| 1492 | Columbus discovers (???) America. |
| 1500 | Sixty million Natives begin decline to approximately one million in 1900 |
| 1520 | The Aztec Empire at Mexico City falls to Hernando Cortes |
| 1531 | Our Lady of Guadalupe appears to Juan Diego at Tepeyac |
| 1537 | Pope Paul III issues letter, SUBLIMUS DEUS, after long fight by Fray Bartolome del las Casas for better treatment of Indians. |
| 1565 | First permanent European settlement, St. Augustine. |
| 1604-35 |
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| 1607 | First permanent English colony at Jamestown, Virginia. |
| 1611 | First Jesuits sent to New France. |
| 1616 | Smallpox epidemic ravages Natives along New England coast. |
| 1619 | First English missionaries, 50 Anglicans, sent to Virginia.First slaves from Africa land in Virginia. |
| 1620 | Mayflower arrived at Plymouth to found first colony in New England. |
| 1622 | First Indian uprising in an English colony (Virginia). |
| 1636-37 | Pequot War. The only Indian naval engagement. |
| 1638 | First Reservations, established by Puritans near New Haven, CT. |
| 1675 | King Phillip War. Metacom, known by whites as King Phillip, protested Reservation system; was executed. |
| 1680 | The Pueblo Revolt begins at Taos Pueblo. |
| 1756-63 | French and Indian War. English defeated the French and took possession of entire Northeast by 1763. |
| 1767 | Secularization of missions in new Mexico, ending Spanish mission program there. |
| 1768 | British give back control of Indian affairs to colonies. |
| 1769 | Spanish occupied California and established first missions. |
| 1778 | Continental Congress made first treaty with Indians (Delawares). |
| 1789 | United States Constitution ratified by the states; Indian rights reaffirmed. |
| 1790 | Congress enacted first law regulating trade and land sales with Indians. |
| 1803 | Louisiana Purchase; Lewis and Clark expedition. |
| 1819 | First appropriation ($10,000) to civilize Indians. |
| 1824 | Bureau of Indian Affairs established in War Department. |
| 1827 | Cherokee Republic, formed in an attempt to avoid forced removal. |
| 1830 | Indian Removal Act passed by Congress; legalized removal of all Indians east of Mississippi to lands west of the river. |
| 1832 | Chief Justice John Marshall issued opinion that state law does not apply to Indians on tribal lands; position of Commissioner of Indian Affairs established in War Department. |
| 1834 | Administrative structure of Bureau of Indian Affairs amplified; Trade and Intercourse Act, including prohibition of sale of intoxicants to Indians and need for a license to travel in Indian land. |
| 1837 | Smallpox epidemic on the Plains. |
| 1839 | Father De Smet's first journey west contacted Yanktons. Continued journeys until death in 1873. |
| 1849 | Bureau of Indian Affairs shifted to Interior Department. |
| 1851 | Fort Laramie Treaty. |
| 1861-65 | Civil War in United States. |
| 1862 | Minnesota Uprising of Sioux; 38 hanged at Mankato. |
| 1865-69 | Building of Union Pacific Railroad. |
| 1867 | The U. S. buys Alaska. |
| 1870 | Grant's Peace Policy continued to 1881; First sum earmarked for federal education of Indians. First Ghost Dance Movement, Prayer to prevent immigration. |
| 1871 | Congress passed law putting an end to further treaties with Indians. |
| 1874 | Grey Nuns from Canada arrive in Fort Totten, Dakota Territory; employed by U.S. Government. |
| 1876 | Battle of Little Big Horn (Custer). Abbot Martin Marty from Indiana arrived at Standing Rock Reservation; established St. Benedict's Mission. |
| 1877 | Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce War. |
| 1878 | Congress appropriated first funds for Indian police. |
| 1880 | Marty made Bishop and Vicar Apostolic of Dakota Territory. |
| 1887 | Dawes General Allotment Act passed by Congress. |
| 1888 | Holy Rosary Mission on Pine Ridge Reservation staffed by Jesuits. |
| 1890 | Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge. Ghost Dance. Last major bloodshed involving Indians and the U.S. Government. |
| 1892-97 | More laws providing for schools and giving truant officers the right to force Indian children to attend school; federal support of church schools withdrawn. |
| 1911 | Ishi, the last Yahi Indian. |
| 1919 | Father Sylvester Eisenman, OSB came to Yankton Reservation; beginning of Marty mission. |
| 1924 | All Indians declared citizens of U.S. |
| 1934 | Wheeler-Howard Act, passed to protect Native Culture. |
| 1969 | American Indian Movement (AIM) begins to form. |
| 1979 | American Indian Religious Freedom Act (P.L. 95-341 ). |
Derived from Native Nations
Alabama -Indian for tribal town, later a tribe (Alabamas or Alibamons) of the Creek confederacy.
