1861 – 1870

• 1860s: Mescalero

  Approximately 500 Mescaleros were at Bosque Redondo

• 1861-1865

  Indigenous peoples are drawn into the American Civil War on both sides, especially in Indian Territory, or what is now Oklahoma

• 1862

  38 Dakota are publicly hanged in Mankato, Minnesota and more than 250 Dakota are captured at the conclusion of 1862 Minnesota Uprising

• 1864-1866: Navajo

  Approximately over 10,000 Navajos were rounded up and forcibly marched to Bosque Redondo starting in the winter of 1864; continuous marches would occur until 1866

• 1866: Mescalero

  Mescaleros were allowed to return to their former homeland

• 1868: Navajo

  Treaty was negotiated and signed (Navajo Treaty of 1868); they began to return to their homeland beginning fall of 1868

1871 – 1880

• 1871-1880

  U.S. Congress enacts legislation on March 3, 1871 to end treaty making with Native Nations

• 1871: Pueblo

  Decentralization of Laguna Pueblo

• 1871: Navajo

  Manuelito is recognized as leader of the Diné people and becomes Chief of the Navajo Police

• 1871: Mescalero

  Agent A.J. Curtis reached an agreement where Mescaleros were allowed to retain all their stock, get a school, and retain land for cultivation in return for remaining at peace in the vicinity of Fort Stanton

• 1873: Jicarilla

  Agreement was entered between Jicarillas and the U.S.

• 1873: Mescalero

  A reservation consisting mostly of the eastern slopes of the White and Sacramento Mountains was created by executive order

• 1874: Jicarilla

  Jicarilla Reservation established in northwestern NM

• 1874: Navajo

  Manuelito and Juanita (his wife) lead a Navajo delegation to Washington, D.C. to advocate for more reservation land and the Diné people

• 1875: Pueblo

  The position of interpreter is established for Pueblos

• 1876: Jicarilla

  The 1873 Decision was abrogated

• 1876: Pueblo

  U.S. Supreme Court declared Pueblo peoples are considered wards of the U.S. government as are other Native Nations

• 1877: Mescalero

  Smallpox epidemic

• 1877: Mescalero

  Desert Land Act; Chiricahua who lived west of Mescaleros were ordered to take up residence with San Carlos Apaches; Victorio didn’t comply; Army disarmed and imprisoned the Mescalero

• 1877: Mescalero

  Day school established at Mescalero

• 1879: Pueblo

  The railroad comes to NM

• 1880: Mescalero

  Mescalero ordered to Fort Stanton

• 1880: Pueblo

  Laguna people migrate to Isleta Pueblo

• 1880: Pueblo

  Martín del Vallo is selected as governor of Acoma Pueblo; reselected as governor of Acoma Pueblo

1881 – 1890

• 1880s: Navajo

  Henry “Chee” Dodge is recognized as leader of the Diné people

• 1881: Pueblo

  Albuquerque Indian School in Duranes

• 1882:

  Executive Order establishes a 2.4 million acre reservation for use and occupancy by Hope and "other such Indians…"

• 1882: Pueblo

  AIS moves to 12th and Menaul

• 1883:

  Religious Crime Code

• 1883: Navajo

  First boarding school opens at Fort Defiance, Arizona

• 1883: Jicarilla

  Jicarilla were removed to the Mescalero Apache Reservation

• 1883: Mescalero

  Jicarilla were ordered to report to the Mescalero reservation

• 1883: Mescalero

  Tertio-Millennial Celebration in Santa Fe and a large contingent of Mescalero went to SF

• 1883:

  Ex Parte Crow Dog, U.S. Supreme Court case, determines federal courts have no jurisdiction over crimes committed on reservation treaty lands

• 1884: Mescalero

  Boarding school at Mescalero was established

• 1884: Mescalero

  Christianity is introduced when a priest from Lincoln county baptized 173 Mescaleros into Roman Catholic church

• 1885:

  Major Crimes Act

• 1885:

