Thousands of Plains Indians died from smallpox. Native American contact with Whites turned out to be deadly, especially for the Plains tribes. One...
A Deadly Plague
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Indians
A Revolt in New Mexico
Indians rise up against U.S. occupiers. The Taos Revolt was an uprising by Hispano and Puebloan groups against the United States during the Mexican...
War with the Modocs
The U.S. tries to return the Indians to the reservation. In November 1872, U.S. soldiers try to push a group of Modoc Indians to the Klamath...
Where Was the Indian Territory?
In a word; eastern Oklahoma. Indian removals in the East began as early as 1817. In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, which authorized...
Saloons, Paniolos and Telegraphs
Was there racial separation in the Old West? Could a Black cowboy go into a Tombstone saloon? Jeffery S. King Washington, DC It’s difficult, if...
Native History Celebrated Large
Only months old, the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City is dedicated to truth-telling. It was once called Indian Territory, a dumping ground as...
The Indian Civil War
For the Cherokee, the conflict pitted brother against brother. The Civil War not only split the United States, but it also tore apart various Indian...
Taking a Stand
Cherokee leader Watie signed an unpopular treaty. Stand Watie was a controversial Cherokee leader. He and several members of his family signed a...
Life on the Santa Fe Trail
It wasn’t only the Indians who made life precarious for the travelers on the Santa Fe Trail. The country was literally crawling with rattlesnakes,...
Bringing out the Big Guns
The first time the army used howitzers against Indians In 1862, a Union army force was making its way across Arizona Territory. They had entered...
Arizona’s Yavapai-Apache War
A tour of the conflict’s historic sites is a poignant reminder of how unmerciful war was meted out against the state’s Native people. ...
Spark on the Prairie
Hit the road across Oklahoma and Texas to discover the history behind the Warren Wagon Train Raid and the Kiowa Indian Trial of 1871. It...