The " Old Southwest " is an informal name for the southwestern frontier territories of the United States from the American Revolutionary War c. 1780 , through the early 1800s, at which point the US had acquired the Louisiana Territory , pushing the southwestern frontier toward what is today known as the Southwest .
127-578: After numerous wars and an ethnic cleansing campaign , this region was eventually divided among six states that joined the union as Kentucky , Tennessee , Mississippi , Alabama , West Virginia and Florida . The portions of Georgia furthest from South Carolina and the Atlantic are usually considered part of this region. Conversely, the Florida peninsula (i.e. not including the Florida Panhandle ) and
254-590: A major Indian war that involved a substantial build-up of American military force in the area – which probably prevented the British from occupying an undefended Gulf coast in 1814. More importantly, relations between Americans and the southern Indians changed drastically. The Creeks, who had been living peacefully and in close contact with the settlers of the Mississippi Territory, lost more than half their land, and within twenty years were forced to move west of
381-550: A 1945 ruling, but the Indian Claims Commission recognized it as binding in 1968. Descendants of the original group were compensated collectively at a rate of less than $ 0.50 per acre, minus legal fees. Most of the local groups were decimated by the war and faced continuing loss of hunting and fishing land caused by the steadily growing population. Some moved to the Fort Hall Indian Reservation when it
508-569: A Florida militia supply train, killing eight of its guards and wounding six others; most of the goods taken were recovered by the militia in another fight a few days later. Sugar plantations were destroyed along the Atlantic coast south of St. Augustine, Florida , with many of the slaves on the plantations joining the Seminoles. The US Army had 11 companies (about 550 soldiers) stationed in Florida. Fort King (Ocala) had only one company of soldiers, and it
635-592: A defensive Spanish posture characterized the next 70 years. In the 1830s large numbers of Americans began to settle in Texas and they encroached on Comancheria , the proto-empire of the Comanches. A series of battles between Americans and Comanches and their Kiowa and Kiowa Apache allies continued until the 1870s. The first notable battle between American settlers and Comanche was the Fort Parker massacre in 1836, in which
762-724: A hundred Shawnee . The primary targets of attack were the Washington District colonies along the Watauga , Holston , and Nolichucky Rivers , and in Carter's Valley in upper eastern Tennessee, as well as the settlements along the Cumberland River beginning with Fort Nashborough in 1780, even into Kentucky, plus against the Franklin settlements , and later states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The scope of attacks by
889-828: A major part in the settlers' determination to "rid Florida of Indians once and for all". To compound the tension, runaway black slaves sometimes found refuge in Seminole camps. The result was clashes between white settlers and the Indians residing there. Andrew Jackson sought to alleviate this problem by signing the Indian Removal Act in 1830, which stipulated the relocation of Indians out of Florida – by force if necessary. Many Seminole groups were relatively new arrivals in Florida, led by such powerful leaders as Aripeka (Sam Jones), Micanopy , and Osceola , and they had no intention of leaving their lands. They retaliated against
1016-424: A man who had never practiced law and may have studied law only for a year (he left after an early disagreement with the governor, returning later for a brief spell), and Judge Bruin, a merchant of whom Sargent said he was "a worthy and sensible man [but] beyond doubt deficient". "Aside from his innocence of legal knowledge, [he] was so often drunk or absent or both" (and had to resign to avoid impeachment), according to
1143-651: A massive scale, it forced Indian tribes to move from east of the Mississippi River to the west on the American frontier , especially to Indian Territory which became Oklahoma . As settlers expanded onto the Great Plains and the Western United States , the nomadic and semi-nomadic Indian tribes of those regions were forced to relocate to Indian reservations . Indian tribes and coalitions often won battles with
1270-583: A national rather than regional outlook, though he did not ignore his constituents. Claiborne expressed the philosophy of the Republican Party and helped that party defeat the Federalists. When a smallpox epidemic broke out in the Spring of 1802, Claiborne's actions resulted in the first recorded mass vaccination in the territory and saved Natchez from the disease. George Mathews , a former governor of Georgia,
1397-661: A plan for the division of the Mississippi Territory into the state of Mississippi in the west and the Alabama Territory in the east (with St. Stephens , on the Tombigbee River , as the temporary seat of the Alabama territorial government). On December 10, 1817, the division was finalized when the western portion was admitted to the Union as Mississippi , the 20th state. The final boundary between Georgia and Mississippi Territory
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#17328455568131524-457: A profit. From 1798 through 1820, the population soared from less than 9,000 to more than 22,000. Migration came in two fairly distinct waves – a steady movement until the outbreak of the War of 1812, and a flood afterward from 1815 through 1819. The postwar flood was caused by various factors, including high prices for cotton, the elimination of Indian titles to much of the land, new and improved roads, and
1651-482: A reservation out west. The Seminoles' continued resistance to relocation led Florida to prepare for war. The St. Augustine Militia asked the US War Department for the loan of 500 muskets, and 500 volunteers were mobilized under Brig. Gen. Richard K. Call . Indian war parties raided farms and settlements, and families fled to forts or large towns, or out of the territory altogether. A war party led by Osceola captured
1778-738: A reservation were the responsibility of the Army to round up and return. The 18th and early 19th centuries in Texas were characterized by competition and warfare between the Comanches in the north and west of the state and Spanish settlements in the south and east. In the Battle of the Twin Villages in 1759, the Comanche and their Wichita allies defeated a Spanish and Apache army of more than 500 men and halted Spanish expansion in Texas. Comanche raids on Spanish settlements and their Lipan Apache allies in Texas and
1905-909: A small garrison west of the Rockies, but starting in 1849, the California Gold Rush brought a great influx of miners and settlers into the area. The result was that most of the early conflicts with the California Indians involved local parties of miners or settlers. During the American Civil War , California volunteers replaced Federal troops and won the ongoing Bald Hills War and the Owens Valley Indian War and engaged in minor actions in northern California. California and Oregon volunteer garrisons in Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, New Mexico, and
