© 2002 Miriam Schacht. All rights reserved. Use without attribution prohibited.
MLA citation format:
Schacht, Miriam. "Native American Literature Chronology to 1969."
E314V: Introduction to Native American Literature and Film. University of
Texas at Austin. 11. September 2002. Date of access. <http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~schacht/e314v/chrono.html>
1492 Columbus encounters Americas - Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti
c.1500 Iroquois Confederacy forms
1513 Ponce de Leon arrives in Florida
1526 San Miguel de Guadalupe settled (first European settlement in North America)
1607 Jamestown settled (first English settlement in North America)
1614 Pocahontas marries John Rolfe
1637 Pequot War
1675-1676 "King Philip's War"
1680 Pueblo Revolt
1692 Spanish retake Santa Fe
1701 Iroquois Confederacy establishes peace agreements with France and Great Britain.
1730 First California Indian missions established
1754-1763 Seven Years' War (French and Indian War)
1768 Samson Occom, A Short Narrative of My Life. (Unclear whether this was published or merely circulated.)
1772 Samson Occom, A Sermon Preached by Samson Occom…at the Execution of Moses Paul, published. (Sermon preached at execution on Sep. 2, 1771). This went through at least 19 editions and in 1827 was translated into Welsh.
1774 Samson Occom, Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, published.
1776 War of Independence against Britain
1779-1781 Major smallpox epidemic in North America
1790s Hendrick Aupaumut serves as go-between for U.S. and Indian governments
1793(?) Hendrick Aupaumut writes A Short Narration of My Last Journey to the Western Contry [sic]
1794 Hendrick Aupaumut, among others, signs treaty at Canandaigua.
1810-1813 Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa attempt to hold Indiana and establish intertribal army
1813-1814 Creek War
1812-1815 War of 1812
1818 Elias Boudinot, Poor Sarah: or religion exemplified in the life and death of an Indian woman, published. (18-page narrative)
1819 Erie Canal opens
1821 Mexico gains its independence from Spain
1824 Catharine Brown, Memoir of a Christian Indian of the Cherokee Nation, published. (Heavily edited; it is unclear how much of the text is actually by Brown.)
1826 Elias Boudinot, An Address to Whites, published.
1826 James Fenimore Cooper, Last of the Mohicans, published.
1827 Hendrick Aupaumut, A Short Narration of My Last Journey to the Western
Contry, published in second volume of the Memoirs of the Pennsylvania
Historical Society.
David Cusick, Sketches of the Ancient History of the Six Nations, published.
1828 Cherokee Phoenix, tribal newspaper, begins publication.
1829 William Apess, A Son of the Forest, published.
1830 Indian Removal Act
1831 William Apess, A Son of the Forest, second edition, published.
1831 Cherokee v. Georgia
1832 Bureau of Indian Affairs established in the War Department
1833 William Apess, The Experience of Five Christian Indians of the Pequot
Tribe, published. This first edition also contains the essay, "An Indian's
Looking-Glass for the White Man," which is left out of all subsequent editions.
Black Hawk, Black Hawk, an Autobiography, published.
1835 William Apess, Indian Nullification of the Unconstitutional Laws of Massachusetts Relative to the Marshpee Tribe; or, The Pretended Riot Explained, published in Boston by Jonathan Howe.
1835-1842 Seminole War
1836 William Apess, Eulogy on King Philip, published.
1837 William Apess, The Experience of Five Christian Indians, second
edition, published.
Eulogy on King Philip, second edition, published.
1838-1839 Trail of Tears
1841 Peter Jones, A Collection of Chippeway and English Hymns, for the use of the native Indians, published in New York.
1847 George Copway (Kah-Ge-Ga-Gah-Bowh), The Life, History and Travels of Kah-Ge-Ga-Gah-Bowh, published. First book in English written by a Canadian First Nations author; published in six editions.
1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
California Gold Rush
1849 Bureau of Indian Affairs transferred to Department of the Interior
1850 George Copway, The Traditional History and Characteristic Sketches
of the Ojibwa Nation, published.