Alaska -Russian version of Aleutian (Eskimo) word, alakshak, for "peninsula," "great lands," or "land that is not an island."
Arizona -Spanish version of Pima Indian word for "little spring place," or Aztec arizuma, meaning "silver-bearing."
Arkansas -French variant of Quapaw, a Siouan people meaning "downstream people."
Connecticut -From Mohican and other Algonquin words meaning "long river place."
Delaware -Named for Lord De La Warr, early governor of Virginia; first applied to river, then to Indian tribe (Lenni-Lenape), and the state.
Hawaii -Possibly derived from native word for homeland, Hawaiki or Owhyhee.
Idaho -A coined name with an invented Indian meaning: "gem of the mountains;" originally suggested for the Pike's Peak mining territory (Colorado), then applied to the new mining territory of the Pacific Northwest. Another theory suggests Idaho may be a Kiowa Apache term for the Comanche.
Illinois -French for Illini or land of Illini, Algonquin word meaning men or warriors.
Indiana -Means "land of the Indians."
Iowa -Indian word variously translated as "one who puts to sleep" or "beautiful land."
Kansas -Sioux word for "south wind people."
Kentucky -Indian word variously translated as "dark and bloody ground," "meadow land" and "land of tomorrow."
Massachusetts -From Indian tribe named after "large hill place" identified by Capt. John Smith as being near Milton, Mass.
Michigan -From Chippewa words mici gama meaning "great water," after the lake of the same name.
Minnesota -From Dakota Sioux word meaning "cloudy water" or "sky-tinted water" of the Minnesota River.
Mississippi -Probably Chippewa; mici zibi, "great river" or "gathering-in of all the waters." Also: Algonquin word, "Messipi."
Missouri -An Algonquin Indian term meaning "river of the big canoes."
Nebraska -From Omaha or Otos Indian word meaning "broad water" or "flat river," describing the Platte River.
North & South Dakota -Dakota is Sioux for friend or ally.
Ohio -Iroquois word for "fine or good river."
Oklahoma -Choctaw coined word meaning red man, proposed by Rev. Allen Wright, Choctaw-speaking Indian, said: Okla humma is red people.
Tennessee -Tanasi was the name of Cherokee villages on the Little Tennessee River. From 1784 to 1788 this was the State of Franklin, or Frankland.
Texas -Variant of word used by Caddo and other Indians meaning friends or allies, and applied to them by the Spanish in eastern Texas. Also written texias, tejas, teysas.
Utah -From a Navajo word meaning upper, or higher up, as applied to a Shoshone tribe called Ute.
Wisconsin -An Indian name, spelled Ouisconsin and Mesconsing by early chroniclers. Believed to mean "grassy place" in Chippewa. Congress made it Wisconsin.
Wyoming -The word was taken from Wyoming Valley, Pa., which was the site of an Indian massacre and became widely known by Campbell's poem, "Gertrude of Wyoming." In Algonquin it means "large prairie place."
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