2032-517: A straight line running south from the northwest corner of Washington County (as it was defined at the time) to the Gulf of Mexico. The border north of this point was angled westward in order to keep Mississippi and Alabama roughly equal in size. At its northern end, this angled border follows a short section of the Tennessee River . Congress chose this boundary because if the straight line had been run all
2159-630: A substantial white population into the Front Range of the Rockies, supported by a trading lifeline that crossed the central Great Plains. Advancing settlement following the passage of the Homestead Act of 1862 and the growing transcontinental railways following the Civil War further destabilized the situation, placing white settlers into direct competition for the land and resources of the Great Plains and
2286-506: A time when the governor and three judges were supposed to write law to govern the new territory. In 1798, Sargent wrote to Timothy Pickering , Secretary of State, that this was his "great source of uneasiness"; he was anxiously awaiting the arrival of a new judge, William McGuire —but McGuire, who did not get to the territory in the fall of 1799, went back to his home in Virginia after only a couple of weeks. The two other judges were Judge Tilton,
2413-530: A war broke out, they would fight on the British side. The British further planned to set up an Indian nation in the Ohio-Wisconsin area to block further American expansion. The US protested and declared war in 1812 . Most Indian tribes supported the British, especially those allied with Tecumseh , but they were ultimately defeated by General William Henry Harrison . The War of 1812 spread to Indian rivalries, as well. Many refugees from defeated tribes went over
2540-463: A war party of Comanches, Kiowas, Wichitas, and Delawares attacked the Texan outpost at Fort Parker. A small number of settlers were killed during the raid, and the abduction of Cynthia Ann Parker and two other children caused widespread outrage among Texans. The Republic of Texas gained independence from Mexico in 1836. The Texas government under President Sam Houston pursued a policy of engagement with
2667-586: Is an indication [that smallpox] was spread intentionally." The discovery of gold in Idaho and Oregon in the 1860s led to similar conflicts which culminated in the Bear River Massacre in 1863 and Snake War from 1864 to 1868. In the late 1870s, another series of armed conflicts occurred in Oregon and Idaho, spreading east into Wyoming and Montana. The Nez Perce War of 1877 is known particularly for Chief Joseph and
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#17328455568132794-668: Is known as Awa'uq Massacre . Despite the incidents that occurred between European colonists and the Native population, most Indian tribes were friendly towards the Swedes in New Sweden as result of Swedish authorities respecting tribal land. British merchants and government agents began supplying weapons to Indians living in the United States following the Revolution (1783–1812) in the hope that, if
2921-511: Is part of the Old Southwest, as the state did not grow into its modern boundaries until 1827. Historians usually include West Florida in the Old Southwest, but the peninsula of Florida, or East Florida , is often excluded. The Apalachicola River was the boundary between West Florida and East Florida until 1820. The Florida Parishes of Louisiana, lying east of the Mississippi, are part of
3048-592: Is sometimes instead considered part of the US Atlantic Midland . By the late 1840s, following the Mexican–American War , the term American Southwest referred mainly to the southern portion of the Mexican Cession . The region's climate and soils favored commodity agriculture over industrial development. Industrialization around the world made processing raw goods easier, and after the invention of
3175-609: The 1790 census there were over 100,000 American settler-colonists in Kentucky and Tennessee alone, and by the 1800 census there were about 400,000 Americans in this region (including enslaved people). Members of Indigenous Nations were not US citizens until the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 and thus were not counted in the census. The US waged several wars of extermination against the Indigenous people of this region, including
3302-590: The Appalachian portions of Tennessee and Kentucky are not always considered part of this region. Historians usually describe the Old Southwest as bounded by the Mississippi River to the west, the Ohio , its tributary, to the north, the body of water these rivers flow into—the Gulf of Mexico —to the south, and to the east, the western boundaries of Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia. Much of northern, western, and southern Georgia
3429-667: The Arizona Territories also engaged in conflicts with the Apache, Cheyenne, Goshute, Navajo, Paiute, Shoshone, Sioux, and Ute Indians from 1862 to 1866. Following the Civil War, California was mostly pacified , but federal troops replaced the volunteers and again took up the struggle against Indians in the remote regions of the Mojave Desert , and in the northeast during the Snake War (1864–1868) and Modoc War (1872–1873). The tribes of
3556-604: The Battle of Four Lakes in late 1858. In southwest Oregon, tensions and skirmishes escalated between American settlers and the Rogue River peoples into the Rogue River Wars of 1855–1856. The California Gold Rush helped fuel a large increase in the number of people traveling south through the Rogue River Valley . Gold discoveries continued to trigger violent conflict between prospectors and Indians. Beginning in 1858,
3683-563: The Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. The Americans hoped that the victory would end the militant resistance, but Tecumseh instead chose to ally openly with the British, who were soon at war with the Americans in the War of 1812 . The Creek War (1813–14) began as a tribal conflict within the Creek tribe, but it became part of the larger struggle against American expansion. Tecumseh was killed by Harrison's army at
3810-518: The Battle of the Thames , ending the resistance in the Old Northwest. The First Seminole War in 1818 resulted in the transfer of Florida from Spain to the United States in 1819. American settlers began to push into Florida, which was now an American territory and had some of the most fertile lands in the nation. Paul Hoffman claims that covetousness, racism, and "self-defense" against Indian raids played
3937-639: The Cherokee wars , the Creek War , and the Seminole Wars . Following the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the American Indian Nations of this region were all but annihilated, surviving mainly in isolated rural pockets of land that were often unsuitable for agriculture and thus of little value to American settler-colonists. The only federally recognized American Indian groups in this region in the 21st century are
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4064-508: The Choctaw and Chickasaw , Claiborne was generally sympathetic and conciliatory toward the Indians. He worked long and patiently to iron out differences that arose, and to improve the material well-being of the Indians. He was also partly successful in promoting the establishment of law and order, as when his offering of a two thousand dollar reward helped destroy a gang of outlaws headed by Samuel Mason (1750–1803). His position on issues indicated
