American Indian Wars

A series of armed conflicts between Indigenous peoples and European colonial powers and, later, the United States, spanning the colonial era through the early twentieth century.

King Philip's War: A 1675–1676 war in New England between a coalition of Indigenous peoples and English colonists. It became one of colonial New England’s deadliest conflicts and reshaped Indigenous power there.
Indian removal: The forced relocation of Indigenous nations from their homelands by United States policy, especially during the nineteenth century. Removal policies turned territorial pressure into military campaigns and mass displacement.
Tecumseh: A Shawnee leader who organized a confederacy to resist U.S. expansion in the early nineteenth century. His coalition sought to unite Indigenous nations against further land cessions.
Trail of Tears: The forced removal of Cherokee people to Indian Territory in 1838–1839, during which thousands died. It shows the human cost of removal enforced through military power.
European colonization of the Americas: The establishment and expansion of European empires and settlements across the Americas from the late fifteenth century onward. It is the broader process that generated many of the land disputes behind these wars.
Yamasee War: A 1715–1717 conflict in the Southeast between Indigenous peoples and the British colony of South Carolina. It exposed the instability of South Carolina’s trading and diplomatic relations with Indigenous nations.
Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868): An agreement between the United States and several Indigenous nations establishing a Great Sioux Reservation and other terms. Its guarantees were later undermined by U.S. encroachment and the Black Hills gold rush.
Osceola: A Seminole leader associated with resistance to removal during the Second Seminole War. His leadership became a defining symbol of Seminole resistance in Florida.
Dawes Act: An 1887 U.S. law that divided many Indigenous communal lands into individual allotments. Allotment continued land dispossession after large-scale armed resistance had been suppressed.
French and Indian War: The North American theater of the Seven Years’ War, fought from 1754 to 1763. Unlike many conflicts centered on U.S. expansion, it was an imperial war involving France and Britain.

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