"We must go beyond the arrogance of human rights. We must go beyond the ignorance of civil rights. We must step into the reality of natural rights because all of the natural world has a right to existence and we are only a small part of it." —John Trudell (1946-2015)

John Trudell (15 Feb 1946-8 Dec 2015) was a Santee Sioux American Indian philosopher, author, poet, actor, musician, veteran, and political activist. He was the spokesperson for the United Indians of All Tribes' takeover of Alcatraz beginning in 1969, broadcasting as Radio Free Alcatraz. He called himself a Blue Indian.

See Actions You Can Take

An American Indian chronology

2000s

• 15 March 2021: Laguna Pueblo U.S. representative from New Mexico Deb Haaland is confirmed by the Senate as Secretary of the Interior
• 2020: Covid-19 hits indigenous communities the hardest
• 4 July 2020: Trump threatens protesters from the Black Hills of South Dakota
• 26 May 2020: National and international protests begin
• 25 May 2020: George Floyd killed by police in Minneapolis over a $20 bill
• 31 March 2020: San Francisco passes legislation for the formation of an American Indian Cultural District in San Francisco
• 2018: Farm Bill signed into law with hemp legalized and tribal sovereignty (partially) upheld.
• 2015: John Trudell died of cancer on 8 December
• 2012: John Trudell starts Hempstead Project Heart

1900s

• 1980: longest running court case in U.S. history, The Sioux Nation v. the United States U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Black Hills were illegally taken and that the Sioux Nation should be awarded $106 million dollars. The Sioux decline, saying "The Black Hills Are Not For Sale"
• 1979: John Trudell's wife, three children, and mother-in-law killed by house fire on Duck Valley Reservation while John protested in Washington, D.C.
• 1978: Freedom of Religion Act allowed public ceremony
• Jim Crow laws overruled (1965)
• 1900: U.S. Indian population less than 250,000 compared to 8 million in 1492.

1800s

• 1890: Wounded-Knee massacre, U.S. troops massacre Chief Bigfoot and 300 prisoners of war using a new weapon: the Hotchkiss Gun, 20 congressional medals of honor awarded, the most ever awarded for a single battle. Considered the end of the Indian Wars.
• 1887: Dawes Act ends communal land ownership, distributes tracts of land to tribes and "dispose of" of remainder. The tribes lose millions of acres. Individuals become land owners and reservations were divided until nothing was left, making it easier to sub-divide and sell with each generation. Most of the surplus land and plots within reservation boundaries are now in the hands of white ranchers.
• 1877: Surrender requires 75% of Lakota men to "sell or starve", only 10% sign
• 1877: Great Lakota warrior and chief named Crazy Horse surrendered and was later killed in custody
• 1876: Custer's 7th Cavalry crushed at the Battle of the Little Big Horn
• 1875: Lakota War begins
• 1874: General George Custer announces the discovery of gold in the Black Hills. An influx of white gold miners enters Lakota territory.
• 1871: End of treaty-making; "the problem with treaties is that they allow tribes to exist as sovereign nations and we can't have that. We have plans."
• 1871: Indian Appropriation Act makes all Indians wards of the federal government and forbids them to leave reservations, making all western indians prisoners of war.
• 1869: Transcontinental Railroad finished, carries large numbers of hunters for the wholesale killing of buffalo eliminating a source of food, clothing, and shelter for the Sioux.
• 1868: Second Fort Laramie Treaty clearly gaurantees the sovereignty of the Great Sioux Nation and the Lakota's ownership of the Sacred Black Hills and promises to close Powder River Country to all whites. This is the only war in American history in which the government negotiated a peace by conceding everything demanded by the enemy.
• 1866: Transcontinental railroad construction begins. Lakota lands appropriated to shortcut trails and trains through the heart of the Lakota nation. Lakota chief Red Cloud attacked and defeated the U.S. Army many times over.
• 1863: Sioux uprising ends with hanging of 38 Sioux men (the largest mass execution in U.S. history), order signed by Lincoln two days after the Emancipation Proclamation
• 1861: The Homestead Act signed by Lincoln unleashed a flood of white settlers into native lands
• First Transcontinental Telegraph (1861)
• American Civil War (1861-65)
• 1851: First Treaty of Fort Laramie marks boundaries of Lakota Nation
• Indian Removal Act (1830-41)
• 1824: Bureau of Indian Affairs created within the War Department

Leading up to the Bureau of Indian Affairs

• Slavery in the United States (1789-1865)
• Constitution of the United States (1787-)
• Declaration of Independence (1776)
• American Revolution (1775-83)
• First enslaved Africans arrive (1619)
• Native American Genocide (1492-)
• Pre-Columbian Settlement (10,000 years ago)

Contribute

Please contribute by studying, sharing, and discussing, or by submitting material.

@siznax