30,000-20,000 B.C.

Indians cross the Bering Strait into North America

2000-1500 B.C.

Agricultural revolution transforms Native American life

1502

Montezuma becomes emperor of the Aztecs

1521

Cortes defeats the Aztecs at Tenochtitlan

1616-1618

Plague destroys Native American populations of coastal New England

1622

Surprise Indian attack devastates Virginia

1644

Second major Indian attack in Virginia

1675

King Philip's (Metacomet’s) War devastates New England

1680

Pope leads Pueblo revolt against the Spanish in New Mexico

1794

General Anthony Wayne defeats Indians at Battle of Fallen Timbers (August)

1811

Harrison defeats Indians at Tippecanoe (November)

1814

Jackson crushes Creek Indians at Horseshoe Bend (March)

1818

Andrew Jackson invades Florida

1830

Congress passes Indian Removal Act

1835-1842

Blacks fight alongside Indians in the Second Seminole War

1864

Colonel John Chivington leads massacre of Indians at Sand Creek, Colorado

1865-1867

Sioux fight against white miners and U.S. army in Great Sioux War

1867-1868

Policy of "small reservations" for Indians adopted

1876

Custer and his men defeated and killed by the Sioux at battle of Little Bighorn (June)

1887

Congress passes Dawes Severalty Act, making Indians individual landowners

1889

Oklahoma Territory opened to settlement

1890

Teton Sioux massacred at battle of Wounded Knee, South Dakota (December)