  A court of Indian Offenses is set up

• 1886: Jicarilla

  Jicarilla decided to return to northern NM

• 1886: Pueblo

  Solomon Bibo is selected governor of Acoma Pueblo

• 1887: Pueblo

  Maria Martinez (San Ildefonso), famous potter is born at the pueblo

• 1887:

  General Allotment Act (Dawes)

• 1887: Mescalero

  Mescalero youth taken to Albuquerque Indian School

• 1890:

  Ghost Dance is banned on Pine Ridge and Rosebud

• 1890:

  December 1890, Chief Big Foot Massacre at Wounded Knee Creek; over 300 old men, women, and children are massacred by U.S. troops of the 7th Cavalry

1891 – 1900

• 1894: Navajo

  Manuelito dies

• 1898:

  Native Nations in Indian Territory, what is now Oklahoma, are dissolved by the Curtis Act

• 1900: Pueblo

  Pojoaque Pueblo is abandoned and survivors migrate to Nambe Pueblo

• 1900:

  Native population in the entire U.S. is estimated to be 237,000

1901 – 1910

• 1902: Navajo

  Tuba City Boarding school opens

• 1903: Navajo

  The San Juan (Shiprock) Boarding school opened

• 1903: Jicarilla

  Government boarding school built in Dulce

• 1903: Mescalero

  37 Lipan Apaches were brought into Mescalero to live

• 1904: Navajo

  Tohatchi boarding school opens

• 1906:

  Burke Act

• 1906: Pueblo

  U.S. government seizes more than forty thousand acres of Taos Pueblo land known as Blue Lake wilderness area

• 1907-1908: Jicarilla

  Two reservation day schools were established at Dulce and LaJara

• 1908:

  Winters v. United States

• 1909: Navajo

  Shiprock Trading Fair

• 1909: Mescalero

  Roosevelt issued Executive Order which added the reservation to an adjoining national forest

• 1909: Navajo

  Leupp boarding school opens

• 1909: Navajo

  Crownpoint boarding school opens

• 1910: Navajo

  Chinle boarding school opens

• 1910:

  Sun Dance, spiritual ceremony exercised by Plains Native Nations, is prohibited by the U.S. government because it is viewed as self-torture

• 1910: Pueblo

  Enabling Act

• 1911: Pueblo

  Southern Pueblos Agency is established in Albuquerque. Northern Pueblos are administered through offices in Santa Fe

1911 – 1920

• 1911:

  Society of American Indians is founded and advocates for U.S. citizenship for Indigenous peoples

• 1912:

  Jim Thorpe (Sac & Fox/Potawatomi) wins gold medal for decathlon and pentathlon at Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden

• 1912: Pueblo

  NM is admitted to the Union (47th state)

• 1913: Pueblo

  United States v. Sandoval (reversed Joseph case of 1876)

• 1913: Navajo

  Toadlena boarding school opens

• 1913: Jicarilla

  Small farm and domestic cottage were developed to teach agriculture and domestic arts

• 1913: Mescalero

  187 Chiricahua chose to settle in Mescalero and others took allotments in Oklahoma

• 1914: Pueblo

  Robert Lewis (Zuni), future governor, is born

• 1916: Pueblo

  Edward P. Dozier (Santa Clara) is born; he becomes first Santa Clara person to earn a Ph.D.

• 1918:

  Native American Church is incorporated in Oklahoma by members of Apache, Cheyenne, Comanche, Kiowa, Otoe, and Ponca Nations

• 1918: Pueblo

  Pablita Velarde (Santa Clara), artist and painter, is born

• 1918:

  Choctaw Code Talkers play a pivotal role in helping U.S. forces win key battles in the Meuse-Argonne Campaign in France during World War I

• 1919:

  U.S. Citizenship for WWI Veterans

• 1921:

  Snyder Act

• 1921: Jicarilla

  Dutch Reformed Church of America established school in Dulce

• 1921-1927: Navajo

  Navajo Tribal Council created; chapters are established

• 1922: Mescalero

  Indian title to the land was confirmed

• 1922:

  Bursum Bill

• 1922: Pueblo

  Reorganization meeting of the All Indian Pueblo Council is held at Santo Domingo

• 1922: Navajo

  Oil discovered on Navajo land

• 1922: Navajo

  Kay C. Bennett, author and singer, is born

• 1923: Pueblo

  Popovi Da (San Ildefonso), potter and artist, is born

• 1923: Pueblo

  Joe Sando (Jemez), author, is born

• 1923: Navajo

  Navajo Tribal Council changed with U.S. Government involved (interest in oil and gas)

• 1924:

  Indian Citizenship Act

• 1924: Pueblo

  Pueblo Lands Board

• 1925: Navajo

  Fort Wingate boarding school opens

• 1926: Navajo

  Dillon Platero, author and educator, is born

• 1928:

  Meriam Report

• 1929:

  Stocks Crash

• 1930: Navajo

  U.S. Senate Investigating Committee confirmed the systematic kidnapping of Navajo children to put them in boarding schools

1931 – 1940

• 1930s:

  Creation of day schools in NM

• 1931: Pueblo

  Original land grant to Zuni Pueblo is confirmed

• 1933-45:

  Indian New Deal

• 1933:

  John Collier appointed as Indian Commissioner

• 1933: Pueblo

  The land of Pojoaque Pueblo is restored

• 1933: Navajo

  Livestock Reduction

• 1933: Pueblo

  Land patent is issued to Zuni Pueblo by the U.S.

• 1933: Navajo

  District six is expanded and Navajo families are forced to move out and never compensated or provided replacement homes

• 1934: Navajo

  Legislation adds certain lands and defines the boundaries of the Navajo Nation in Arizona

• 1934: Mescalero

  Chato, leader during the 1881-1886 conflict with the U.S., dies in automobile accident on the Mescalero reservation

• 1934:

  Johnson-O’Malley Act

• 1934:

  Wheeler-Howard Act (IRA)

• 1934: Navajo

  Navajo Mounted Police was formed

• 1934: Navajo

  Ruth Roessel, author and educator, is born

• 1935: Pueblo

  The United Pueblos Agency is established in Albuquerque by the BIA

• 1935: Navajo

  Navajo Nation rejects IRA

• 1935: Navajo

  Navajo syllabary is devised, using the Harrington-La Farge alphabet; enables the Navajo language to be written

• 1936:

  Indian Arts and Crafts Board

• 1936: Navajo

  Navajo Patrol replaces Navajo Mounted Police

• 1936: Navajo

  District Six is recognized as encompassing all of the lands exclusively occupied by the Hopi

• 1936: Navajo

  Window Rock is chosen for the site of the Navajo Central Agency (later Navajo Tribal Council)

• 1937: Navajo

  Navajo Tribal Council was formed

• 1937: Jicarilla

  Organized first formal government, adopted a constitution, and bylaws

• 1937: Jicarilla

  Corporate charter adopted with formal name of Jicarilla Apache Tribe

• 1939:

  Tonawanda Seneca band declares their independence from the state of New York

• 1939: Pueblo

  Alfonso Ortiz (San Juan Pueblo), author and scholar, is born

1941 – 1950

• 1941-45:

  U.S. in World War II

• 1941-45:

  All American Indian men were required to register for the draft; Refusals to enlist by some Hopis, Seminoles, and Papagos

• 1941: Pueblo

  Simon Ortiz (Acoma), poet and author, is born

• 1941: Navajo

  Idea for Navajo Code Talkers

• 1942:

  17 Comanche Code Talkers devise innovative phrases in their language to communicate important military information during World War II

• 1942-45: Navajo

  Navajo Code Talkers in WWII

• 1942: Navajo

  Joe Kieyoomia captured by Japanese; Bataan Death March survivor; tortured for access to code even though he was not a Code Talker

• 1942: Navajo

  Alice Neundorf, author and educator, is born

• 1943: Pueblo

  Los Alamos National Labs is established

• 1944:

  National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) is founded in Denver

• 1944: Mescalero

  Richard Lucero, health-care advocate, is born

• 1945: Navajo

  Navajo Code Talker the first to hear that the Atomic Bomb exploded over Hiroshima

