Original subtitles

Up until 1875, the American Indians had had little success in retaining their

lands against the growing white immigrant population.

By the end of the 19th century, the lives of tribes all across the United

had been forever altered, some tribes having been completely wiped from

existence.

And hundreds of thousands of others having been moved to designated

far from their own loved homelands.

Most of these reservations were in areas where the conditions were unusable for

sustainable farming, and government -provided food and supplies were poor.

On June 25, 1876, the Hunkpapatsu Indians banded together with

the Cheyenne.

and defeated General Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and several other warrior chiefs outnumbered Custer

and his army, who had grossly miscalculated the truly vast number of

forces that they would be up against.

This victory over Custer is paramount in Native American history and unavoidably

recognized.

as an embarrassing failure for the U .S.

Like Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse had been adamantly against

the removal of his people from their land to government -established

reservations.

And he avoided interaction with the white man as much as possible.

But in the mid -1800s, Crazy Horse found himself caught up.

in the middle of white western expansion and the persistence of newcomers to

Lakota territory put a strain on their resources.

The arrival of these settlers also brought the spread of disease, which, as

other tribes, meant a devastating effect on the Lakota population.

On August 19, 1854, a small skirmish started after several U .S. soldiers

entered a Sioux encampment in search of an Indian who had stolen a white man's

cow.

Ordinarily, and as stated by treaties in effect at the time, a U .S. Indian

agent would have handled such a situation.

But this formality was overlooked.

It was but moments upon the soldiers' arrival that one of them shot and killed

Chief Conquering Bear.

The Lakota return fire was immediate and they began to fight back.

In the end, 29 soldiers were killed, including Lieutenant John Gratton.

It was the American press that labeled this event as the Grattan Massacre.

And it became the event considered to have started the first Sioux War.

The conduct of the soldiers and the killing of Conquering Bear was all that

Crazy Horse needed to become decidedly mistrustful of whites. And he would

remain so for the rest of his life.

When Crazy Horse joined Sitting Bull in the fight to keep his people on their

land, he proved his fighting skills and lived up to his reputation as a fierce

warrior, determined to preserve the Lakota way of life.

But a year after the battle at Little Bighorn, Crazy Horse was captured and

taken to Fort Robertson, Nebraska.

When he resisted confinement, a U .S. soldier stabbed and fatally wounded

Horse with a bayonet.

This was one of many versions of Crazy Horse's death.

But as his capture followed so closely on the heels of the U .S.'s embarrassing

loss at Little Bighorn, it would not be at all surprising if the event was

indeed a murder rather than an accident.

By the mid -1800s, wide expansion across the continent and continuous conflict

between European immigrants and American Indians was in full swing.

In 1866, 200 ,000 African -American servicemen became part of six

all -African -American army units, making up the

9th and the 10th Cavalry and the 38th 39th, 40th, and 41st Infantry

Regiments.

These were the Buffalo soldiers, and their purpose was to guard and

protect white settlers moving west, as well as civilized Indian tribes from

wayward Indian attacks.

These soldiers were also put to work building roads and military structures.

One famed Buffalo soldier was Henry O. Flipper,

former slave and the first African -American soldier to

graduate from the West Point Academy.

The Buffalo soldiers gained their name due to a variety of reasons, one being

that these soldiers had curly hair, similar to that of the Buffalo.

They also possessed a fierce fighting nature, which again mimicked the

after which they were named.

In addition to those two details, during the harsh winter months, these soldiers

would wear coats made of thick buffalo hides.

The title Buffalo Soldier became a respected and honorable one, even to

the Indians.

Though they were never involved in any of the documented Indian massacres and

any killings committed were out of duty alone, the reputation and the presence

of the Buffalo soldiers in territories belonging to the Plains Indians were

enough to keep the Native Americans on edge.

After the conclusion of the Indian Wars, during which 19 U .S. soldiers received

medals of honor, the Buffalo soldiers continued to serve and were involved in

the Spanish -American War at the end of the 19th century.