4191-604: The Colorado War and the Sand Creek Massacre , where Colorado volunteers fell on a peaceful Cheyenne village killing women and children, which set the stage for further conflict. Mississippi Territory The Territory of Mississippi was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that was created under an organic act passed by both upper and lower chambers (the Senate and House of Representatives ) of
4318-578: The Congress of the United States , meeting at the United States Capitol on Capitol Hill , in the federal national capital city of Washington, D.C. . It was approved and signed into law by second President John Adams 1735-1826, served 1797-1801), on April 7, 1798. The Territory was dissolved after 19 years on December 10, 1817, when the western half of the Territory was admitted to the Union as
4445-825: The Fraser Canyon Gold Rush in British Columbia drew large numbers of miners, many from Washington, Oregon, and California, culminating in the Fraser Canyon War . This conflict occurred in the Colony of British Columbia , but the militias involved were formed mostly of Americans. Shortly after the Fraser Canyon War the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast , including areas that are now part of
4572-476: The French and Indian War , France made peace with Great Britain and surrendered all its territorial claims east of the Mississippi River . That same year, the Royal Proclamation of 1763 set the western border of the American colonies at the Appalachian mountains , but many settlers defied the order and occupied parts of the territory. After the American Revolutionary War , in the Treaty of Paris of 1783 , Britain ceded most of its North American territory to
4699-445: The Great Basin were mostly Shoshone , and they were greatly affected by the Oregon and California Trails and by Mormon pioneers to Utah. The Shoshone had friendly relations with American and British fur traders and trappers, beginning with their encounter with Lewis and Clark . The traditional way of life of the Indians was disrupted, and they began raiding travelers along the trails and aggression toward Mormon settlers. During
4826-437: The Great Lakes region previously. They moved west, displacing other Indian tribes and becoming feared warriors. The Apaches supplemented their economy by raiding other tribes, and they practiced warfare to avenge the death of a kinsman. During the American Civil War , Army units were withdrawn to fight the war in the east. They were replaced by the volunteer infantry and cavalry raised by the states of California and Oregon, by
4953-400: The Mississippi Choctaw , the Poarch Band Creek in Alabama, and the Seminoles and Miccosukee in Florida. Their combined population was approximately 18,000 in 2020—over 11,000 of which were Mississippi Choctaw. Following the 1803 Louisiana Purchase , this region and the Old South gradually came to be collectively known as the Southeast , although the northeast portion of the Old South
5080-408: The Northwest Territory . The colonists generally responded with attacks in which Cherokee settlements were completely destroyed, though usually without great loss of life on either side. The wars continued until the Treaty of Tellico Blockhouse in November 1794. In 1787, the Northwest Ordinance officially organized the Northwest Territory for settlement, and American settlers began pouring into
5207-505: The Treaty of Madrid , initially signed in 1795 by the two countries' representatives. The Mississippi Territory was organized in 1798 from these lands, in an area extending from 31° N latitude to 32°28' North — or approximately the southern half of the present states of Alabama and Mississippi . The state of Georgia had maintained a claim over almost the entire area of the present states of Alabama and Mississippi (from 31° N to 35° N ), until it surrendered its claim in 1802 following
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5334-482: The White River valley, along the route to Naches Pass and connecting Nisqually and Yakama lands. The Puget Sound War is often remembered in connection with the Battle of Seattle (1856) and the execution of Nisqually Chief Leschi , a central figure of the war. In 1858, the fighting spread on the east side of the Cascades. This second phase of the Yakima War is known as the Coeur d'Alene War . The Yakama, Palouse , Spokane , and Coeur d'Alene tribes were defeated at
5461-431: The Yazoo land scandal . After this, the state relinquished its western claims to the federal government in 1802, in exchange for a promise to acquire all property belonging to Indians in Georgia. The federal government organized this acquisition as the Mississippi Territory , which was eventually divided and joined the union as Mississippi in 1817 and Alabama in 1819. The Spanish province of West Florida extended along
5588-418: The Yazoo land scandal . In 1804, Congress extended the boundaries of the Mississippi Territory to include all of the Georgia cession . Beginning about 1808 the legislature of the Mississippi Territory held its official meetings in one of the houses owned by Charles DeFrance of the Natchez District. The DeFrance house, also known as Assembly Hall, was located in Washington, Mississippi , about 10 miles from
5715-403: The battle of Sitka . A number of wars occurred in the wake of the Oregon Treaty of 1846 and the creation of Oregon Territory and Washington Territory . Among the causes of conflict were a sudden immigration to the region and a series of gold rushes throughout the Pacific Northwest . The Whitman massacre of 1847 triggered the Cayuse War , which led to fighting from the Cascade Range to
5842-520: The cotton gin , exporting cotton became a particularly lucrative enterprise. The 1803 Louisiana Purchase provided the fledgling United States with an enormous territory connected by the Mississippi and its tributaries, as well as a large seaport— New Orleans —that would facilitate global trade . By the 1840s, the Old Southwest states of Alabama and Mississippi had become wealthy by using slave labor and land acquired via ethnic cleansing to grow and export cotton . American Indian Wars#East of
5969-417: The southeast United States with movement and immigration from the East Coast along the Atlantic Ocean as it grew in the early 1800s from settlement , and American westward and southwestward expansion from the original Thirteen States , with cotton being an important cash crop . The United States and Spain disputed these lands east of the Mississippi River until Spain relinquished its claim with
6096-467: The " Trail of Tears ". The American Revolutionary War was essentially two parallel wars for the American Patriots. The war in the east was a struggle against British rule, while the war in the west was an "Indian War". The newly proclaimed United States competed with the British for control of the territory east of the Mississippi River . Some Indians sided with the British, as they hoped to reduce American settlement and expansion. In one writer's opinion,