• 1945: Navajo

  Emerson Blackhorse Mitchell, author, is born

• 1946: Mescalero

  Lorenzo Baca, author, is born

• 1946:

  Indian Claims Commission Act

• 1947: Pueblo

  Isleta Pueblo Constitution is approved by Secretary of Interior

• 1947: Navajo

  BIA reported that 50% of Navajo children had starved and that 50% of newborn Navajo children died before the age of 5

• 1947: Navajo

  Informal Indian placement program (Morman)

• 1948: Navajo

  Navajo granted suffrage

• 1948: Jicarilla

  Apache Nation v. United States Docket No. 22

• 1948:

  Denial or the right to vote for Pueblos and tribes in New Mexico is overturned in federal court

• 1948: Pueblo

  Indians in NM granted suffrage

• 1948: Pueblo

  Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna), author, is born

• 1949: Pueblo

  Laguna Pueblo constitution is approved

• 1950: Navajo

  Navajo Hopi Rehabilitation Act

• 1950: Navajo

  Intermountain Intertribal Boarding School

1951 – 1960

• 1951:

  Korean Conflict

• 1951: Pueblo

  Ted Jojola (Isleta), scholar and author, is born

• 1951:

  Anne Dodge Wauneka, first woman elected to Navajo Tribal Council

• 1951:

  Uranium discovered on the Navajo reservation

• 1952:

  Relocation program is established by the BIA

• 1952: Pueblo

  First lease between Laguna Pueblo and Anaconda Company (uranium)

• 1952: Navajo

  The Morman Church inaugurated the Indian Student Placement Program

• 1952: Navajo

  Laura Tohe, author and poet, is born

• 1953: Mescalero

  All Mescalero children were in public schools that serve the Mescalero area

• 1953: Navajo

  Luci Tapahonao, author and poet, is born

• 1953: Navajo

  Navajo Tribal Scholarship program begins

• 1953:

  House Concurrent Resolution 108

• 1953:

  Public Law 280

• 1953:

  Commission of Indian Affairs is established by the NM State Legislature

• 1954:

  Relocation to Urban Areas

• 1955:

  PHS takes over responsibility for health and medical care of Indigenous peoples

• 1958:

  More than three thousand Lumbee break up a Ku Klux Klan rally in Robeson County, North Carolina

• 1958: Jicarilla

  Jicarilla Apache Tribe of the Jicarilla Apache Reservation v. United States of America Docket No. 22-A

• 1959: Navajo

  Native American Church v. Navajo Tribal Council

• 1959: Navajo

  Navajo Police Department replaces Navajo Patrol

• 1959: Navajo

  The Navajo Times was published for the first time

• 1960: Jicarilla

  Constitution is revised and accepted with new provisions

• 1963: Jicarilla

  Constitution was amended

1961 – 1970

• 1960: Pueblo

  Flood Control Act of 1960 authorized the construction of Cochiti Lake

• 1961:

  Task Force on Indian Affairs

• 1961:

  National Indian Youth Council created

• 1961: Navajo

  Navajo Tribal Museum established at Window Rock

• 1962: Pueblo

  SFIS is replaced by IAIA

• 1962:

  Institute for American Indian Arts (IAIA) opens

• 1962: Jicarilla

  Jicarilla Chieftain, biweekly newspaper began publication

• 1963: Navajo

  Annie Dodge Wauneka presented with Presidential Medal of Freedom

• 1963: Navajo

  Navajo Tribal Zoo opened

• 1964: Pueblo

  Beryl Blue Spruce (Laguna/San Juan) receives his M.D. degree from USC and becomes first to do so

• 1964: Mescalero

  Tribal constitution was revised

• 1965: Pueblo

  The All Indian Pueblo Council adopts constitution and bylaws

• 1965: Pueblo

  Construction of Cochiti Lake and Dam began

• 1966:

  AIM is formed in Minneapolis

• 1966:

  Alaska Federation of Natives is founded in Anchorage

• 1966: Navajo

  Rough Rock Demonstration School, first tribally community control, opens

• 1967:

  American Indian Law Center is founded in Albuquerque

• 1968:

  Civil Rights Act (Titles II-VII)

• 1968: Navajo

  Navajo Tribe becomes Navajo Nation and adopts Navajo flag

• 1968: Navajo

  Navajo Community College opens

• 1968: Jicarilla

  Constitution amended

• 1968:

  House Made of Dawn is published

• 1969:

  Report on Indian Education

• 1969:

  Activists begin a 19-month occupation of Alcatraz

• 1969:

  Custer Died for Your Sins is published

• 1969: Navajo

  The Navajo language was declassified as a top-secret military code

• 1970:

  Nixon’s Special Message on Indian Affairs

• 1970:

  Activists occupy Mount Rushmore

• 1970:

  Native American Rights Fund is founded in Boulder

• 1970: Pueblo

  Return of Blue Lake Lands to Taos Pueblo

• 1970: Navajo

  The Navajo Code Talkers Association was organized

1971 – 1980

• 1971:

  Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act

• 1971: Navajo

  Navajo History Volume 1 is published

• 1972: Navajo

  U.S. v. Kabinto: More than 50 Navajo families are evicted from District Six without relocation assistance

• 1972:

  Indian Education Act

• 1972:

  Trail of Broken Treaties Caravan Arrives in Washington, D.C.

• 1972:

  AIM opens Survival Schools

• 1973:

  Activists occupy Wounded Knee

• 1973:

  God is Red is published

• 1973: Pueblo

  Water from Cochiti Lake was impounded

• 1973: Navajo

  Larry Casuse, co-founder of Indians Against Exploitation, murdered in Gallup.

• 1974: Navajo

  Congress authorizes partition of the surface rights in the JUA. 140 Navajo workers

• 1974:

  International Treaty Council

• 1974:

  Indian Financing Act

• 1974:

  Students Rights and Due Process Procedures

• 1974: Navajo

  Chokecherry Canyon murder of three Navajo men

• 1975: Navajo

  Civil Rights Commission release The Farmington Report: A Conflict of Cultures

• 1975:

  Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act

• 1975:

  The Council of Energy Resource Tribes (CERT) is organized

• 1975: Navajo

  Occupation of Fairchild Plant to protest the layoff and treatment of 140 Navajo workers

• 1976:

  Indian Crimes Act of 1976

• 1976:

  Indian Health Care Improvement Act

• 1976: Pueblo

  AIPC takes administrative control of AIS

• 1977:

  Position of Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs is created in the U.S. Department of the Interior

• 1978:

  American Indian Religious Freedom Act

• 1978: Pueblo

  Ceremony is published

• 1978:

  Federal Acknowledgment of Indian Tribes

• 1978:

  Tribally Controlled Community College Assistance Act

• 1978:

  Education Amendments Act of 1978 Title XI Indian Education

• 1978:

  Indian Child Welfare Act

• 1978:

  Longest Walk begins

• 1979: Navajo

  The largest nuclear accident in the U.S. occurred at a United Nuclear Company milling plan in Church Rock, NM

• 1979: Navajo

  Mutton Man cartoon strip is developed

• 1979:

  Archaeological Resources Protection Act

• 1980: Pueblo

  The Pueblos observe the 300th anniversary of the 1680 Pueblo Revolt

• 1980: Pueblo

  Maria Montoya Martinez (San Ildefonso), famous potter, dies

1981 – 1990

• 1981:

  Lakota Times, precursor to Indian Country Today, begins publication

• 1981: Pueblo

  AIS is closed and moves to IAIA/Santa Fe

• 1982: Jicarilla

  Merrion v. Jicarilla Apache Tribe; acknowledges limited sovereignty for Jicarilla on severance taxes and sovereignty

• 1982:

  Gay American Indians is founded in New York City

• 1983: Mescalero

  New Mexico v. Mescalero Apache Tribe acknowledges Mescalero Apache regulatory jurisdiction over hunting and fishing