While the primary role of the Buffalo Soldiers was to fight Native Americans,

they gained the respect of many tribes for their dedication and abilities in

combat.

And unlike their white counterparts, the Buffalo Soldiers did not make frivolous

attacks against the Indians.

Shortly after the end of the Civil War, the views of some that Native Americans

were inferior beings began to shift, and the U .S. Army began to hire them as

scouts.

In 1866, the Army Reorganization Act was created to enlist and

employ in the territories and Indian country a force of Indians.

not to exceed 1 ,000, to act as scouts who shall receive the pay and allowances

of cavalry soldiers and be discharged whenever the necessity for further

employment is abated at the discretion of the department commander.

Enlistment terms lasted three to six months, after which they were allowed to

-enlist for another term.

Some enlisted up to 20 times.

Records of these scouts were kept and served as an excellent tracking system

information on the scouts' health, hospitalizations, arrests,

and enlistments, as well as information on their families.

Documented widows of Indian scouts were eligible for pensions, thanks to an act

created on March 1917 in relation to the Indian Wars occurring between 1859 and

1891.

For the most part, white members of the U .S. Army viewed having Indians among

them as an asset.

This wasn't the first time Native Americans had served in militia units

United States.

During the Revolutionary War, They had fought alongside both the Americans and

the British.

But this time, and remarkably so, Indians were to be paid the same as

white cavalry counterparts.

Though it was a rare and short -lived gesture, it was a significant

acknowledgement of Native American equality.

It was also during this time that four Medals of Honor were awarded to several

Seminole Indian scouts for their valor, while others were able to reach higher

ranks amongst their troops.

Even as the U .S. government had moved to allow Native Americans to participate

in its army, the disregard for Indian life remained in full effect.

It was widely known that the buffalo roaming wildly in the West were vital to

Native Americans, not only as a means of food, but also as a part

of their spirituality.

Whether it was simply a low -down way of settling up with the Plains Indians

over conflicts between them and the U .S. government, or for the simple and

greedy desire to take more land.

The systematic slaughter of the buffalo population began.

The government saw this as a way to push the Indians out of the way and to

comply with new regulations.

If the Plains Indians lost the buffalo as a major source of their food, then

they would have no choice but to move on.

This also meant that the Indians would be forced to live off of what provisions

were available on U .S. designated reservations.

Unfortunately, these supplies were of poor quality, thanks to the corrupt

government -appointed Indian agents who were supposed to manage and distribute

food and supplies.

In addition to removing Indians, the Buffalo had to be dealt with to make the

building and cross -country extension of the railroad possible.

Even after the tracks were laid, Buffalo posed a safety error for the trains

passing through.

They delayed trains and destroyed massive sections of the track.

For this, Hunters had to be hired.

It wasn't long before traders and trappers arrived in the plains and

to the decline of the buffalo.

They killed the animals indiscriminately, taking only the hides

leaving the rest of the carcass to rot.

As it was, Only one in every four buffalo hides was salvageable.

It wasn't until the later part of 1872 and going into 1873 that hides were

used as belts for machinery, and by then more than 1 .5 million buffalo hides

had been sold to make fashionable robes.

Even with this massive number of buffalo already lost, their destruction picked

up speed.

Tourists were taken out west by train and allowed to shoot as many buffalo as

they could from within the train cars for sport.

This led to buffalo killing contests, with the record for the most buffalo

killed in 40 minutes topping off... at 120.

At one point, this hunting special had to be put on hold because the carcasses

weren't removed and the smell of rot was a deterrent to touring passengers.

As part of the culling process, the infamous Buffalo Bill Cody was hired.

He killed 4 ,000 buffalo within just two years.

Clearing the land of buffalo wasn't just for the sake of preserving the

railways.

Though the federal government never authorized an official desire to render

creatures to extinction, it was widely known that their disappearance would

to that of the Indian problem as well.

In 1874, the Secretary of the Interior was none too diffident about his opinion

of the effect that killing off the buffalo would have on Native Americans.

