Battles & Wars › Gunpowder empires
American Indian Wars
c. 1609–1924· War· Americas
Well documentedSolid records, physical evidence or scientific consensus.
Three centuries of wars between European colonists, then the United States, and Native American nations over land.
See it on the Battles & Wars map →What happened
Colonists, then the United States, fought Native nations for three centuries. Early wars included the Anglo-Powhatan wars in Virginia from 1609, the Pequot War, and King Philip's War (1675–76) in New England. After independence came wars in the Ohio country, the Southeast and Florida, and forced removals such as the Trail of Tears. After 1865 the army fought the Plains and Southwest nations: Little Bighorn (1876), the Apache wars, Wounded Knee (1890). Native nations won battles but lost land through war, treaties and disease.
Why it matters
These wars moved most of the continent from Native to US control and confined nations to reservations. Their legacy, in treaties, land claims and tribal sovereignty, is still argued in courts today.
How we know
Treaties, army reports, colonial and state records and newspapers; Native oral histories and winter counts (pictorial calendars); and battlefield archaeology, as at Little Bighorn after a 1983 grass fire exposed the ground.
Still debated
Death tolls are estimates that vary widely. Historians debate whether to call the whole era genocide; specific episodes, such as killings in 1850s California, are often described that way.
Inside this (1)
Connections (3)
▸Smallpox and Old World epidemics in the Americas weakened Native nations before and during American Indian WarsWell documented
The connection
Smallpox, measles and other diseases brought by Europeans killed large shares of many Native populations, often before sustained fighting began. In New England an epidemic of 1616–1619 emptied coastal villages just before the Pilgrims arrived. Weakened nations had fewer warriors and less ability to resist settlers in the wars that followed.
When and how
Across North America from the 1500s; New England coast 1616–1619; the 1837 smallpox epidemic among the Mandan and others on the Missouri River.
How we know
Colonial records, missionary and trader reports, Native accounts and winter counts, and studies of skeletons and population data document repeated epidemics.
Debates and open questions
Population figures before contact and death rates are widely debated, as is how often disease was spread on purpose, as was attempted at Fort Pitt in 1763.
▸American Civil War sent veteran officers like Custer into American Indian WarsWell documented
The connection
After 1865 the US Army sent Civil War veterans west against the Plains and Southwest nations. Generals Sherman and Sheridan applied total-war methods, destroying villages, horse herds and winter food, while officers like George Custer, a Union cavalry hero, led attacks such as the Washita (1868) and died at Little Bighorn (1876).
When and how
Great Plains and Southwest, 1865–1890; Sherman, Sheridan, Custer, George Crook and Nelson Miles.
How we know
Army orders, officers' reports and memoirs, and congressional records document both the officers involved and the methods used.
Debates and open questions
Historians debate how far the slaughter of the buffalo was deliberate army policy rather than a by-product of commercial hunting and railroads.
▸Battle of the Little Bighorn was the most famous Native victory in American Indian WarsWell documented
The connection
The Great Sioux War of 1876–77 was among the last major wars on the Plains. Little Bighorn was its high point for the Lakota and Cheyenne, but the Army answered with winter campaigns that forced most bands onto reservations by 1877. Congress then took the Black Hills, a seizure for which the Supreme Court ordered compensation in 1980.
When and how
Little Bighorn River, Montana Territory, June 1876; campaigns across Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas through 1877; Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse against Generals Crook and Terry and Colonel Nelson Miles.
How we know
Army reports, treaty texts, Native testimony, and court records, including the 1980 Supreme Court case United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians.
Debates and open questions
'Most famous' is not 'biggest': St. Clair's Defeat in 1791 killed more US soldiers. The Sioux have refused the court's award, now worth over $1 billion, seeking the land instead.