• 1985: Navajo

  Navajo Nation government passes Navajo Business Preference Law, which requires first preference to Navajo-owned business on all contract jobs

• 1985: Jicarilla

  Jicarilla Apache becomes first Native Nation to sell tax exempt A-rated municipal bonds to institutional investors

• 1986:

  Report of the Task Force on Indian Education Development

• 1987:

  National Native News network program of Anchorage, Alaska begins broadcasting and aired on more than two hundred radio stations across Turtle Island

• 1987:

  Verna Williamson is elected first woman governor of Isleta Pueblo

• 1988:

  Report on BIA Education

• 1988:

  Tribal Self-Governance Act

• 1988:

  Tribally Controlled Schools Act of 1988

• 1988:

  Indian Gaming Regulatory Act

• 1990: Pueblo

  Smithsonian returns 3,500 photos taken in the 19th and 20th centuries to Zuni Pueblo

• 1990: Pueblo

  Zuni Pueblo celebrates the passage of the Zuni Land Conservation Act of 1990

• 1990: Navajo

  Due to reform, the first Navajo President elected is Peterson Zah

• 1990:

  Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act

1991 – 2000

• 1992:

  National Coalition of Racism in Sports and Media forms

• 1992: Pueblo

  Pueblo Nations: Eight Centuries of Pueblo Indian History is published

• 1993: Navajo

  Peter McDonald is sentenced to 14 years in federal prison.

• 1994:

  Indian Self-Determination Act Amendments

• 1994:

  An Act to Amend the American Indian Religious Freedom Act to Provide for the Traditional Use of Peyote by Indians for Religious Purposes

• 1994: Navajo

  Roberta Blackgoat is named “America’s Unsung Woman”

• 1995: Navajo

  Peter McDonald is pardoned by Albert Hale

• 1996:

  Native American House Assistance Act

• 1999: Navajo

  Navajo Nation filed a lawsuit against the Peabody Western Coal Company

• 1999: Navajo

  Navajo Nation sued 9 of U.S.’s tobacco giants

• 1999: Navajo

  Navajo Nation Excise Fuel Tax is passed

• 2000:

  BIA’s 175th birthday-Apology Never Again

• 2000:

  Indian Tribal Economic Development and Contract Encouragement Act

• 2000:

  Indian Land Consolidation Act Amendments

• 2000: Navajo

  Navajo Code Talker GI Joe doll makes its debut

• 2000: Navajo

  Annie Dodge Wauneka passes away

2001 – 2010

• 2001: Navajo

  McDonald received commutation from Clinton

• 2001: Navajo

  Navajo Code Talkers receive Congressional Medals

• 2004

  Esther Martinez Native American Languages Preservation Act (PL 109-394)

• 2005: Navajo

  State of NM and Navajo Nation sign a water right settlement (San Juan River Basin)

• 2007:

  Native American Home Ownership Opportunity Act of 2007

• 2007:

  UNDRIP adopted by the UN General Assembly

• 2008:

  Code Talkers Recognition Act

• 2008: Navajo

  NM officially adopts a Navajo textbook, Dine Bizaad Binahoo aah (Rediscovering the Navajo Language)

• 2009:

  Bennett Freeze Repeal Act of 2009

• 2009:

  U.S. President Barack Obama becomes first president to hold Tribal Nations Summit in Washington, D.C.; it would continue the rest of his term to 2016

• 2010:

  Tribal Law and Order Act

• 2010:

  U.S. acts on UNDRIP with statement of support

2011 – 2020

• 2011:

  Keystone XL Pipeline Protesters launch campaign

• 2016:

  Standing Rock Sioux oppose the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL)

• 2017: Navajo

  Final decree of the Aamdt case (State of NM, ex rel. State Engineer v. Aamodt)

2021 – 2030

• 2021:

  President Joe Biden hosts first Tribal Nations Summit since 2016

• 2021:

  Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) becomes first Indigenous woman selected and confirmed as Secretary of the Department of the Interior

• 2021:

  U.S. President Joe Biden issues proclamation designating October 11 as Indigenous People’s Day