History of Native Americans in the United States facts for kids
The history of Native Americans in the United States began long before the country was founded. It started tens of thousands of years ago when the first people, called Paleo-Indians, arrived in the Americas. Experts have found many different cultures from this early time. Later, when Europeans arrived, it changed Native American history forever.
Early Journeys to America
Crossing the Land Bridge
Most scientists believe that the first humans came to the Americas from Eurasia. They crossed a land bridge called Beringia, which once connected what is now Siberia and Alaska. This bridge appeared when sea levels dropped a lot during an ice age, about 60,000 to 25,000 years ago. The latest this journey could have happened was 12,000 years ago.
The First Americans: Paleo-Indians
The Paleo-Indian period lasted from when people first arrived until about 5000 to 3000 BCE. Early Paleo-Americans spread across North and South America, forming many different nations and tribes. By 8000 BCE, the climate in North America was much like it is today.
One famous group was the Clovis culture. They hunted large animals using special spear points called Clovis points. These tools were first found in New Mexico in 1932. The Clovis culture was found across much of North America. Scientists use carbon dating to find out how old these tools are.
Another group, the Folsom tradition, used different spear points called Folsom points. They hunted bison and left their tools behind between 9000 BCE and 8000 BCE.
Some Native American groups, like the Navajo and Apache, are believed to have come in a later migration. They arrived in North America around 8000 BCE. These groups built large homes in villages, which they used for parts of the year to hunt, fish, and gather food for winter.
Ancient Mound Builders
The Archaic period lasted until about 1000 BCE. During this time, a major group known as the Mound builders lived from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Even though they were hunter-gatherers, not farmers, they built large earth mounds.
One of the oldest mound sites is Watson Brake in Louisiana, built around 3500 BCE. It has 11 mounds and is nearly 2,000 years older than the famous Poverty Point site. The people stopped building there around 2800 BCE, possibly because of changes in the environment.
The Poverty Point culture lived in the lower Mississippi Valley from 2200 BCE to 700 BCE. Their main site, Poverty Point, Louisiana, is a World Heritage Site. It has a large complex of six circular earth rings and other mounds. These people traded with other Native Americans from Georgia to the Great Lakes.
Later Cultures and Societies
This period includes the Woodland and Mississippian cultures. The Woodland period lasted from about 1000 BCE to 1000 CE in eastern North America.
The Adena culture (1000 BCE to 200 BCE) was a group of related societies that shared burial and ceremonial traditions. The Hopewell tradition (200 BCE to 500 CE) was a network of groups connected by trade routes across the Eastern Woodlands. They traded materials from all over North America.
The Coles Creek culture developed in the Lower Mississippi Valley. They built flat-topped mounds around central open areas. These people relied on farming and hunting.
The Mississippian culture (around 800 CE to 1600 CE) built the largest earth mounds in North America, especially at Cahokia in Illinois.
- Monks Mound at Cahokia is huge, with a base larger than the Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico.
- The city of Cahokia covered 6 square miles and had over 100 mounds. It was home to 20,000–30,000 people by 1250 CE, a population size not seen in any U.S. city until after 1800.
- Cahokia was a major center for trade and had many smaller towns connected to it.
- Other important Mississippian sites include Kincaid in Illinois and Etowah Indian Mounds in Georgia.
- The Mississippian people developed a shared style of art and ceremonies called the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. Their pottery was some of the best in North America.
- Mississippian culture
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An artist's idea of what The Kincaid Site might have looked like.
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An engraved stone from Moundville, showing two horned rattlesnakes.
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A pot shaped like a human head from the Nodena Site.
Cultures of the Southwest
The Hohokam culture lived in the Southwestern United States. They built small villages along the Gila River and grew corn, squash, and beans. They were known for their pottery. Later, they built walled compounds and platform mounds, suggesting they had organized systems for managing water and labor.
The Ancestral Puebloans lived in the Four Corners region (Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado). They built different kinds of homes, from small pit houses to large pueblos and cliff dwellings. They had a complex network connecting many communities.
- Three UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the U.S. are from the Puebloans: Mesa Verde National Park, Chaco Culture National Historical Park, and Taos Pueblo.
- Well-preserved cliff dwellings can be seen in national parks like Navajo National Monument and Canyon de Chelly National Monument.
- Ancestral Puebloan archeological sites
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The Great Kiva at Chaco Culture National Historical Park.
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Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde National Park.
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Taos Pueblo, an ancient Pueblo still inhabited today.
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White House Ruins, Canyon de Chelly National Monument.
The Iroquois Confederacy
The Iroquois League of Nations, or "People of the Long House," formed a powerful confederacy in present-day New York around the mid-15th century. Their system of government, which was like a federation, may have influenced the political ideas behind the later United States government.
