American Indian Wars

The American Indian Wars, also known as the American Frontier Wars, and the Indian Wars, were fought by European governments and colonists in North America, and later by the United States and Canadian governments and American and Canadian settlers, against various American Indian and First Nation tribes. These conflicts occurred in North America from the time of the earliest colonial settlements in the 17th century until the early 20th century. The various wars resulted from a wide variety of factors, the most common being the desire of settlers and governments for Indian tribes' lands. The European powers and their colonies also enlisted allied Indian tribes to help them conduct warfare against each other's colonial settlements. After the American Revolution, many conflicts were local to specific states or regions and frequently involved disputes over land use; some entailed cycles of violent reprisal.

American Indian Wars
Part of the European colonization of the Americas, the expansion of Canada and the expansion of the United States
An 1899 chromolithograph of U.S. Cavalrymen pursuing American Indians
Date 1609 – June 2, 1924 (intermittent) Location North America Result Sovereignty of various combatants extended or lost Massive indigenous population decline Deportation and forced assimilation of indigenous tribes Many treaties, truces, and armistices made and broken by combatants Indian reservations established in the United States and Canada
Belligerents
Amerindians: American Indians, including the tribes: Cherokee, Creek (Muscogee) and Creek Red Sticks,  Haudenosaunee, Lakota, Meskwaki, Miami, Odawa, Potawatomi, Shawnee, Seminole, Wampanoag, Wyandot and including the confederacies: Tecumseh's confederacy and the Northwestern Confederacy First Nations, including: Blackfoot, Cree, Mikmaq/Miꞌkmaꞌki, Peguis First Nation Inuit Aleut Yupik Comanche State of Muskogee Métis Provisional Government of Saskatchewan	Colonists, Viceroyalty and Europeans: British Empire:  United Kingdom  Kingdom of England  Kingdom of Scotland British America New England Colonies British North America  Dominion of Canada Dominion of Newfoundland  Kingdom of France First French Empire: New France French Louisiana  Spanish Empire: Viceroyalty of New Spain Council of the Indies:  United States Dutch Empire: New Netherland Swedish Empire: New Sweden Danish Empire  Russian Empire: Russian America  Vermont Republic  Mexico  Republic of Texas  Confederate States[lower-alpha 1]
Commanders and leaders
Joseph Brant John Smoke Johnson Crazy Horse Red Cloud Tecumseh William Weatherford Tenskwatawa Little Turtle Henri Membertou Francis Peck Michael Tooma Frank Tooma Jr. William Augustus Bowles Louis Riel	William III George III Victoria John A. Macdonald Henry IV Louis XIII Louis XIV Louis XV Louis XVI Philip V Louis I Ferdinand VI Charles III Charles IV Ferdinand VII George Washington Anthony Wayne James Madison William Henry Harrison Christian IX Alexander II Santa Anna Jefferson Davis
Casualties and losses
	United States ~ 1,000 soldiers[1]  Canada ~ 39[2][3]

As settlers spread westward across North America after 1780, armed conflicts increased in size, duration, and intensity between settlers and various Indian and First Nation tribes. The climax came in the War of 1812, when major Indian coalitions in the Midwest and the South fought against the United States and lost. Conflict with settlers became less common and was usually resolved by treaties between the federal government and specific tribes. The treaties often required the tribes to sell or surrender land to the United States. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 authorized the American government to force Indian tribes to move from east of the Mississippi River to the west on the American frontier, especially to Indian Territory which became Oklahoma. As American settlers expanded their settlement onto the Great Plains and the Western United States and Canada, the nomadic and semi-nomadic Indian tribes of those regions were forced to relocate to reservations.

Indian and First Nation tribes and coalitions often won battles with the encroaching settlers and soldiers, but their numbers were too few and their resources too limited to win more than temporary victories and concessions from the U.S. and Canadian governments. First Nation wars in Canada were much less frequent than in the United States.