6223-595: The 17th and 18th centuries included: In several instances, the conflicts were a reflection of European rivalries, with Indian tribes splitting their alliances among the powers, generally siding with their trading partners. Various tribes fought on each side in King William's War , Queen Anne's War , Dummer's War , King George's War , and the French and Indian War , allying with British or French colonists according to their own self interests. On 14 August 1784, Russian colonists had massacred 200 –3,000 Koniag Alutiiq tribesmen in Sitkalidak Island , Alaska . This massacre
6350-578: The 17th century until the end of the 19th century. The various wars resulted from a wide variety of factors, the most common being the desire of settlers and governments for Indian tribes' lands. The European powers and their colonies enlisted allied Indian tribes to help them conduct warfare against each other's colonial settlements. After the American Revolution , many conflicts were local to specific states or regions and frequently involved disputes over land use; some entailed cycles of violent reprisal. As American settlers spread and expanded westward across
6477-449: The American Civil War, the California Volunteers stationed in Utah responded to complaints, which resulted in the Bear River Massacre . Following the massacre, various Shoshone tribes signed a series of treaties exchanging promises of peace for small annuities and reservations. One of these was the Box Elder Treaty which identified a land claim made by the Northwestern Shoshone . The Supreme Court declared this claim to be non-binding in
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#17328455568136604-509: The American Revolutionary War and continuing through late 1794. The so-called "Chickamauga Cherokee", later called "Lower Cherokee", were from the Overhill Towns and later from the Lower Towns, Valley Towns, and Middle Towns. They followed war leader Dragging Canoe southwest, first to the Chickamauga Creek area near Chattanooga, Tennessee , then to the Five Lower Towns where they were joined by groups of Muskogee , white Tories , runaway slaves, and renegade Chickasaw , as well as by more than
6731-437: The Army to defeat the Yakama, during which time war spread to the Puget Sound region west of the Cascades. The Puget Sound War of 1855–1856 was triggered in part by the Yakima War and in part by the use of intimidation to compel tribes to sign land cession treaties. The Treaty of Medicine Creek of 1855 established an unrealistically small reservation on poor land for the Nisqually and Puyallup tribes . Violence broke out in
6858-427: The British made peace with the Americans in the 1783 Treaty of Paris , they ceded a vast amount of Indian territory to the United States. Indian tribes who had sided with the British and had fought against the Americans were enemy combatants, as far as the United States was concerned; they were a conquered people who had lost their land. The frontier conflicts were almost non-stop, beginning with Cherokee involvement in
6985-416: The Cherokees to the west and then sought to deport the Comanches and Kiowas. This led to a series of battles, including the Council House Fight , in which the Texas militia killed 33 Comanche chiefs at a peace parley. The Comanches retaliated with the Great Raid of 1840 , and the Battle of Plum Creek followed several days later. The Lamar Administration was known for its failed and expensive Indian policy;
7112-534: The Chickamauga and their allies ranged from quick raids by small war parties to large campaigns by four or five hundred warriors, and once more than a thousand. The Upper Muskogee under Dragging Canoe's close ally Alexander McGillivray frequently joined their campaigns and also operated separately, and the settlements on the Cumberland came under attack from the Chickasaw, Shawnee from the north, and Delaware. Campaigns by Dragging Canoe and his successor John Watts were frequently conducted in conjunction with campaigns in
7239-401: The Comanches and Kiowas. Houston had lived with the Cherokees, but the Cherokees joined with Mexican forces to fight against Texas. Houston resolved the conflict without resorting to arms, refusing to believe that the Cherokees would take up arms against his government. The administration of Mirabeau B. Lamar followed Houston's and took a very different policy towards the Indians. Lamar removed
7366-423: The Gulf Coast from the Mississippi River to the Apalachicola River . American incursions between 1811 and 1818 gradually absorbed most of West Florida. American troops annexed the port of Mobile in 1813, then occupied Pensacola . In 1819 Spain ceded all its Florida land to the United States. Despite the Proclamation of 1763 prohibiting Anglo-American settlement in this region until the Treaty of Paris in 1783, by
7493-531: The Indian Territory. The series of conflicts in the western United States between Indians, American settlers, and the United States Army are generally known as the Indian Wars. Many of these conflicts occurred during and after the Civil War until the closing of the frontier in about 1890. However, regions of the West that were settled before the Civil War saw significant conflicts prior to 1860, such as Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Oregon, California, and Washington state. Various statistics have been developed concerning
7620-446: The Indian populations of the West. Many tribes fought American settlers at one time or another, from the Utes of the Great Basin to the Nez Perce tribe of Idaho . But the Sioux of the Northern Plains and the Apaches of the Southwest waged the most aggressive warfare, led by resolute, militant leaders such as Red Cloud and Crazy Horse . The Sioux were relatively new arrivals on the Plains, as they had been sedentary farmers in
7747-432: The Mississippi (1775–1842) The American Indian Wars , also known as the American Frontier Wars , and the Indian Wars , was a conflict initially fought by European colonial empires , United States of America , and briefly the Confederate States of America and Republic of Texas against various American Indian tribes in North America . These conflicts occurred from the time of the earliest colonial settlements in
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#17328455568137874-431: The Mississippi River. Brigadier General Ferdinand L. Claiborne , commander of the Mississippi militia , was not to blame for the massacre, but Major Daniel Beasley was guilty of gross negligence. At the Battle of Horseshoe Bend on March 27, 1814, American forces and Indian allies under General Andrew Jackson defeated the Red Sticks, killing most of the warriors and sending the rest fleeing to Florida, where they joined
8001-437: The Mississippi Territory favored war with Britain in 1812 . By 1810, belief in the national policy of economic coercion was waning in what was then called the Southwest, while desire for unrestricted trade and a vindication of national honor was rising, intermingled with desire for Spanish Florida . However, problems of land claims, Indians, internal improvements , and statehood issues continued to excite more local interest than
