Black Hawk: Sauk Homeland, a Contested Treaty, and the War of 1832

How a disputed 1804 agreement, a divided Sauk leadership, and a desperate return across the Mississippi led to the Black Hawk War, and how Black Hawk put his own account on the record. In August 1833, back among his people after his release from U.S. custody, a Sauk leader named Black Hawk called on the…

The Haudenosaunee Confederacy: Nations United by the Great Law of Peace

How distinct nations built a shared system of government, and how that government has continued through colonial rivalry, revolution, and the westward growth of the United States. Each November, an annual commemoration in Canandaigua, New York, marks the continuing treaty relationship between the Six Nations and the United States under a treaty signed in that…

Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa: Alliance Against U.S. Expansion

In the early 1800s, two Shawnee brothers, one a religious leader and one a diplomat and war leader, drew people from many nations into a movement to stop the sale of Indigenous land.

The Trail of Tears: Cherokee Removal, Survival, and Rebuilding

What happened to the Cherokee people during the forced removal of 1838–39, and how the Cherokee Nation endured, governed, and rebuilt in Indian Territory.

Chief John Ross: Cherokee Sovereignty and the Long Fight Against Removal

How a Cherokee merchant became one of his nation’s longest-serving leaders, and how the Cherokee Nation used law, diplomacy, and persistence to defend its sovereignty before and after removal.

Sequoyah and the Cherokee Syllabary: Writing a Nation’s Language

Sequoyah did not invent the Cherokee language. He developed a writing system for it, one that Cherokee people rapidly adopted and made their own. Cherokee people have spoken their language for countless generations, carrying history, law, ceremony, and story from one generation to the next. Today the Cherokee Nation describes its language work as preserving…