The buffalo are disappearing rapidly, but not faster than I desire.

I regard the destruction of such game as Indians subsist upon as facilitating

the policy of the government of destroying their hunting habits,

on reservations, and compelling them to begin to adopt the habits of

civilization.

Texas Senator James Throckmorton's views on the matter were no different.

It would be a great step forward in the civilization of the Indians and the

preservation of peace on the frontier.

if there was not a buffalo in existence.

Their hopes of seeing the end of the American bison was nearly realized.

Between 1868 and 1881, approximately 31 million

buffalo were killed, leaving only 500 by 1885.

While it did, in fact, devastate the lifestyles of the Plains Indians and

resulted in the desired effect, the evidence that the buffalo had been there

still remained for decades to come and posted new problems for settlers who

over the land.

One such settler was A .M. Bede of North Dakota.

The country out here looks like a...

Carnal house with so many skulls staring at a man and so many bones that

newcomers felt nervous and in some cases could hardly plow the land.

Through diligent, though belated, protective conservation, the current

population has been restored to around 150 ,000.

It has taken a century for this accomplishment.

But the damage done to those the slaughter affected throughout the

generations can never be reversed.

The near destruction of the buffalo population may have had a devastating

immediate impact on the Plains Indians.

But it did not silence or stop Indians nationwide from continuing to fight for

their lives and their lands.

Before the Civil War had commenced, Apache -born leader Geronimo had already

participated in the Mexican -American War in the late 1840s.

Geronimo was born in Nodoyon Canyon, Mexico, in 1829.

He had a gift for hunting, and it was said that he swallowed the heart of his

first kill.

as a way of ensuring a life of success during the hunt.

His tribe was the smallest band within the Chiricahua, the Bedongcohe.

They were constantly surrounded by their enemies, Mexican, Navajo, and Comanche.

Geronimo became used to raids early on.

When the Mexican government put a hefty bounty on Apache scalps, Geronimo, then

just a young man, led several raids to fight back.

It was during a raid and while away from his camp, the Mexican soldiers arrived

and killed Geronimo's mother, wife, and three children.

During Geronimo's grieving, he had a spiritual revelation during which...

A voice told him, No gun will ever kill you. I will take

the bullets from the guns of the Mexicans. I will guide your arrows.

Geronimo immediately gathered 200 warriors to hunt down the Mexican

had killed his family.

This vengeance against the Mexican government went on for ten years.

At the end of the Mexican -American War in 1848, things began to change for the

Apache.

The U .S. had begun to claim large expanses of land, both for settlement

reaction to the discovery of gold in the southwest.

The Apaches had little choice but to stand their ground.

and defend against this invasion.

And many ambushes upon stagecoaches and wagon trains were made.

It was Geronimo's father -in -law, Cochise, who put an end to the war by

agreeing to have his people moved onto a government -approved reservation.

It was only a few years later that Cochise died, and the federal government

pushed the Chiricahua north to make room for new settlers.

It refueled Geronimo's anger and the fighting persisted.

It wasn't until 1877 that the authorities finally caught up with

He was captured and sent to an Apache reservation in San Carlos.

He remained there for four years before escaping in late 1881.

He and a small group of followers spent the next five years fighting against

American troops in the battles that would conclude the Indian Wars against

.S.

Many of Geronimo's people considered him the last great defender of Native

American life, while others viewed him as reckless, stubborn, and driven by

vengeance to the point of endangerment of his people.

His reputation as a defender reached the newspapers, while nearly 5 ,000 army

troops sought his capture.

In 1886, Geronimo surrendered and was taken to a prison in Florida.

He and several of his people were moved to various prison camps over the next 27

years.

But Geronimo's reputation as a legendary and fierce warrior attracted white

visitors, and helped boost his status as a celebrity.

In 1905, he published his autobiography and was granted a private meeting with

President Theodore Roosevelt.

Geronimo tried to gain his freedom through the president, but he was

unsuccessful.