8128-401: The Mississippi in exchange for Indian lands within existing state borders." Some tribes resisted relocation fiercely, most notably the Seminoles in a series of wars in Florida . They were never defeated, although some Seminoles migrated to Indian Territory. Other tribes were forced to move to reservations west of the Mississippi River, most famously the Cherokee whose relocation was called
8255-408: The Navy, while Missal reports 41 for the Navy and Marine Corps. Mahon and the Florida Board of State Institutions agree that 55 volunteer officers and men were killed by the Seminoles, while Missall says that the number is unknown. A northern newspaper carried a report that more than 80 civilians were killed by Indians in Florida in 1839. By the end of 1843, 3,824 Indians had been shipped from Florida to
8382-497: The Nez Perce were much admired for their conduct in the war and their fighting ability. The Bannock War broke out the following year for similar reasons. The Sheepeater Indian War in 1879 was the last conflict in the area. Various wars between Spanish and Native Americans, mainly Comanches and Apaches, took place from the 17th to the 19th century in the Southwest United States. Spanish governors made peace treaties with some tribes during this period. Several events stand out during
8509-443: The Old Southwest. The Old Southwest includes the homelands of numerous American Indian nations, including the five so-called " Five Civilized Tribes ," the Cherokee , Chickasaw , Choctaw , Creek , Seminole as well as the Shawnee . The European empires of Spain , France , and Great Britain competed with one another for monopolies on resource extraction and the allegiance of Native leaders in this region. In 1763, following
8636-419: The Pike's Peak gold rush and the Native American tribes of the Front Range and the Platte valley were friendly. An attempt was made to resolve conflicts by negotiation of the Treaty of Fort Wise , which established a reservation in southeastern Colorado, but the settlement was not agreed to by all of the roving warriors, particularly the Dog Soldiers . During the early 1860s tensions increased and culminated in
8763-470: The Revolution eventually forced intra-Iroquois combat, and both sides lost territory following the war. The Crown aided the landless Iroquois by rewarding them with a reservation at Grand River in Ontario and some other lands. In the Southeast, the Cherokee split into a pro-patriot faction versus a pro-British faction that the Americans referred to as the Chickamauga Cherokee ; they were led by Dragging Canoe . Many other tribes were similarly divided. When
8890-465: The Revolutionary War was "the most extensive and destructive" Indian war in United States history. Some Indian tribes were divided over which side to support in the war, such as the Iroquois Confederacy based in New York and Pennsylvania who split: the Oneida and Tuscarora sided with the American Patriots, and the Mohawk , Seneca , Cayuga , and Onondaga sided with the British. The Iroquois tried to avoid fighting directly against one another, but
9017-425: The Rocky Mountain West. Additional factors included discovery of gold in Montana during the Montana Gold Rush of 1862–1863 and the opening of the Bozeman Trail , which led to Red Cloud's War , and later discovery of gold in the Black Hills resulting in the gold rush of 1875–1878 and the Great Sioux War of 1876–77 . Miners, ranchers, and settlers expanded into the plain, and this led to increasing conflicts with
9144-903: The Rocky Mountains. The Cayuse were defeated in 1855, but the conflict had expanded and continued in what became known as the Yakima War (1855–1858). Washington Territory Governor Isaac Stevens tried to compel Indian tribes to sign treaties ceding land and establishing reservations. The Yakama signed one of the treaties negotiated during the Walla Walla Council of 1855 , establishing the Yakama Indian Reservation , but Stevens' attempts served mainly to intensify hostilities. Gold discoveries near Fort Colville resulted in many miners crossing Yakama lands via Naches Pass , and conflicts rapidly escalated into violence. It took several years for
9271-682: The Santa Fe Trail had friendly relations with the Cheyenne and Arapaho, and peace was established on the Oregon Trail by the Treaty of Fort Laramie signed in 1851 between the United States and the Plains Indians and the Indians of the northern Rocky Mountains. The treaty allowed passage by settlers, building roads, and stationing troops along the Oregon Trail. The Pike's Peak Gold Rush of 1859 introduced
9398-467: The Seminoles numbered fewer than 400. Taylor sent in the Missouri volunteers first, moving his troops squarely into the center of the swamp. His plan was to make a direct attack rather than encircle the Indians. All his men were on foot. As soon as they came within range, the Indians opened with heavy fire. The volunteers broke and their commander Colonel Gentry was fatally wounded, so they retreated back across
9525-408: The Seminoles who had surrendered. Taylor's column caught up with the main body of the Seminoles on the north shore of Lake Okeechobee on December 25. The Seminoles were led by "Alligator", Sam Jones, and the recently escaped Coacoochee , and they were positioned in a hammock surrounded by sawgrass . The ground was thick mud, and sawgrass easily cuts and burns the skin. Taylor had about 800 men, while
9652-498: The Spanish province to be divided into two areas: one led by the Spanish governor and the other by the leader of the Pueblos . Several military conflicts happened between Spaniards and Pueblos in this period until Diego de Vargas made a peace treaty with them in 1691, which made them subjects of the Spanish governor again. Conflicts between Europeans and indigenous peoples continued following
9779-505: The Tsilhqotʼin say the colonial government deliberately spread smallpox with the aim of ending indigenous sovereignty and indigenous rights in British Columbia. Workers on the road-building project threatened the Tsilhqotʼin with smallpox. The war ended with the hanging of six Tsilhqotʼin chiefs. In 2014, British Columbia Premier Christy Clark formally exonerated the executed chiefs and apologized for these acts, acknowledging that "there
9906-591: The United States after 1780, armed conflicts increased in size, duration, and intensity between settlers and various Indian tribes. The climax came in the War of 1812 , when major Indian coalitions in the Midwestern United States and the Southern United States fought against the United States and lost. Conflict with settlers became less common and was usually resolved by treaties between the federal government and specific tribes, which often required
10033-434: The United States and Canada, from Washington to Alaska, suffered major population loss, cultural devastation, and loss of sovereignty due to the 1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic . The Chilcotin War of 1864 occurred near the end of the epidemic when a road from the gold fields to the coast was being built through Tsilhqotʼin (Chilcotin) territory without permission. At the time, and still today, First Nations such as