The Iroquois were involved in conflicts with other tribes. Their oral histories tell of migrations and wars. For example, the Iroquois fought tribes in the Ohio River area, claiming hunting grounds. Through warfare, they caused some tribes, like the Osage and Shawnee, to move west of the Mississippi River.
Europeans Arrive in America
After 1492, European exploration and colonization changed everything for the Old and New Worlds. One of the first major contacts in the American South happened when Juan Ponce de León landed in Florida in 1513. Other Spanish explorers followed, like Hernando de Soto. European colonists often believed they were helping Native Americans by spreading Christianity.
In Spanish colonies, Native Americans were sometimes forced to convert to Catholicism. However, their own spiritual beliefs often blended with the new religion.
Impact on Native Populations
From the 16th to the 19th centuries, the number of Native Americans dropped sharply. This was due to several reasons:
- Diseases: Europeans brought new diseases like smallpox, chickenpox, and measles. Native Americans had no immunity to these, and they caused huge epidemics.
- Violence and Warfare: Conflicts with European explorers and colonists, as well as wars between tribes, led to many deaths.
- Displacement: Native Americans were forced off their lands.
- Enslavement: Some Native Americans were enslaved.
Most experts agree that diseases were the biggest reason for the population decline. Some historians believe that 30% to 70% of some Native populations died after first contact due to smallpox.
For example, smallpox killed 90% of Native Americans in the Massachusetts Bay area in 1618–1619. The disease also spread through Iroquois villages in New York in the 1630s and beyond. These high death rates broke down Native American societies and disrupted the passing down of culture.
On the West Coast, smallpox killed at least 30% of Native Americans after Europeans arrived in the 1770s. Populations in the Puget Sound area dropped from 37,000 to 9,000 by the mid-19th century. The U.S. government started a smallpox vaccination program for Native Americans in 1832.
New Animals and the Horse
When Europeans came, they brought new animals, insects, and plants in what is called the Columbian exchange. Sheep, pigs, horses, and cattle were all new to Native Americans.
Horses, brought by the Spanish in the 16th century, had a huge impact. Some horses escaped and formed wild herds. Native Americans learned to ride and use horses for hunting, travel, and warfare. This changed the lives of Plains Indians especially, allowing them to hunt bison more easily and expand their territories.
16th and 17th Centuries: First Encounters and Conflicts
Early Contacts in the Southeast and Southwest
In the Southeast, Juan Ponce de León met the Timucuan and Ais peoples in Florida in 1513. Later, Hernando de Soto also explored the area.
In the Southwest, Spanish explorers like Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and Esteban (an enslaved Moorish man) traveled through what is now Texas in 1536. Stories of "Seven Cities of Gold" led Francisco Vázquez de Coronado to explore the region in 1540. He found no gold cities but attacked the Zuni town of Hawikuh when they refused his demands for food.
Wars Over Land and Trade
In the mid-17th century, the Beaver Wars were fought over the fur trade. The Iroquois fought against the Hurons, Algonquians, and their French allies. The Iroquois won, destroying several tribal groups and expanding their territory.
King Philip's War
King Philip's War (1675–1676) was a major conflict between Native Americans in southern New England and English colonists. It was led by Metacomet, also known as King Philip, leader of the Wampanoag Nation. This war was one of the deadliest in American history for its time. Many towns were attacked, and many lives were lost on both sides. After the war, some Native Americans fled north to continue fighting the British.
18th Century: Alliances and New Ideas
Between 1754 and 1763, many Native American tribes were involved in the French and Indian War. Tribes often allied with the French, hoping to stop British expansion. Some tribes sided with the British to protect their lands. Native Americans used these alliances to fight their own traditional enemies.
Native American Influence on European Thought
Native American cultures began to influence European thinkers. Some Europeans saw Native American societies as examples of freedom and democracy. The writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed that ideas of freedom were born in America because Europeans saw societies that were "truly free" there.
Some people in the 20th century suggested that the Iroquois confederacy's democratic government influenced the U.S. Constitution. In 1988, the U.S. Congress even recognized this possible influence. However, many historians say there isn't enough evidence to fully support this idea.
The American Revolution
During the American Revolution, the new United States and the British competed for Native American allies. Most Native Americans sided with the British, hoping to stop American expansion onto their lands. Many communities were divided, with some choosing neutrality.
The U.S. signed its first treaty with Native Americans, the Treaty with The Delawares, in 1778. This was to gain an ally against the British. For the Iroquois Confederacy, the war caused a civil war among their tribes.
Fighting on the frontier was very harsh. Both sides destroyed villages and food supplies. The Sullivan Expedition in 1779, for example, destroyed over 40 Iroquois villages.
