Chronology of American Indian History

P

Steptoe’s men (see entry for MAY 17, 1858). At
Spokane Plains on September 1 and Four Lakes on
September 5, battles end in the defeat of the Indians,
whose arms cannot match the howitzers and long-
range rifles of Wright’s men. The victorious Wright
travels through the countryside, rounding up and
hanging leaders he deems responsible for the conflict.

1859

The Cherokee found the Keetoowah Society.
Led by white Baptist missionary Evan Jones, conser-
vative Cherokee Indians form the secret Keetoowah
Society to restore the traditional values of the tribe,
which they believe have been under threat ever since
the tribe’s relocation to Indian Territory (see entries
for MAY 1838 and MARCH 1839). Naming themselves
after one of the towns in the original Cherokee Na-
tion, the Keetoowah are primarily interested in social
and political, rather than religious, reform. Among
their early goals are ending slavery and resisting at-
tempts to assimilate the Cherokee into white society.

1860

February 26

White vigilantes massacre Indians camped
on Humboldt Bay.
In the middle of the night, a party of about 40 white
men set upon several Indian villages along Hum-
boldt Bay near the town of Eureka, California. They
slaughter approximately 80 people, most of whom
are women and children. The whites stage the attack
because the Indians have been harboring members of
mountain tribes suspected of killing the men’s cattle.

April 30

The Navajo (Dineh) attack Fort Defiance.
After years of conflict between the Navajo (Dineh)
and soldiers in New Mexico Territory (see entry for
JULY TO OCTOBER 1858), Navajo warriors attack

Fort Defiance, a U.S. Army post in the center of

their territory. The Navajo nearly take the fort, but

the soldiers are able eventually to repulse them.

The attack leads the secretary of war to launch

a full-scale military campaign against the tribe. Led

by Major Edward R. S. Canby, about 600 soldiers

aided by Ute scouts harass the Navajo through the

winter and following spring. Navajo casualties are

low, but the troops kill more than 1,000 of the

tribe’s horses and even more of their sheep. Accom-

panied by a severe drought, this loss of livestock

causes the Navajo extreme hardship. (See entry for

SEPTEMBER 22, 1861.)

“After the soldiers had killed

all but some little children and

babies still tied up in their bas-

kets, the soldiers took them

also, and set the camp on

fire and threw them into the

flames to see them burn alive.

I had one baby brother killed

there.... They went after my

people all over Nevada. Re-

ports were made everywhere

throughout the whole coun-

try by the white settlers, that

the red devils were killing their

cattle, and by this lying of the

white settlers the trail began

which is marked by the blood

of my people.”

—Paiute author Sarah

Winnemucca on the Paiute War

May

The Paiute battle miners in the Paiute War.

Traveling through present-day Nevada, white trad-

ers kidnap and rape two Paiute girls. After rescuing