within a single generation the peaceful kingdom of the teano indians which columbus first saw would be gone for ever wasted by disease slavery torture and war melted nomadic tribes pushed southward into the green part of the continent following the stars the seasons and the herds they peopled the mountain range of the verdant river valleys and the painted desert canyons they fashioned languages and customs as varied as the feathers of the birds yet between them ran spiritual roots buried deep in the earth and then after centuries beyond  white man cain search of wealth and power two million indians would endure for centuries of struggle before the sun finally set upon their freedom union these european settlers came in wave  wave to occupy native american lands in the bellies of their ships the europeans carried horses guns and disease and in their hearts they carried a belief in their destiny to rule be america from the atlant to the pacific as the whites pressed ever westward they finally waged an absolute war on the indians that would close the front year and assure him the white man's era of railro are the stories of the mightiest indian nation of upstate new york were unique confederation of six indian nations their great law of peace attracted the attention of american colonists who were forging their own new country united with the cheyenne to hold back the tide of western expansion these stories tell only a part of the american indians history yet they paint a picture of the vastness of their domain the depth of their beliefs and hopes and the brave defiance of these men and women as they walked into the  upstate new york lies a land where all hundred rivers and lakes we've sued dense green forests and misty language wants to stay towering above this lush landscape are the smoky heights of the great some have even said that parts of our own constitution were borrowed from that you were  but the five nations of the iroquois didn't always live in peace before they came together these nations the mohawk the oneida the onondaga the chi hugo and the seneca were often at war with each other until by the fourteenth century their killing threatened to destroy them all at this dreadful time the great peacemaker came from the north proclaiming the word that i bring is that all people shall love one another and live together in peace together with the great mohawk chief the peacemaker traveled to each of the five nations to proclaim his message but within the onondaga nation there lived an evil chieftain name terrorized his people with deadly magic his face was cruel and his hair was matted like a mass of writing snakes he scorned these peacemakers but finally the peacemaker and hiawatha held doll and worked their own magic on him they asked him to become the head chief of the new confederacy had a dollar greed and the great pea the establishment of the confederacy brought a newfound sense of security to the iroquois the times of peace were good and the creator provided the people with their three sisters corn beans and squash to sustain them the women of each clan were the farmers and every spring they planted the three sisters in the fertile fields while the men hunted and fished in the forest and lakes that surrounded their land women held great power for the iroquois trace their ancestry through their mother's lineage and the head mothers not the men appointed the chiefs of each clan growing seasons ended with great festivals of thanksgiving the gathering of maple south the harvest of berries and beans and the cutting of the corn were all celebrated with feasts and religious dances iroquois history was recorded on wampum belts and with beads of shells every council decision and every treaty with the founding of the confederacy brought peace between the five nations and lead to peace throughout the nations of the north east but in the late sixty's hundreds beaver skins were a prized commodity in europe rivaling the europeans lust for gold realizing this the iroquois sought to monopolize the trade and palps they played one european power against the other and dictated terms to other tribes eager to trade they challenge their old enemies the mohicans for the right to trade exclusively with the dutch then they turned their attentions north where the french were trading with the here on the along the st lawrence the iroquois devastated the hero and absorbed m eyes into their betters the next they turned west to the eerie nation in a bloody three year war the erie were defeated and also absorbed into the confederacy now expanding to the south that you english beat the french and took control of all french holding south of canada but trouble was brewing with the british colonies and soon the iroquois would be swept into the american revolution formally the  pledged to remain neutral in the revolutionary war but the mohawk warrior joseph brant convinced many of the iroquois men to fight for the british for the first time since the great peace iraq war fathe iroquois to surrender most of their territory now much of the precious land that sustained their life for a thousand years was gone and discourages a reservation life appear drinking and idleness led to violent fights between once proud warriors in their poverty they were forced to sell even more of their land the white said finally robbed them of their pride and dignity by the end of the eighteenth century the spirits of the iroquois people had fallen to new depths at this dark hour and unlikely prophet came to them and some like a seneca chief and a notorious drunk fell one day into a stupor so deep is pole stopped moments later handsome lake awoke from near death and revealed a great vision three messengers came with a command from the creator these messengers condemned whisk abortion and witchcraft and called for a return to the old ways of living before the whites came the iroquois people were profoundly affected and his teachings became known far and wide as the longhouse religion but the displacement of the iroquois from their land continued tragically between eight hundred thirty and eight hundred forty six us government carried out the removal of indians west of the mississippi in spite of a series of land swindles and broken treaties the iroquois managed to hold on to small parcels of their land in new york and canada by the mid eighteen hundreds the iroquois were adapting to the white man's culture a