Date:1881 Annotation: In this presidential message to Congress, President Chester Arthur calls for reform of federal Indian policy. Document: Indian Policy Reform Extract from President Chester Arthur’s First Annual Message to Congress December 6, 1881 Prominent among the matters which challenge the attention of Congress at its present session is the management of our Indian affairs. While…

Date:1881 Annotation: A Lakota chief’s account of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Document: The Battle of Little Bighorn An Eyewitness Account by the Lakota Chief Red Horse recorded in pictographs and text at the Cheyenne River Reservation, 1881 Five springs ago I, with many Sioux Indians, took down and packed up our tipis and moved from…

Date:1880 Annotation: Benjamin Singleton was born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1809. Although he was sold as a slave numerous times, he always managed to escape. At one point, Singleton fled to Canada. Later, he returned to the U.S. and settled in Detroit, Michigan. He ran a boardinghouse that harbored runaway slaves. After the Civil War, Singleton…

Date:1880 Annotation: Four years before the dedication of the Statute of Liberty, whose inscription reads: “Bring me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” the United States enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The Act was the first immigration law to ban entry into the United States based on race. From…

Date:1879 Annotation: Chief Joseph in the North American Review. Document: An Indian’s Views of Indian Affairs. I wish that I had words at command in which to express adequately the interest with which I have read the extraordinary narrative which follows, and which I have the privilege of introducing to the readers of this Review. I feel,…

Date:1877 Annotation: The last great war between the U.S. government and an Indian nation ended at 4 p.m., October 5, 1877, in the Bear Paw Mountains of northern Montana. Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce nation surrendered 87 men, 184 women, and 147 children to units of the U.S. cavalry. For 11 weeks, he led his…

Date:1876 Annotation: A magazine article from Harper’s Weekly on Custer’s last stand. The United States government supported three forces led by Generals John Gibbon, George Cook, and George Custer to defeat the Lakota and Cheyenne Indians. Custer and his men advanced more quickly, putting them far ahead of Gibbon’s men. Meanwhile, Crook’s men had retreated when they encountered…

Date:1876 Annotation: Report of M.A. Reno on the Battle of the Little Big Horn. On July 5, 1876, ten days after the Battle of the Little Big Horn, the following report was written by Major Marcus A. Reno. Document: Reno’s Official Report, July 5, 1876 Headquarters Seventh United States Cavalry, Camp on Yellowstone River, July 5, 1876…

Date:1876 Annotation: Hollywood film star Errol Flynn portrayed George Armstrong Custer as the personification of American heroism, as an officer who died with his boots on. Decades later, the film Little Big Man depicted him as a narcissistic goldilocks and a psychopathic killer. Today, Custer’s defeat at the battle of the Little Big Horn remains the single most…

Date:1868 Annotation: Treaty between the United States and the Plains Indians. In 1868, the Fort Laramie Treaty was signed that designated the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory as part of the Great Sioux Reservation. The U.S. government sought to set up Indian treaties that would force Indians from their land and to settle onto reservations.…