In February 1909, Geronimo was finally able to ride home, but was injured after

being thrown from his horse.

He died six days later.

Still a prisoner of war, Geronimo uttered these words while lying upon his

deathbed.

I should never have surrendered.

I should have fought until I was the last man alive.

A Native American legend had been lost.

But stories of his bravery and determination to support his people

continue on long after his death.

Quanah Parker was another American Indian leader fighting to protect his

But his fame came during the Red River War.

He was the last to surrender during this war in 1875, and he remained an

important leader after becoming a founder in the Native American church

movement.

His teachings involved adopting the peyote religion after having endured a

severe injury.

He taught the peyote road, or the taking of peyote during prayer, which he

claimed would lead church members to Jesus' teachings.

through the visions that followed.

While many praised Korna, many also criticized his motives, stating that he

sold out to the white man by changing his lifestyle from warrior to rancher.

He merged his Comanche beliefs with those of the white man by altering his

lifestyle and way of dress to a more European style.

while still keeping to Indian traditions of long and braided hair, and at one

time having as many as eight wives.

Juana was never officially elected as principal chief of the tribe, as the

Comanche had no single chief, but rather multiple chiefs of the various bands

within the tribe.

He died in February 1911.

at the age of 59, and was buried at Post Oak Mission Cemetery in Oklahoma.

It wasn't until 1957 that his body was exhumed and moved to Fort Sill Post

Cemetery, where his mother and sister were buried.

Despite all efforts made by various tribes to protect their homelands and

natural -born rights to stay there, the Hunkapapa Lakota were met with

continuous resistance from the U .S. government.

On December 29, 1890, on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South

Dakota, U .S. troops intercepted Spotted Elk's Mini -Konju Lakota and several

members of the Hunkpapa Lakota.

The troops then escorted them five miles west, where they stopped to make camp

at Wounded Knee Creek.

Shortly thereafter, the camp was joined by the rest of the 7th Cavalry Regiment.

who happened to have four Hotchkiss mountain guns in tow.

It was still morning when gunfire commenced.

There's no solid claim as to who fired the first shot, though some accounts

state that a deaf tribesman named Black Coyote had started a scuffle when he

resisted in handing over his rifle to the U .S. soldiers who had tried to take

it from him.

The disarmament of the rest of the Indian residents had already begun.

However it started, the 7th Cavalry made no hesitation in opening fire and

killed about 300 unarmed Indian men, women, and children, including

Sioux leader, Bigfoot, in the process.

Many of the soldiers were also killed in the gunfire, some by defending Lakotas

and others by their own men.

It has been heavily speculated that the attack was in fact made in response to

the improved presence of the ghost death.

It was a promise that more violence would follow unless the Native Americans

ceased in their resistance against the U .S. government.

The prophet, Wawoka, had had visions of the return of Christian Messiah Jesus

Christ.

but in the form of a Native American.

In his vision, he had also seen the return of the nearly extinct buffalo

population and the eradication of the white man.

The ghost dance became part of a religious movement that spread quickly

throughout local Indian tribes, and the knowledge of what it stood for added to

the existing contention between the U .S. government and those who practiced

Enough so that such acts as the Wounded Knee Massacre continued to take place.

As the U .S. government was busy moving Indians to appointed reservations, the

circumstances of tribes in the Wallowa Valley of Oregon Territory were no

better.

Joseph the Elder had been baptized in 1838, becoming one of the early Nez

leaders converted to Christianity.

It had brought temporary peace between his people and the nearby white

Two years later, his son was born, and in 1855, a treaty put the Nez Perce on a

reservation.

Still, peace remained.

This began to change, however.

when gold was discovered on Nez Perce land, and white prospectors began to

invade in search of promised fortune.

As it had already done in so many other Indian territories, the U .S. government

retracted millions of acres of reservation land and remapped it for the

white settlers.

Anger amongst the Nez Perce flared.

and Joseph the Elder denounced any friendly connections with his American

neighbors.

