Chronology of American Indian History

P

the Dog Soldiers, the war society of the Southern
Cheyenne—hail Chivington and his men as heroes.
They are cheered as they parade through the streets
of Denver, and whites flock to see Indian scalps dis-
played as war trophies in the city’s opera house. (See
entries for JANUARY 10, 1864, and for JANUARY TO
FEBRUARY 1864.)

1865

Cherokee Jesse Chisholm blazes the
Chisholm Trail.
Cherokee interpreter and businessman Jesse Ch-
isholm drives a wagon from Texas to his trading
post in Kansas. Following his wagon ruts, others
begin to take this route north. Popularly known as
the Chisholm Trail, the path will become the pri-
mary route Texas cattlemen use to drive their herds
to Kansas railroad terminals, from which the cattle
can be transported to eastern markets.

The Winnebago receive a reservation
in Nebraska.
The federal government establishes the Nebraska
Winnebago Reservation, an act that ends their 25-
year “trail of tears.” After the United States forced
the Winnebago to cede the last of their original
homeland, the tribe, beginning in 1840, was re-
moved five times to lands in present-day Iowa,
Minnesota, South Dakota, and Nebraska. During
the Removal period, more than 700 Winnebago
died.

January 1

A Texas Ranger attack brings on the
Kickapoo Uprising.
In the early 1850s, 700 Kickapoo left what is now
Kansas to escape reservation life and relocated to
Mexico. About 15 years later, they are set upon at
Dove Creek by the Texas Rangers, who crossed the
international border to fight the Indians. Although
the Kickapoo win the battle, they are enraged by
the unprovoked attack. Their fury unleashes almost

10 years of violence, during which the Kickapoo

launch a vicious and effective military campaign

against Texas ranches and settlements along the Rio

Grande. (See also entry for MAY 18, 1873.)

January 10

A congressional committee issues a report

on the Sand Creek Massacre.

The rumored horrors of the Sand Creek Massacre (see

entry for NOVEMBER 29, 1864) prompt Congress’s

“As to Colonel Chivington,

your committee can hardly find

fitting terms to describe his

conduct. Wearing the uniform

of the United States, which

should be the emblem of justice

and humanity[,]... he delib-

erately planned and executed

a foul and dastardly massacre

which would have disgraced

the veriest savage among those

who were the victims of his

cruelty.... [T]he truth is that

he surprised and murdered, in

cold blood, the unsuspecting

men, women, and children on

Sand Creek... and then re-

turned to Denver and boasted

of the brave deeds he and the

men under his command had

performed.”

—from an 1865 report

on the Sand Creek Massacre

by a Joint Special Committe

of the United States Congress

Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War to hold

hearings to determine the facts of the event. The