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American Passages: A Literary Survey
Native Voices – Timeline
This timeline places literary publications (shaded) in their historical contexts.
1490s
1492
Columbus lands in the Bahamas, returns to Spain with first Indian slaves
1500s
1507
Geographer Martin Waldseemüller names the “new” land “America” for Vespucci
1510s
1512
Spanish Laws of Burgos forbid enslavement of Indians and advocate Christian conversion
1550s
c. 1558-85
Bernardino de Sahagûn, Florentine Codex
1580s
1582
Spanish begin settling New Mexico
1588
Thomas Harriot, A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia
1590s
1598
First Spanish colony on the Rio Grande, establishing control over Pueblo Indians
1600s
1605
Garcilaso de la Vega, The Florida of the Inca
1620s
1622
First Indian uprising in an English colony: Powhatan Confederacy attacks Jamestown
1630s
1637
Pequot War
1640s
1643
Roger Williams, A Key into the Language of America
1670s
1675-78
King Philip’s War decimates native tribes in New England
1700s
1708
Approximately fourteen hundred Indian slaves in the North American colonies
1750s
1755-63
French and Indian War establishes English possession of Northeast
1760s
1768
Samson Occom, A Short Narrative of My Life (1768)
1763-75
Pontiac’s War
1770s
1778
Continental Congress establishes first treaty with Indian tribe, the Delaware
1780s
1787
Northwest Ordinance approved by Confederation Congress
1790s
1790
Congress enacts first law regulating trade and land sales with Indians
1810s
1812-14
War of 1812, the last war in which Indians fight with a foreign colonial power against the United States
1819
First appropriation by Congress of a fund ($10,000) to “civilize” the Indians
1820s
1829-30
Cherokee Memorials
1824
Bureau of Indian Affairs established
1827-28
Cherokee Nation ratifies its new constitution
1830s
1833
William Apess, “An Indian’s Looking-Glass for the White Man”
1830
Congress passes Indian Removal Act, legalizing removal of eastern Indians to west of the Mississippi
1838-39
Cherokees travel the Trail of Tears
1840s
1846-48
Mexican War; Southwest is ceded to the United States
1849
Bureau of Indian Affairs shifts from War Department to the Department of the Interior
1849
California Gold Rush
1850s
1854
John Rollin Ridge (Yellow Bird), The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, the Celebrated California Bandit
1854
United States war against Plains Indians
1860s
1868
Standing Bear court case establishes that Indians are “persons within the meaning of the law”
1870s
1872
Cochise, “[I am alone]”
1876
Charlot, “[He has filled graves with our bones]”
1877, 1890
Lorenzo Asisara, “Punishment”‘
1870
Congress appropriates first sum earmarked for federal administration of Indian education
1871
Congress passes a law putting an end to further treaties with Indian tribes
1876
General Custer and his Seventh Cavalry defeated by Sioux and Cheyenne in Battle of Little Big Horn
1878
Congress appropriates first funds for Indian police
1879
Carlisle Indian School founded
1880s
1886
Geronimo and his band of Apaches captured, ending Indian fighting in Southwest
1887
Dawes Severalty (General Allotment) Act redistributes tribally held lands
1889
Paiute Wovoka inaugurates Ghost Dance religion
1890s
1894
Franz Boas, Chinook Texts
1890
Massacre of nearly 300 Indians at Wounded Knee ends Indian resistance to U.S. government
1896
James Mooney, The Ghost Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890
1898
Curtis Act dissolves tribal governments
1900s
1900
Zitkala Sa (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin), “Impressions of an Indian Childhood,” “The School Days of an Indian Girl,” “An Indian Teacher among Indians”
1910s
1910
Frances Densmore, Chippewa Songs
1910
Selin Williams, “The Bungling Host”
1916
Charles Alexander Eastman, From the Deep Woods to Civilization
1920s
1924
Congress makes all Indians U.S. citizens and grants them the right to vote
1930s
1932
Black Elk and John G. Neihardt, Black Elk Speaks
1932
Ella Cara Deloria, Dakota Texts
1933
Mourning Dove, Coyote Stories
D’arcy McNickle, The Surrounded
1934
Congress passes Wheeler-Howard (Indian Reorganization) Act, ending Dawes era
1940s
1944
Founding of National Congress of American Indians
1946
Congress establishes Indian Claims Commission to judge all tribal claims
1950s
1956
Paul Radin, The Trickster
1953
Congress adopts House Concurrent Resolution 180, declaring its intent to terminate treaty relations with Indian tribes
1960s
1966
Hugh Yellowman, “Coyote, Skunk, and the Prairie Dogs”
1969
N. Scott Momaday, The Way to Rainy Mountain
1969
Alexander Posey, Poems of Alexander Lawrence Posey, Creek Indian Bard
1970s
1973
Vine Deloria, God Is Red
1973
American Indian Movement members occupy Wounded Knee and battle FBI agents
1974
John Bierhorst, Four Masterworks of American Indian Literature: Quetzalcoatl, The Ritual of Condolence, Cuceb, the Night Chant
1977
Simon J. Ortiz, Poems from the Veterans Hospital
1977
Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony
1980s
1983
Joy Harjo, She Had Some Horses
1986
Louise Erdrich, “Fleur”
1986
Paula Gunn Allen, The Sacred Hoop
1989
Luci Tapahonso, A Breeze Swept Through
1990
1990
Joy Harjo, In Mad Love and War
1990
Congress passes Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, protecting Indian remains and sacred objects
1991
Gerald Vizenor, Landfill Meditations: Crossblood Stories
1992
Simon J. Ortiz, Woven Stone
1993
Luci Tapahonso, Saanii Dahataal: The Women Are Singing
1994
Greg Sarris, Mabel McKay: Weaving the Dream
1994
Joy Harjo, The Woman Who Fell from the Sky
1993
Diane Glancy, Firesticks