10160-563: The United States gaining control of the region. These conflicts with the United States involved every non-pueblo tribe in the region and often were a continuation of Mexican–Spanish conflicts. The Navajo Wars and Apache Wars are perhaps the best known. The last major campaign of the military against Indians in the Southwest involved 5,000 troops in the field, and resulted in the surrender of Chiricahua Apache Geronimo and his band of 24 warriors, women, and children in 1886. The U.S. Army kept
10287-779: The United States, while Spain, a U.S. ally, took over in West and East Florida . In 1787 the United States Congress organized the Northwest Territory and established rules for founding new states, but the Old Southwest proved more difficult to manage. As was the case with the Northwest Territory, the states to the east each claimed overlapping territory extending to the Mississippi River. Settler colonialists in Virginia's western territory separated in 1790 and entered
10414-729: The acquisition of Alta California and Santa Fe de Nuevo México from Mexico at the end of the Mexican–American War in 1848, and the Gadsden Purchase in 1853. These spanned from 1846 to at least 1895. The first conflicts were in the New Mexico Territory , and later in California and the Utah Territory during and after the California Gold Rush . Indian tribes in the southwest had been engaged in cycles of trading and fighting with one another and with settlers for centuries prior to
10541-510: The acquisition of new direct outlets to the Gulf of Mexico. The first migrants were traders and trappers, then herdsmen, and finally planters. The uplands in the Southwest frontier developed a relatively democratic society. In the 1810 United States census , 11 counties in the Mississippi Territory (8 in Mississippi and 3 in Alabama ) reported the following population counts (after only 3 reported
10668-565: The border to Canada; those in the South went to Florida while it was under Spanish control as they would be considered free, and not slaves, under the Viceroyalty of New Spain . During the early 19th century, the federal government was under pressure by settlers in many regions to expel Indians from their areas. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 stated the "authorizing of the President to grant lands west of
10795-652: The city of Natchez. In 1812, the United States annexed the Mobile District of West Florida , between the Perdido River and the Pearl River . The US declared that it had been included in the Louisiana Purchase (1803). But Spain disputed this and maintained its own claim over the area. The following year, a Federal statute was secretly enacted authorizing the President to take full possession of this area with
10922-457: The colonial period: On the one hand, the administration of Tomás Vélez Cachupín , the only colonial governor of New Mexico who managed to establish peace with the Comanches after having confronted them in the Battle of San Diego Pond, and learned how to relate to them without giving rise to misunderstandings that could lead to conflict with them. The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 was also highlighted, causing
11049-543: The coming of war. Most saw no conflict between war issues and local interests; in fact, some foresaw war as a way of resolving certain local problems. Following a successful attack on a white expedition at the Battle of Burnt Corn, the Red Sticks , a hostile faction of the Creeks , determined to attack and destroy Fort Mims in the eastern part Mississippi Territory (modern Alabama ). Poor scouting, an attack at noon when most of
11176-639: The command on December 28. Only three men survived, and one was hunted down and killed by a Seminole the next day. Survivors Ransome Clarke and Joseph Sprague returned to Fort Brooke. Clarke died of his wounds later, and he provided the only account of the battle from the army's perspective. The Seminoles lost three men and five wounded. On the same day as the massacre, Osceola and his followers shot and killed Agent Wiley Thompson and six others during an ambush outside of Fort King. On December 29, General Clinch left Fort Drane with 750 soldiers, including 500 volunteers on an enlistment due to end January 1, 1836. The group
11303-499: The cost of four dead and 59 wounded. The militia provided cover as the army troops then withdrew across the river. In the Battle of Lake Okeechobee , Colonel Zachary Taylor saw the first major action of the campaign. He left Fort Gardiner on the upper Kissimmee River with 1,000 men on December 19 and headed towards Lake Okeechobee . In the first two days, 90 Seminoles surrendered. On the third day, Taylor stopped to build Fort Basinger where he left his sick and enough men to guard
11430-438: The cost of the war with the Indians exceeded the annual revenue of the government throughout his four-year term. It was followed by a second Houston administration, which resumed the previous policy of diplomacy. Texas signed treaties with all of the tribes, including the Comanches. In the 1840s and 1850s, the Comanches and their allies shifted most of their raiding to a weak and newly independent Mexico. Comanche armies numbering in
11557-559: The credentials of the members of the first territorial court were questionable, the quality of judges in later courts steadily grew. While the Roman Catholic Church , planted during the French and Spanish colonial periods, was active along the coast, after 1799 more American Protestants entered the territory, bringing their religious varieties with them. Free thought, skepticism, deism , or indifference to religion were characteristic of
11684-722: The deaths in Arizona were caused by the Apaches . Michno also says that 51 percent of the battles took place in Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico between 1850 and 1890, as well as 37 percent of the casualties in the country west of the Mississippi River. American settlers and fur trappers had spread into the western United States territories and had established the Santa Fe Trail and the Oregon Trail . Relations were generally peaceful between American settlers and Indians. The Bents of Bent's Fort on
11811-703: The devastation of these wars on the peoples involved. Gregory Michno used records dealing with figures "as a direct result of" engagements and concluded that "of the 21,586 total casualties tabulated in this survey, military personnel and civilians accounted for 6,596 (31%), while Indian casualties totaled about 14,990 (69%)" for the period of 1850–90. However, Michno says that he "used the army's estimates in almost every case" and "the number of casualties in this study are inherently biased toward army estimations". His work includes almost nothing on "Indian war parties", and he states that "army records are often incomplete". According to Michno, more conflicts with Indians occurred in
11938-418: The development of the judicial system in the Mississippi Territory. The citizenry considered the laws imposed by Winthrop Sargent , the territory's governor, as repressive and unconstitutional. 'Sargent's Code,' however unpopular, established the first court system for the territory and served as the precedent for later revisions. The area was in a dire need of competent judges at the end of the 18th century, at