George Copway, Running Sketches of Men and Places in England, France, Germany,
Belgium and Scotland, published. (Account of Copway's European travels)
1851 Copway's American Indian, a weekly edited by Copway, founded. (Goes under later that year.)
1854 John Rollin Ridge, Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, the Celebrated California Bandit, published in San Francisco. First work of fiction in English written by a Native author.
1858 George Copway, Indian Life and Indian History by an Author: Embracing the Tradition of the North American Indians regarding themselves…, published in Boston.
1860 Peter Jones (Kahkewaquonaby), Life and Journals of Kah-ke-wa-quo-na-by, published in Toronto by Green Publishers.
1861 Peter Jones, History of the Ojebwe Indians; with especial reference to their conversion to Christianity, published.
1861-1865 U.S. Civil War
1862 Emancipation Proclamation
1863 Sand Creek Massacre of Cheyennes by Colorado volunteers.
1869 Transcontinental Railway completed
1871 John Rollin Ridge, Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, the Celebrated California Bandit, "Third Edition," published in Hollister, California. (The publishers considered a pirated serial version of Ridge's story in the Police Gazette, reworked by an anonymous writer in 1859 and later published in paperback without attribution to Ridge, to be the unauthorized second edition.)
1871 Congressional resolution ends treaty-making.
1876 Sioux and Cheyenne defeat Seventh Cavalry at Little Big Horn
1883 Sarah Winnemucca, Life Among the Paiutes, published.
1886 Ke-che-ah-gah-me-qua, The life of Capt. Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea):
an account of his re-interment at Mohawk, 1850 and of the corner stone ceremony
in the erection of the Brant Memorial, 1886, published in Brantford, Ontario,
by B.H. Rothwell.
Geronimo surrenders
1887 Andrew J. Blackbird, History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of
Michigan; a grammar of their language, and personal and family history,
published in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Later editions published, including one in
1897.
Henry Smith published Chief Seattle's supposed speech.
1887 General Allotment Act (Dawes Severalty Act)
1890 Wounded Knee Massacre at Pine Ridge reservation.
1891 S. Alice Callahan, Wynema, published.
1895 E. Pauline Johnson, The White Wampum (poems), published.
1898 Spanish American War
1899 Simon Pokagan, Queen of the Woods, published.
1900 Andrew J. Blackbird, The Indian Problem, from the Indian's Standpoint,
published in Ypsilanti, Michigan, by Scharf Tag, Label & Box Co.
Francis LaFlesche, The Middle Five, published.
1901 Zitkala Ša, Old Indian Legends, published.
1902 Charles Alexander Eastman, Indian Boyhood, published.
Alexander Posey's first Fus Fixico letters appear in the Indian Journal,
published at Eufala, Creek Nation.
1903 E. Pauline Johnson, Canadian Born, published in Toronto.
1910 Alexander Posey, Collected Poems, published.
1911 E. Pauline Johnson, Legends of Vancouver, published. (Collection
of mythic narratives as told by Chief Capilano.)
Charles Alexander Eastman, Soul of the Indian, published.
1911 Founding of Society of American Indians
1912 Jim Thorpe wins Olympic gold medal
1913 E. Pauline Johnson, The Shagganappi, published. (Collection of adventure stories, some previously published in The Boy's World magazine.)
1916 Charles Alexander Eastman, From the Deep Woods to Civilization,
published.
Marie McLaughlin, Myths and Legends of the Sioux, published. (Autobiography,
less than a page long.)
1917 E. Pauline Johnson, Flint and Feather, published.
1917-1918 U.S. involved in WWI
1924 Indian Citizenship Act (Snyder Act) extends U.S. citizenship to all American Indians.
1925 John Milton Oskison, Wild Harvest, published.
1926 John Milton Oskison, Black Jack Davy, published
1927 Mourning Dove (Humishu-Ma), Cogewea, the Half-Blood, published in Boston (Four Seas Press).
1928 Meriam Report exposes reservation suffering
1931 John G. Neihardt, Black Elk Speaks, published ("as told to"
narrative).
