Chronology of American Indian History

P

inspire the establishment of boarding schools as a
tool for assimilating Indians into non-Indian society.
(See also entry for AUTUMN 1879.)

May to September

The Bannock War is fought.
To supplement their government rations, the Ban-
nock Indians of present-day Idaho have relied
on gathering camas roots that grow wild in their
homeland. Although their right to gather these
roots is guaranteed by treaty, white ranchers allow
their hogs to trample and destroy the areas where
the wild camas grow. Angered by this continuing
threat to their food supply, the Bannock join with
their Northern Paiute (Numu) relatives to rise up
against non-Indians in their territory. Troops led by
General Oliver O. Howard, a veteran of the Nez
Perce War (see entry for JUNE 15, 1877, and for
OCTOBER 5, 1877), are sent out to suppress the
rebellion.
Although not all of the Bannock participated
in the uprising, the United States decides to punish
the entire tribe by disbanding their Malheur reser-
vation. The Bannock are sent to live at the Yakima
Indian Reservation in western Washington. The
Yakama, however, are not eager to share their land
with the Bannock. After five years of misery and
conflict, the Bannock will be permitted to relocate
to other reservations in present-day Oregon, Ne-
vada, California, and Idaho.

1879

January 9

The U.S. Army slaughters the Northern
Cheyenne led by Dull Knife.
About 150 Northern Cheyenne under the leadership
of Dull Knife remain imprisoned at Fort Robinson
in Nebraska after trying to escape their Indian Terri-
tory reservation (see entry for SEPTEMBER 9, 1877).
The Cheyenne captives frustrate the officials at the
fort by insisting that they would rather die than go

back to the reservation. In order to force the defi-

ant Indians into submission, the troops chain the

Cheyenne’s barracks shut and, on January 3, stop

giving them provisions. After six days with no food

or water, the desperate prisoners burst from the bar-

racks, jumping out of the building’s high windows

and racing for cover in the surrounding forests.

About half escape; the others are gunned down by

soldiers as they flee the fort.

Less than three weeks later, the survivors are

discovered by U.S. troops at Antelope Creek. The

Northern Cheyenne are defeated in the battle that

follows. In the end, 78 of Dull Knife’s followers are

taken alive, 64 are dead, and only seven manage to

escape.

“We bowed to the will of the

Great Father [president] and

went far into the south where

he told us to go. There we

found a Cheyenne cannot live.

Sickness came among us that

made mourning in every lodge.

Then the treaty promises were

broken and our rations were

short.... [W]e thought it bet-

ter to die fighting to regain our

old homes than to perish of

sickness.”

—Northern Cheyenne

leader Dull Knife on his

followers’ 1877 escape

from their reservation

January 14

Chief Joseph lectures Congress on the

plight of the Nez Perce.

After their surrender in the Nez Perce War (see

entry for OCTOBER 5, 1877), the followers of Nez