12065-498: The direction of President Thomas Jefferson , and he pursued an aggressive policy of obtaining titles to Indian lands. Shawnee brothers Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa organized Tecumseh's War , another pan-tribal resistance to westward settlement. Tecumseh was in the South attempting to recruit allies among the Creeks , Cherokees , and Choctaws when Harrison marched against the Indian confederacy, defeating Tenskwatawa and his followers at
12192-464: The dominance of the developing cotton agriculture. President John Adams appointed Winthrop Sargent as the first governor of the Mississippi Territory, effective from May 1798 to May 1801. William C. C. Claiborne (1775–1817), a lawyer and former Democratic-Republican Congressman from Tennessee (1797–1801), was governor and superintendent of Indian affairs in the Mississippi Territory from 1801 through 1803. Although he favored acquiring some land from
12319-467: The encroaching settlers and soldiers, but their numbers were too few and their resources too limited to win more than temporary victories and concessions from the U.S. and other countries that colonized areas that had composed the modern-day borders of the United States of America. The colonization of North America by English, Spanish, French, Russian and Dutch was resisted by some Indian tribes and assisted by other tribes. Wars and other armed conflicts in
12446-446: The following counts in the 1800 United States census ): After 1800, the development of a cotton economy in the South changed the economic relationship of native Indians with whites and slaves in Mississippi Territory. As Native Americans ceded their lands to whites, they became more isolated from whites and blacks. A great wave of public sales of former Indian land plus white migration (with slaves) into Mississippi Territory guaranteed
12573-559: The four-month, 1,200-mile fighting retreat of a band of about 800 Nez Perce, including women and children. The Nez Perce War was caused by a large influx of settlers, the appropriation of Indian lands, and a gold rush—this time in Idaho. The Nez Perce engaged 2,000 American soldiers of different military units, as well as their Indian auxiliaries. They fought "eighteen engagements, including four major battles and at least four fiercely contested skirmishes", according to Alvin Josephy. Chief Joseph and
12700-521: The garrison was eating, seizure of the portholes by the Indians, and inability to close the main gates were all elements in the defeat on August 30, 1813. Of the 275 to 300 whites and multiracial people in Fort Mims at the time of the attack, between 20 and 40 escaped; therefore, about 235 to 260 whites and friendly Indians were killed in the battle. Creek losses were at least 100 killed. The massacre had significant short- and long-range effects. It triggered
12827-620: The heart of the Comancheria was in 1858, the so-called Antelope Hills Expedition marked by the Battle of Little Robe Creek . The battles between settlers and Indians continued in 1860, and Texas militia destroyed an Indian camp at the Battle of Pease River . In the aftermath of the battle, the Texans learned that they had recaptured Cynthia Ann Parker, the little girl captured by the Comanches in 1836. She returned to live with her family, but she missed her children, including her son Quanah Parker . He
12954-575: The hundreds raided deep into Mexico for horses and captives and used Texas as a safe haven from Mexican retaliation (see Comanche–Mexico Wars ). Texas joined the Union in 1845, and the Federal government and Texas took up the struggle between the Plains Indians and the settlers. The conflicts were particularly vicious and bloody on the Texas frontier in 1856 through 1858, as settlers continued to expand their settlements into Comancheria. The first Texan incursion into
13081-516: The new State of Mississippi . The eastern half was redesignated by the Congress and then 5th President James Monroe as the new Alabama Territory for the next two years, sandwiched between the new state of Mississippi in the west, Georgia to the east,, Tennessee on the north, and to the south with a narrow strip of land to the Mobile Bay and Gulf of Mexico coast and further to the southeast of
13208-486: The region. Violence erupted as Indian tribes resisted, and so the administration of President George Washington sent armed expeditions into the area. However, in the Northwest Indian War, a pan-tribal confederacy led by Blue Jacket (Shawnee), Little Turtle (Miami), Buckongahelas (Lenape), and Egushawa (Ottawa) defeated armies led by Generals Josiah Harmar and Arthur St. Clair . General St. Clair's defeat
13335-438: The reviewer of a 1954 study by William Baskerville Hamilton on Thomas Rodney , the federal judge who arrived in the territory in 1803 and helped organize it until his death in 1811. An 1802 judiciary act considerably simplified the court system. Several judicial reorganization acts followed in 1805, 1809, and 1814, though a modified form of Sargent's county court system and the considerable power held by judges continued. While
13462-629: The settlers, and this led to the Second Seminole War , the longest and most costly war that the Army ever waged against Indians. In May 1830, the Indian Removal Act was passed by Congress which stipulated forced removal of Indians to Oklahoma. The Treaty of Paynes Landing was signed in May 1832 by a few Seminole chiefs who later recanted, claiming that they were tricked or forced to sign and making it clear that they would not consent to relocating to
13589-402: The states bordering Mexico than in the interior states. Arizona ranked highest, with 310 known battles fought within the state's boundaries between Americans and Indians. Also, Arizona ranked highest of the states in deaths from the wars. At least 4,340 people were killed, including both the settlers and the Indians, over twice as many as occurred in Texas, the second highest-ranking state. Most of
13716-456: The swamp. The fighting in the sawgrass was deadliest for five companies of the Sixth Infantry; every officer but one was killed or wounded, along with most of their non-commissioned officers. The soldiers suffered 26 killed and 112 wounded, compared to 11 Seminoles killed and 14 wounded. No Seminoles were captured, although Taylor did capture 100 ponies and 600 head of cattle. By 1842, the war
13843-406: The tribes to sell or surrender land to the United States. These treaties were frequently broken by the federal U.S. government . The Indian Removal Act of 1830 that was passed by the United States Congress neither authorized the unilateral abrogation of treaties guaranteeing Native American land rights within the states, nor the forced relocation of the eastern Indians. Yet both occurred and on
13970-598: The union as the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1792. Settlers in portions of North Carolina's western claims briefly attempted to organize as the state of Franklin in the 1780s. In 1790, all of North Carolina west of the Appalachians was organized as the Southwest Territory , and in 1796 this territory joined the union as the state of Tennessee. In the same decade, Georgia politicians conspired to sell off western land in