By destroying his Bible and refusing to release his people's land by accepting

new reservation boundaries.

In 1871, Joseph the Elder of the Nez Perce Indians passed away, and his son,

also named Joseph, assumed the role of chief.

Joining forces with fellow chiefs Lookingglass and Whitebird, Chief Joseph

shared in his father's convictions and held fast in refusing to accept the new

land arrangement.

In 1877, the U .S. forced the Nez Perce onto a reservation.

Shortly beforehand, Whitebird's warriors killed a group of white settlers, and

knowing the consequences would impact the entire tribe, Chief Joseph led his

followers, including 200 warriors, in an effort to escape to Canada.

The 1 ,400 -mile trek lasted for four months.

During their journey, Chief Joseph and his warriors faced off against U .S.

forces a number of times and were victorious.

By autumn, they had reached the Bear Paw Mountains of Montana and were within

the last 40 miles.

before reaching the Canadian border.

But Joseph's people were exhausted.

They had lost more than 100 of their warriors, including Chief Joseph's

Olakut, and they were on the brink of starvation.

He was left with little choice but to surrender to the U .S. Army, and upon

doing so, delivered his infamous speech.

I am tired of fighting.

Our chiefs are killed.

Looking glass is dead.

Tuhulhutsuze is dead.

The old men are all dead.

It is the young men who say yes or no.

He who led the young men, Olikut, is dead.

It is cold, and we have no blankets.

The little children are freezing to death.

My people, some of them, have run away to the hills and have no blankets, no

food.

No one knows where they are.

perhaps freezing to death.

I want to have time to look for my children and see how many of them I can

Maybe I shall find them among the dead.

Hear me, my chiefs.

I am tired.

My heart is sick and sad.

From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more, forever.

He had hoped that his compliance would grant the return of his people to their

homeland, but instead Chief Joseph and his tribe were sent to Kansas and later

to Oklahoma.

Not even a plea made to President Rutherford Hayes in 1879 helped.

It wasn't until 1885 that Joseph and the others were released to return to the

Pacific Northwest.

and then most of the Nez Perce in the area had been killed during war or had

died from disease.

Chief Joseph died at age 49 on September 21, 1904, and was buried in the

Colville Indian Cemetery in Washington State, never having made it back to his

homeland.

Though the focus of Native American history has been primarily on

and accomplishments of Indian men, Native American women have played

roles for as long as they have existed.

It is known that the men were in charge of hunting, while the women tended to

crops, stored seeds, and oversaw the majority of their agricultural world.

This division of tasks created a balance between the sexes, as both contributed

equally to the most essential factors for survival.

Indian women have also played a large part in tribal politics and even warfare

by deciding on the fates of captives and whether or not to go to war.

Some Indian women owned horses, which have been a significant resource amongst

Native Americans.

And during the 1700s, Some Cherokee women even possessed their own land.

That is, up until the U .S. government began to seed and redistribute tracts of

Native land to white settlers.

Over the centuries, Native women have taken on leadership roles within their

tribes, and this is a civil tradition that continues today.

During times of earlier wars, They join the American Red Cross, and in more

recent wars have enlisted to serve in the U .S. Army.

It was not unusual for an Indian woman to ride alongside her male warrior

counterparts and take up a weapon in battle.

Buffalo Calf Robe, also known as Calf Trail Woman, rode into battle with her

husband, Black Coyote, and displayed one of the greatest acts of valor known in

history,

colostom. of the Crow, and Running Eagle, of the Blackfoot Indians, were

renowned female warriors.

Even during the Battle of the Little Bighorn, or as Lakota call it, the

of the Greasy Grass, one of the Lakota leading warriors present was Tasha

Namani, Moving Row, a woman who had been described by another warrior to be as

pretty as a bird while charging into battle.

It was after the arrival of the colonists that the matrilineal structure

Native American life began to feel the forced, lopsided, patrilinear ways of

newcomers. As European colonists assumed that the Native men were in control,

they refused to deal with female leaders, especially in political

Indian women were never recognized as heads of families.