Natachee Scott Momaday (not to be confused with N. Scott Momaday), Woodland
Princess, a book of 24 poems, published by McHughes Co.
1932 John Joseph Mathews, Wah'Kon-Tah, published.
James Paytiamo, Flaming Arrow's People, published
1933 Mourning Dove, Coyote Stories, published in Caldwell, Idaho, by
Caxton Printers.
Chief Luther Standing Bear, Land of the Spotted Eagle, published.
1934 John Joseph Mathews, Sundown, published.
1934 Indian Reorganization Act
1935 John Milton Oskison, Brothers Three, published.
1935 Indian Arts and Crafts Board established
1936 D'Arcy McNickle, The Surrounded, published.
Maria Chona, The Autobiography of a Papago Woman, published (as told
to Ruth Underhill).
1941-1945 U.S. in WWII
1944 Ella Deloria, Speaking of Indians, published.
1944 National Congress of American Indians established
1945 John Joseph Mathews, Talking to the Moon, published in Chicago.
1946 Indian Claims Commission established to settle all outstanding land claims
1953 HR 108 (Termination)
1954 D'Arcy McNickle, Runner in the Sun, published.
1965 Carroll Arnett, Then: Poems, published in New Rochelle, New York, by Elizabeth Press.
1967 Dallas Chief Eagle, Wintercount, published.
1968 N. Scott Momaday, House Made of Dawn, published.
1968 American Indian Civil Rights Act passed
American Indian Movement founded in Minneapolis
1969 N. Scott Momaday wins Pulitzer Prize for House Made of Dawn
Vine Deloria, Jr., Custer Died for your Sins, published.
Selected Native American Authors To 1969 (still in progress)
1723-1792 Samson Occom, Mohegan
1742-1807 Joseph Brant, Mohawk (Orator)
1767-1837 Black Hawk, Sauk
? - 1830 Hendrick Aupaumut, Mahican
? - 1840 (?) David Cusick, Tuscarora
1786-1866 Chief Seattle
1798- ? William Apess, Pequot/Mashpee (adopted by the Mashpee)
1802-1856 Peter Jones (Kahkewaquonaby), Ojibwe
c.1802-1839 Elias Boudinot, Cherokee
1818-1869 George Copway (Kah-Ge-Ga-Gah-Bowh), Ojibwe (Anishinaabe)
1822- ? Andrew J. Blackbird (Mac-ke-te-be-nessy), Chippewa (Anishinaabe), Ottawa
1827-1867 John Rollin Ridge, Cherokee
1842- ? Marie L. McLaughlin, Sioux
1844-1891 Sarah Winnemucca (Thokmetony), Paiute
1846-? Maria Chona, Papago
1857-1952 Francis LaFlesche (Zhogaxe), Omaha
1858-1939 Charles Alexander Eastman (Ohiyesa), Sioux
1861-1913 E. Pauline Johnson, Mohawk
1868-1894 Sophia Alice Callahan, Creek, Cherokee
1868-1939 Chief Luther Standing Bear, Dakota Sioux/Teton
1873-1908 Alexander Posey, Creek
1874-1947 John Milton Oskison, Cherokee
1876-1938 Zitkala Ša, Dakota Sioux
1888-1936 Mourning Dove, Okanogan
1889-1971 Ella Deloria, Dakota Sioux
1894-1979 John Joseph Mathews, Osage
1904-1977 D'Arcy McNickle, Cree/Metis/Salish (adopted by Salish and Kootenai)
1913- Natachee Scott Momaday, Kiowa/Cherokee
1927-1997 Carroll Arnett (Gogisgi), Cherokee
1933- ? Vine Deloria, Jr., Sioux
1934- N. Scott Momaday, Kiowa (raised at and lives in Jemez Pueblo)
? - ? Ke-che-ah-gah-me-qua
? - ? James Paytiamo, Acoma
? - ? Dallas Chief Eagle, Sioux
Updated 11. September 2002