When the British made peace with the Americans in 1783, they gave away vast Native American lands to the U.S. without telling or asking the Native Americans. The U.S. treated tribes who had allied with the British as conquered enemies. New York State took millions of acres of Iroquois land, creating small reservations for the remaining people.
After the United States Formed
The United States wanted to expand and settle new lands. They believed the land was empty and free for settlement. After the Revolution, the U.S. acquired lands in the Northwest Territory through many treaties with Native nations. Often, tribes were pressured to sell land or face war.
The Northwest Indian War began as Native nations in the Ohio country fought to stop American settlers. Leaders like Little Turtle and Blue Jacket led allied tribes against the U.S. Army.
George Washington and Henry Knox believed Native Americans were equals but that their society needed to change. Washington created a plan to encourage "civilizing" Native Americans. This included fair justice, regulated land buying, promoting trade, and teaching them farming and other arts. The idea was that if Native Americans adopted white ways of life, they would be accepted.
In the late 18th century, there was also a spiritual revival among the Iroquois. In 1799, the Seneca warrior Handsome Lake had a vision. He preached a return to traditional ceremonies and against drinking. This movement, called Gaiwiio or Good Word, also included some Christian ideas.
19th Century: Resistance and Expansion
Native American Resistance
As the U.S. expanded, Native Americans fought back in many regions.
- In the Northwest, Tecumseh, a Shawnee chief, led an intertribal army in Tecumseh's War (1811–1812). His group allied with the British in the War of 1812.
- In the Southeast, the Creek War and Seminole Wars took place.
In the West, Plains Indians fought the U.S. throughout the 19th century in what were called the "Indian Wars."
- The Battle of the Little Bighorn (1876) was a major Native American victory.
- Major defeats for Native Americans included the Sioux Uprising (1862), the Sand Creek massacre (1864), and Wounded Knee (1890).
American Expansion and "Manifest Destiny"
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In 1845, the term "Manifest Destiny" was created. It was the idea that the United States was meant to expand across the continent. This belief had serious consequences for Native Americans, as U.S. expansion meant taking their land. Supporters of Manifest Destiny believed expansion was good and certain.
In 1851, the Treaty of Fort Laramie was signed. It set boundaries for tribal territories on the Plains. Tribes agreed to let travelers pass through safely. However, gold discoveries and railroad building led to more traffic and conflicts.
After more wars, including Red Cloud's War in 1866, another Peace Treaty of Fort Laramie was signed in 1868. This treaty set aside the Black Hills in Dakota Territory for the Sioux. But when gold was found in the Black Hills in 1874, the U.S. government tried to buy the land. The Sioux refused to sell, and by 1877, the Black Hills were taken.
The idea of Manifest Destiny often meant moving Native Americans to reservations. In California, the California Genocide during the Gold Rush led to a huge drop in the Native population. Thousands were killed, and the state encouraged the killing of indigenous people.
Native Americans in the Civil War
Many Native Americans fought in the American Civil War, on both sides. They hoped to gain favor with the winning government.
General Ely S. Parker, a Seneca tribe member, wrote the terms of surrender for the Confederacy. He was one of two Native Americans to become a brigadier general in the Civil War. General Stand Watie, a Cherokee leader, was the last Confederate General to surrender his troops.
Removals and Reservations
In the 19th century, the U.S. kept expanding westward, forcing many Native Americans to move further west. This was often done by force. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 allowed the President to exchange Native American land east of the Mississippi River for land to the west.
About 100,000 Native Americans were moved west. Although it was supposed to be voluntary, tribes were pressured to sign treaties. The most famous example is the Trail of Tears. In 1838, the U.S. Army forced about 17,000 Cherokees to move west. About 4,000 Cherokees died during this harsh journey due to lack of supplies and poor conditions.
Tribes were often moved to reservations. The goal was to separate them from their traditional lives and push them into European-American society.
Native Americans and U.S. Citizenship
In 1817, the Cherokee were among the first Native Americans recognized as U.S. citizens through a treaty. Later, in 1831, some Mississippi Choctaw also became citizens. Over the years, Native Americans gained citizenship in different ways, such as through treaties, land allotments, or by serving in the military.
In 1857, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney said that Native Americans could become U.S. citizens, just like people from other countries. However, after the Civil War, some politicians did not want all Native Americans to become citizens.
Indian Appropriations Act of 1871
In 1871, Congress passed a law that ended U.S. recognition of Native American tribes as independent nations. This meant the U.S. would no longer make treaties with them.
Education and Boarding Schools
After the Indian wars, the U.S. set up American Indian boarding schools. These schools, often run by Christian missionaries, aimed to make Native American children adopt American culture. Children were forbidden to speak their native languages, taught Christianity, and forced to give up their Native American identities.
