Native+American+War

= Native American Wars of 1622-1890 =
 * Most movies about cowboys and Indians show Indians on horses but horses were introduced to the Americas by the Spanish conquistadors. In 1630 no tribes anywhere in North America were mounted. By 1700, all Texas plains tribes had horses.
 * The //Searchers// movie starring John Wayne was based on the story of a slave (Britt Johnson) searching for his wife and children captured by Comanches
 * One of the founders of Oakland, California, Jack Hays (also the most famous Texas Ranger), revolutionized the American style of warfare against the Native Americans (the Comanches in particular)

Why did the Native Americans go to war?
The main reason the Native Americans went to war was because of disagreement on land claiming. As more and more European settlers moved to North America, the Native Americans were forced to move from their land to other places. Here is a Native American timeline of events beyond the last recognized war (1890) to events to the year 1999.

Native American tribes did fight one another for hunting territory but unlike the Europeans, the idea of an individual owning a piece of land was not known to Native Americans because they shared the land with everyone. They held a common belief there was enough room for everyone but there were fierce war tribes such as the Comanches whose society was comparable to the Mongols and the Spartans..

Who was involved?
Europeans and Indians from tribes in North, Central and South America were involved. Tribal customs required many Native Americans to treat visitors such as the Europeans in a friendly manner. Europeans did not treat Native Americans equally well. Europeans thought they were superior to Native Americans for the following reasons:
 * Clothing, architecture and weapons were primitive
 * Physical characteristics were very different from the Europeans
 * Paintings and photos
 * They could not read or write. The ability to read and write was viewed as a measure of intelligence and social status
 * Storytelling folklore by tribe
 * Ironically, the Constitution of the Iroquois Confederacy appears to have served as a model for the creation of the United States
 * Not Christian. Europeans were raised to believe their faith was the only true faith and they felt Native Americans were savages.

Here are some of the Native American and United States Leaders who had a great impact on Native Americans:
 * Sam Colt
 * Jack Hays
 * Ranald Slidell Mackenzie or Bad Hand became one of the most effective Indian fighters in American history.
 * Quanah Parker
 * Tecumseh. Tecumseh’s brother was Tenskwatawa, also known as Tippecanoe in Indiana Territory

Where did it happen?
There were 10 separate culture areas in North America (does not include present day Mexico, Central America or South because the initial focus is the United States) where Native Americans protected their territory, they are:
 * [|Artic] - Frozen desert in present day Canada, Alaska and Greenland was home to the Inuit and [|Aleut]
 * [|Subartic] - Waterlogged land areas across much of inland Canada and Alaska was home to the Athabaskan (west) and Algonquian (east) speakers
 * [|Northeast] - Canada's Atlantic coast to North Carolina and inland to the Mississippi River Valley was home to the Iroquoian and Alogonquian speakers
 * [|Southeast] - North of the Gulf of Mexico and south of the Northeast were Muskogean speakers - [|Cherokee], [|Chickasaw], [|Choctaw], [|Creek] and [|Seminole]
 * [|Plains] - Prairie region between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico were speakers of Siouan, Alongquian, Ut-Aztecan and Athabaskan languages
 * The Commanche,the most powerful Indian tribe in American history dominated better known tribes like the Apaches and pushed them further south and stopped the northern drive of colonial Spain. Spain easily pushed their border north after Mexico City until they met the Chichimec and Tarahumare tribes (took about 50 years to conquer them in the 16th and 17th centuries). A small band of Commanches showed up in Taos in July of 1706 that caused the Spanish to badly fail in warfare with Indians. For the first time the Spanish had to fight against Indians on horseback.
 * [|Southwest] - Desert area in Arizona, New Mexico and parts of Colorado, Utah, Teas and Mexico was home to the Hopi, Zuni, Yaqui, Yuma, Navajo and Apache
 * [|Great Basin] - Bowl formed by the Rocky Mountains to the east, the Sierra Nevadas to the west, the Columbia Plateau was home to Shoshonean of Uto-Aztecan dialect
 * [|California] - About 100 different tribes and groups spoke more than 200 dialects from the Penutian, Hokan, Uto-Aztecan and Athapaskan speakers.
 * [|Northwest Coast] - The Pacific coast from British Columbia to the top of Northern California included the Athapaskan Haida, Tlingit. Penutian Chinook, Tsimshian, Wakashan kwakiutl and Nuu-chah-nulth and the Salishan Coast Salish
 * [|Plateau] - Area in the Columbia and Fraser rver basins at the intersection of the Subartic, the Plains, the Great Basin, the California and Northwest Coast (Idaho, Montana and eastern Oregon and Washington)

How did it end?
**1005 Vikings Came and Went.** Native Americans first known encounter were with Vikings led by Thorfinn (followed a route established by Leif Eriksson 7 years earlier) in Vinland who mysteriously vanished. Two Epic Viking tales describing the trip to Vinland (what the Vikings called North America), //The Saga of Erik the Red// and //The Saga of the Greenlanders// tell of fierce battles with the Native Americans. The Vikings went to Labrador, Baffin Land, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and maybe Cape Cod and North Carolina.

**1492 Christopher Columbus discovered America?** How could Columbus have discovered America if Indians (Arawak Indians lived in the Caribbean) already lived in the Americas? Columbus introduced two phenomena that revolutionized race relations and transformed the modern world: the taking of land, wealth and labor from the native people, leading to their near colonization, and the transatlantic slave trade, which created a racial underclass.

The wars ended in 1890.

What was the result?
Besides wars the Native American population was reduced due to: In Central Mexico the Indian population in 1520, the year after Hernan Cortes arrived in his ships was eleven million; by 1650 that number dropped to one million.
 * Diseases such as smallpox
 * Slavery
 * Assimilation
 * European Americans may have said they wanted Native Americans to become more European yet they:
 * In New England and Virginia laws were passed prohibiting interracial marriage
 * In 1789 the Massachusetts legislature passed a law prohibiting teaching Native Americans how to read and write under penalty of death.

How many people died?
Scholars estimate (see History Channel introduction) that by the time European adventurers arrived in the 15th century A.D. more than 50 million people were already living in the Americas. Of these, about 10 million lived in the area that would become the United States.

About 3,000 white men were killed in the war.

** Beginning of Wars: **

** Middle of Wars: **

** End of Wars: **

For more information on the wars and for a timeline, click [|here] or [|here.]

Song about the war: WAR SONG media type="youtube" key="yec542aOIzM?version=3" height="300" width="500"

Sources: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_were_the_Causes_and_effects_of_the_Indian_wars http://storiesofusa.com/american-indian-wars-1622-1890/ http://wiki.answers.com/Q/About_how_many_soldiers_died_in_America's_longest_war http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Indian_Wars http://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/native-american-indians/arctic-indians.htm http://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/native-american-indians/native-american-groups.htm