As Indian children were being hauled off to Western boarding schools and

educated into a male -dominant culture, the precious contribution of female

leadership began to be lost.

But after many more decades, and through determination and access to education,

Indian women have regained their place as leaders amongst their people.

Today, out of more than 500 of the nation's federally recognized tribes,

women make up nearly a quarter of their leaders.

Between the years of warfare that had nothing to do with Native Americans,

marches, disease, and the intentional destruction of food resources, the

population of American Indians went from about one million at the end of the

18th century down to 237 ,000 by the end of the 1800s.

The 1894 Census Bureau counted more than 40 U .S. government -instigated wars

against the Indians.

While some of these conflicts were fueled by the rightful resistance of

Americans wanting to keep their homelands, the majority of them were

the U .S. government's forceful taking of those lands.

Many more cases. As with the California Gold Rush, there is a complete disregard

for the lives of Indians, and bounties were placed on them in an effort to

legally remove native peoples from territory demanded by white settlers.

Like the Sand Creek Massacre in 1864, the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890, and

Battle at Little Bighorn in 1876, these killings seemed to have very little

motivation, short of such a terrible greed for property that it led to

less. than premeditated genocide.

Humans merely share the earth.

We can only protect the land, not own it.

To the Indians, and as stated by Chief Seattle, the land and all life on

it held far more value than it appeared to white Americans.

Even when it came to eradicating native Indians, the settlers would have no true

ownership of the land they took.

When the last red man shall have perished from the earth, and his memory

the white men shall have become a myth, these shores will swarm with the

invisible dead of my tribe.

The white man will never be alone.

Let him be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not

powerless.

Dead, did I say?

There is no dead, no death, only a change of

worlds.

While these words of Chief Seattle were part of a much longer speech, the

sentiments of these two pieces bear more truth and relevance to the regard shown

towards Native American lives since the arrival of Europeans than can be argued.

The moving oratory speech given by Chief Seattle in 1854, the numerous battles

fought in defense of life and culture, and the banding together of powerful

chiefs and warriors could not and would not be the end.

of Native American bloodshed.

On October 5, 1898, a dispute between a band of Chippewa Indians in Leech Lake,

Minnesota, and a third U .S. infantry came to a head.

The Chippewa and other local tribes had been repeatedly arrested for charges as

minor as the sale and consumption of federally banned alcohol.

And when it came time for their trials, the natives were moved far from their

reservations and left to find their way back home.

The Chippewa were also dealing with dishonest logging companies who were

the dead timber on reservation lands, claiming that it was useless to pay the

Indians and therefore would not give them a fair price for the wood.

In addition to this sort of swindling, loggers would set fire to live trees and

then claimed that the dead wood was available for the taking.

Following the arrests of Indian protesters Bugana Vigejig and Shabun

pillagers attacked, and the two men were able to make their escape.

The event caused Indian agent Arthur M. Tinker to enlist the help of the U .S.

military, and a force of 20 soldiers from the 3rd Regiment showed up.

An additional 77 soldiers were sent when Bugana Vigejig refused to surrender to

authorities.

The battle that followed was the first since the Black Hawk War 50 years before

and would be the last Indian uprising in the United States.

As there seems to be with most historical skirmishes of this kind,

speculation over who fired first.

General Bacon claimed it was an accidental discharge.

which just happened to kill several Indian women in a nearby canoe.

By mid -morning, the Battle of Sugar Point was in full swing.

But it was short -lived, as both Major Wilkinson and Sergeant William Butler

were killed.

As the evening hours approached, an Indian policeman was also killed when

mistaken for a member of the pillagers.

And the death of a soldier followed almost immediately.

Buganova Gejig was never found.

The news of this latest violence reached nearby settlements within a day, and

panic ensued.

As a result, more federal troops were sent from Fort Snelling, as well as the

Minnesota National Guard.

Many natives fled to more remote territories of the reservation, fearful

retaliation was looming.