These schools were often very hard on the children, with cases of abuse. While problems were known in the 1920s, some schools continued into the 1960s. Today, Native Americans prefer to educate their children in schools closer to home. Many tribes now run their own schools and colleges, focusing on preserving their languages and cultures.
20th Century: Rights and Self-Determination
On June 2, 1924, President Calvin Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act. This law made all Native Americans born in the U.S. citizens. Before this, about two-thirds were already citizens. Today, American Indians have all the rights of U.S. citizens, including the right to vote and run for office.
World War II and Its Impact
About 44,000 Native Americans served in the U.S. military during World War II. This was a huge number, with 40% more Native Americans volunteering than were drafted. Their service was a major turning point. Many soldiers respected their Native American comrades.
After the war, many Native Americans moved to cities for work. This was the first time so many left their reservations. While they seek opportunities, they also faced discrimination and big cultural changes.
A famous example is the Navajo Code talkers. They used their native language to create a secret code for the military in the Pacific. The Japanese never cracked it.
The Fight for Self-Determination
Military service and city life led to more Native American activism. After the 1960s, groups like the American Indian Movement (AIM) formed. They combined spiritual and political actions to gain national attention.
A key event was the Wounded Knee Occupation in 1973. About 300 Native American activists took over Wounded Knee, South Dakota, to protest tribal government and broken treaties. Federal officials surrounded the town, leading to a 71-day standoff. The occupation ended peacefully after some lives were lost.
In 1968, the government passed the Indian Civil Rights Act. This law gave tribal members many of the same protections against their tribal governments that other Americans have against the federal government.
In 1975, the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975 was passed. This law recognized the right of Native Americans to govern themselves. It marked a shift away from past policies that tried to end the relationship between tribes and the government. The U.S. government now encourages Native Americans to run their own social, welfare, and housing programs.
Tribes also started their own schools and colleges to educate their youth and preserve their cultures. By the early 21st century, many tribes had language revival programs in their schools. Native American studies programs also grew in universities, increasing awareness of Native cultures and history.
In 2009, President Barack Obama signed a historic apology to all Native Peoples for past "ill-conceived policies" by the U.S. government.
21st Century: Progress and Challenges
In the 21st century, Native American tribes and individuals have filed lawsuits against the federal government over land claims and mismanagement of trust lands. President Barack Obama's administration settled many of these cases, including a $554 million settlement for the Navajo Nation.
In 2013, the Violence Against Women Act was updated. This gave tribes the power to prosecute non-Natives who commit crimes on Indian land, which helped protect Native American women from domestic abuse.
More Native Americans continue to move to cities. By 2012, 70% lived in urban areas. While they seek opportunities, they still face poverty, discrimination, and other challenges. Native American social service groups are working to help with these issues.
Images for kids
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A Folsom point for a spear
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Watson Brake Aerial Illustration
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A map showing the extent of the Coles Creek cultural period and some important sites.
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An artistic recreation of The Kincaid Site from the prehistoric Mississippian culture as it may have looked at its peak AD/CE.
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Engraved stone palette from Moundville, illustrating two horned rattlesnakes.
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A human head effigy pot from the Nodena Site.
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The Great Kiva of Chetro Ketl at the Chaco Culture National Historical Park.
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Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde National Park.
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Taos Pueblo, an Ancient Pueblo.
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White House Ruins, Canyon de Chelly National Monument.
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Map of the Five Nations of the Iroquois.
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A conference of French and Indian leaders around a ceremonial fire by Émile Louis Vernier.
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Native California Population, according to Cook 1978.
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The Treaty of Penn with the Indians by Benjamin West painted in 1771.
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Yamacraw Creek Native Americans meet with the Trustee of the colony of Georgia in England, July 1734.
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Mishikinakwa ("Little Turtle")'s forces defeated an American force of nearly 1000 U.S Army soldiers and other casualties at the Battle of the Wabash in 1791.
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Benjamin Hawkins, seen here on his plantation, teaches Creek Native Americans how to use European technology. Painted in 1805.
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Tecumseh was the Shawnee leader of Tecumseh's War who attempted to organize an alliance of Native American tribes throughout North America.
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Native Americans flee from the allegorical representation of Manifest Destiny, Columbia, painted in 1872 by John Gast.
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Chief Red Cloud and other Sioux Warriors.
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Ely Parker was a Union Civil War General who wrote the terms of surrender between the United States and the Confederate States of America.
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Cherokee confederates reunion in New Orleans, 1903.
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General Douglas MacArthur meeting Navajo, Pima, Pawnee and other Native American troops.
