dishonorable dealings will never, in all probability, be found in our history..." The case finally reached the Supreme Court in 1980. Arguments were heard on the Supreme Court case of the United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians on March 24, 1980, and the case was decided on June 30,1980. In an 8-1 decision, the Supreme Court upheld the previous Court of Claims decision of 1979 which ruled that the Sioux Indians were entitled to the award of $17.5 million, plus 5% interest per year since 1877, totaling about $106 million. Justice Harry Blackmun wrote: "In sum, we conclude that... the terms of 1877 Act did not effect Śa mere change in the form of investment of Indian tribal property'. Rather, the 1877 Act effected a taking of tribal property, property which had been set aside for the exclusive occupation of the Sioux by the Ft. Laramie Treaty of 1868. That taking implied an obligation on the part of the Government to make just compensation to the Sioux Nation, and that obligation, including an award of interest, must now, at last, be paid." To this day, 17 years after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Sioux, the people have refused money for the Black Hills, demanding that the land be returned. While the US Supreme Court attempted to resolve past injustices with this award of funds, the land lost from the Sioux and the crimes committed by the US Government can not be repaid. The US Government has treated the Lakota tribe, as well many other tribes, as an "other." Putting these people in this category gave them a feeling of exclusion. This initial separation fueled the resentment among the Lakota people and affected future generations in their negotiations and feelings toward the United States as an institution. The Native Americans want to feel included in the nation and recognized as having rights--rights in the form of their land. However, the US Government, in an effort to make up for their exclusion policies to the Lakota, can only offer money. The Lakota are continuing their ongoing battle to maintain their sense of self as well as find their place in the society that has grown around them. |
| 1981 | Reagan cuts funds for Indian social programs by 40%. Yellow Thunder Camp |
| 1983 | United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit holds against Native American claims for protection of Bear Butte as a sacred site in Fools Crow v. Gullet, 706 F.2d 856 (8th Cir, 1983) |
| 1987 | Russell Means (Tribal Member) runs for the Presidency of the United States of America |
| 1990 | 1st Big Foot Memorial Ride. Hundreds of Native people -- mostly Lakotas -- made a long, cold ride in the winter of 1990 to memorialize the massacre of Big Foot's band at Wounded Knee, around Christmas, in 1890 on what's now the Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota Reservation in South Dakota. |
| 1994 | Prairie Wind Casino is owned and operated by the Oglala Sioux Tribe. |
| 1999 | Oglala Sioux march to Whiteclay in protest; nine people arrested Confrontation ends peacefully. Members of the Oglala Sioux tribe converged on this tiny town yesterday to protest alleged treaty violations, unsolved killings and alcohol sales. Nine people were arrested, including activist Russell Means. |
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