However, instead of another deadly altercation, the pillager chiefs had the

County pioneer publish a letter expressing the true circumstances and

of their village.

We, the undersigned chiefs and headmen of the pillager band of Chippewa Indians

of Minnesota, respectfully represent that our people are carrying a heavy

burden, and in order that they may not be crushed by it, we humbly petition you

to send a commission.

consisting of men who are honest and cannot be controlled by lumbermen, to

investigate the existing troubles here.

We now have only the pine lands of our reservation for our future sustenance

support, but the manner in which we are being defrauded out of these has alarmed

us. The lands are now, as heretofore, being underestimated by the appraisers.

The pine thereon is being destroyed by fires in order to create the class of

timber known as dead or down timber so as to enable others to cut and sell the

same for their own benefit.

This somewhat trifling event led to negotiations between U .S. Commissioner

Indian Affairs, William A. Jones, and the authors of the Cass County Pioneer

Letter.

The conclusion was that the arrests being made were for the most part

and sometimes no reason was given at all.

That the removal of Indians from the area to be taken 200 miles away for

and then left there with no way to return home was of absolutely no point.

Oddly enough, the U .S. Army felt that this event was worthy of awarding a

of Honor.

This award went to a German immigrant, Private Oskar Burkhardt, a hospital

steward who had rescued soldiers under heavy fire and against the hostility of

Indians.

It was the last Medal of Honor to be awarded during the Indian Wars and was

officially presented on August 21, 1899.

He would go on to fight and become a major in World War I, likely fighting

alongside of those whose people he had once saved others from.

Because the lives of Native Americans weren't always well documented, birth

dates and locations were often questionable.

Famed sports star Jim Thorpe was known to have been born somewhere near the

of Prague, Oklahoma, on May 22, 1887, to a farmer of Irish and

Sauk Indian descent and a French Indian woman.

Thorpe would later claim, during an interview, with the Shawnee News Star,

he was actually born on May 28, 1888, in Pottawatomie County.

But most biographers and historians still utilize the May 22 birth date as

was the one listed on Thorpe's Catholic baptismal certificate.

Like many Native Americans of his time, Thorpe faced his share of adversity and

sorrow.

Thorpe had a twin brother named Charlie.

who died when the Thorpe boys were just nine years old.

Not knowing how else to deal with the loss, Jim ran away, not once, but

times. To put a stop to this, his father sent him to an Indian boarding school

in Lawrence, Kansas.

Jim Thorpe's childhood continued to be rocky.

After his mother died a few years later, Thorpe underwent depression and

struggled with continued strained relations with his father.

Eventually, young Jim left home and school to work on a horse ranch.

When he was 16, Thorpe attended the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, where

ran track and played football under the guidance of Glenn Pop Warner.

Thorpe went on to play semi -professional baseball with the New York

later with the Milwaukee Brewers and the Cincinnati Reds.

He participated in the 1912 Olympics, and won gold medals for the decathlon

pentathlon.

However, he was stripped of his medals when it was discovered that he had

two seasons of semi -professional baseball prior to competing in the

This experience violated amateurism rules, thereby disqualifying him.

There has been some historic speculation that his medals had been taken due to

his ethnicity, as the U .S. government had yet to recognize all Native

as American citizens.

Thorpe's medals would eventually be restored to him, but not until 1983, 30

years after his death.

Centuries of colonist invasion, war, raiding, theft of lands and resources.

and otherwise complete disregard for the indigenous people would bring many

tribes together for a common cause.

For these people, it was not about greed or power or financial superiority,

but for the sake of maintaining a culture that had successfully carried

throughout time.

While white support of Native American lives was minimal and nearly non

-existent at times, there were some who would change their discriminating views

to help better Native lives.

And some were able to achieve new heights previously unimaginable by

Americans and bring some improvement within their lifetimes.

Even with these changes, America's first residents would still face decades of

struggle, mistreatment, and discrimination.

before much more improvement would ever be made.