14097-486: The use of military force ("and naval force") as deemed necessary. Accordingly, General James Wilkinson occupied this district with a military contingent; the Spanish colonial commandant offered no resistance. This annexation extended the Mississippi Territory south to the Gulf of Mexico , with the northern border being the boundary of the state of Tennessee , taking in all of what is now Alabama and Mississippi . Federal statutes enacted on March 1 and 3, 1817, provided
14224-509: The way to the Tennessee border Mississippi would have jurisdiction over a small piece of hilly land cut off from the rest of the state by the wide Tennessee River. The attraction of vast amounts of high quality, inexpensive cotton land attracted hordes of settlers, mostly from Georgia and the Carolinas, and from tobacco areas of Virginia and North Carolina at a time when growing tobacco barely made
14351-412: The wealthy planters and land speculators, as newcomers were far more interested in seeking riches in this world than in the next. As the number of American migrants increased, Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians formed the three leading denominations in the territory. Protestant ministers won converts, often promoted education, and had some influence in improving the treatment of slaves. The people of
14478-625: The western panhandle of the Royal Spanish colony of Spanish Florida in the Florida peninsula (future Florida Territory after 1819, and later state of Florida by 1845). The Territory of Alabama was admitted to the Union as the State of Alabama on December 14, 1819. The Chattahoochee River played a significant role in the definition of the Territory 's borders during its brief two years of existence, 1817-1819. The population greatly increased in
14605-641: The western territorial governments, or by the local militias. These units fought the Indians and kept open communications with the east, holding the west for the Union and defeating the Confederate attempt to capture the New Mexico Territory. After 1865, national policy called for all Indians either to assimilate into the American population as citizens, or to live peacefully on reservations. Raids and wars between tribes were not allowed, and armed Indian bands off
14732-434: Was appointed the governorship, though the appointment was revoked before he took office. The third governor was Robert Williams , serving from May 1805 to March 1809. David Holmes was the last governor of the Mississippi Territory, 1809–17. Holmes was generally successful in dealing with a variety of matters, including expansion, land policy, Indians, the War of 1812 , and the constitutional convention of 1817 (of which he
14859-680: Was created in 1868. Some of the Shoshone populated the Mormon-sanctioned community of Washakie, Utah . From 1864 California and Oregon Volunteers also engaged in the early campaigns of the Snake War in the Great Basin areas of California, Nevada, Oregon and Idaho. From 1866 the U.S. Army replaced the Volunteers in that war which General George Crook brought to an end in 1868 after a protracted campaign. Initially relations between participants in
14986-533: Was defined to follow the Chattahoochee River north from the border with Spanish Florida. However, the Chattahoochee's upper course veers northeast, deep into Georgia. So the boundary was defined to follow the river until it turned northeast, and from that point to follow a straight line north to the 35th parallel (whose role in state borders dates back to the split of North and South Carolina in 1730). The line
15113-407: Was elected president). Often concerned with problems regarding West Florida , he had a major role in 1810 in negotiations which led to the peaceful occupation of part of that territory. McCain (1967) concludes that Holmes' success was not based on brilliance, but upon kindness, unselfishness, persuasiveness, courage, honesty, diplomacy, and intelligence. The eastern half of the Mississippi Territory
15240-420: Was feared that they might be overrun by the Seminoles. Three companies were stationed at Fort Brooke (Tampa), with another two expected imminently, so the army decided to send two companies to Fort King. On December 23, 1835, the two companies totaling 110 men left Fort Brooke under the command of Major Francis L. Dade . Seminoles shadowed the marching soldiers for five days, and they ambushed them and wiped out
15367-502: Was labeled the Tombigbee District and later Washington County. Ignored by the territorial government, the inhabitants were beset by hostile neighbors, militant Indians, and the usual frontier problems of competing land claims and establishment of law. Solutions to these difficulties came slowly, and were not completely resolved when the territory gained statehood as the U.S. state of Alabama in 1819. English common law dominated
15494-471: Was not forthcoming, the native nations were compelled to sign the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, which ceded Ohio and part of Indiana to the United States. By 1800, the Indian population was approximately 600,000 in what would become the contiguous United States . By 1890, their population had declined to about 250,000. In 1800, William Henry Harrison became governor of the Indiana Territory , under
15621-518: Was not run straight north but rather angled to meet the northern border of the territory one-third of the way west, leaving the other two-thirds for two future states, Alabama and Mississippi (their angled boundary stopped at the Tennessee River). Congress delineated the boundary between Mississippi and Alabama by dividing the territory into approximately equal-sized parts, similar in size to Georgia. The agriculturally productive lands were divided by
15748-497: Was the most severe loss ever inflicted upon an American army by Indians. Following the successive defeats, the United States sent delegates to discuss peace with the Northwestern Confederacy , but the two sides could not agree on a boundary line. The United States dispatched a new expedition led by General Anthony Wayne , which defeated the confederacy at the 1794 Battle of Fallen Timbers . Realizing that British assistance
15875-510: Was the son of Parker and Comanche Chief Peta Nocona , and he became a Comanche war chief at the Second Battle of Adobe Walls . He ultimately surrendered to the overwhelming force of the federal government and moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma in 1875. On 1–4 October 1804, Russian America (now the state of Alaska ) had suppressed a revolt by the Tlingit Kiks.ádi Clan during
16002-565: Was traveling to a Seminole stronghold called the Cove of the Withlacoochee , an area of many lakes on the southwest side of the Withlacoochee River . When they reached the river, the soldiers could not find the ford, so Clinch ferried his regular troops across the river in a single canoe. Once they were across and had relaxed, the Seminoles attacked. The troops fixed bayonets and charged them, at
16129-571: Was winding down and most Seminoles had left Florida for Oklahoma. The US Army officially recorded 1,466 deaths in the Second Seminole War, mostly from disease. The number killed in action is less clear. Mahon reports 328 regular army killed in action, while Missall reports that Seminoles killed 269 officers and men. Almost half of those deaths occurred in the Dade battle, Battle of Lake Okeechobee, and Harney Massacre. Similarly, Mahon reports 69 deaths for
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