few children attended school off the reservations and some iroquois were finding their way into the american mainstream s parker a well educated seneca enlisted in the army during the civil war and rose to the rank of  as you listened as grant's secretary parker wrote out the surrender documents signed at apple maddox court house after the war when grant became president he appointed eli parker as the first native american commissioner of indian to day the rich legacy of the iroquois lives on the great confederacy of six nations not only stamped its mark on american history but also influenced the u s constitution that you're a coil also gave the country of canada its name from their word meaning community the peoples of the longhouse once the mightiest confederation of indians in north america continue to burn their council fire and to hold on to their sacred unity in that council flame burns the memory of a thousand struggles and the sacrifices helpless chiefs and clan mothers who fought to keep their people free  land of the great seminole nation it was here that the seminoles fought the longest resistance to us expansion by any indian nation it took three wars and half the us army and over thirty million dollars to subdue the proud and defiant seminal to this day the seminal to remain the only indian nation that never signed a document of surrender with the us government florida's first people that to me and other tribes were virtually wiped out by war and disease brought by the spanish and british in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries then in the early seventeenth hundreds a wave of refugees came to florida from the north from the expanding british colonies they were creek indians driven off their lands by settlers and african slaves and other indians escaping slavery in the lush grasslands of spanish florida these indians and blacks began to merge into one people known as the seminoles their name came from the creek were some anomalies meaning runaway or wild and for many years these runaways lived together in the untamed land northern florida blacks form their own town side by side with indians some free some and slave two indian masters life centered around seminole towns or t worshiped the master of breath and body in the sun and took names for their clans from the world around them names like alligator turtle snake and maize every summer at harvest time the seminal people gathered in town squares to celebrate the new year with the green corn festival after eight days of dancing sweat bath and purification the priest swept the old ashes from the fire pits then they started a new fire in the town square and all past grievances were forgiven medicine men carried hot coals from the town fire to each home and on every hearth the people roasted green corn in the warmer climate of florida seminal farmers began to grow  large groves of oranges and many learn the ways of course ranching and slaveholding from their european neighbors the seminole chief king payne even owned a plantation with twenty slaves fifteen hundred head of cattle and four hundred horses but then in seven hundred seventy six american colonies revolted the british rule england created chaos by proclaiming freedom for all african slaves more and more african runaways fled south to join the seminal american slave holders grew angry and nervous about whole towns of black indians living at their southern doorstep after the revolutionary war americans began crossing the florida border to settle on the indian lands slave traders raided seminal villages kidnapping anyone who looked black infuriated the seminole struck back in eighteen seventeen the american government sent army general andrew jackson down south on a mission to recapture runaway slaves jackson's troops illegally crossed spain's florida border and burned some of the old villages confiscated livestock and destroyed food stores the seminal people fought back their numbers tripled by new creek refugees from the north that november of eight hundred seventeen the seminoles ambushed a boat carrying women children and forty soldiers on the apalachicola river and all but thirteen whites were shot dead this marked the beginning of the first seminal war once again andrew jackson marched into florida jackson and his troops destroyed more some old town and the seminoles fled further south jackson's victory in the first seminal war led spain to sign a document with the united states for the sale of florida the seminoles were coerced by the u government to sign a treaty and were pressed on to a large reservation in central florida these new lands were swampy and unfit for farming game was scarce and government rations and short supply the officer in charge of the reservation reported they are in the most miserable situation and unless the government assists them many of them will starve to death in this hour of desperation one warrior rose to lead the seminal in their second war of resistance his oseola and he soon became one of the great leaders in american indian history in eight hundred thirty four the government tried to get the seminole chiefs to sign a treaty for their removal to oklahoma government agency arrested osceola and the chief shouted as he was dragged away i will remember the hour the agent has had his day i will have mine all sealed over soon released from prison and with his great skill as a speaker convinced his people that they must resist in december of eighteen thirty five will seal the ambush and murder the indian agent wiley thompson that same day seminal chief survivors the dade massacre was a shocking defeat for the u s army and brought down the full fury of the government the second seminal war had now begun to the wides said you have guns and so have we your men will fight and so will hours until the last drop of the seminoles blood has moistened the dust of our hunting grounds at the end of a bloody and futile year of fighting the us had nearly one half of its army in florida general jessup called oseola to meet under a flag of truce but then double crossed him and through the great leader into prison in st augustine three months later broken hearted and severely ill oseola died in prison in fort mill true south carolina mostly on his death was a horrible setback to the seminole resistance and the army continued its relentless war against the people pushing the seminoles deeper and deeper into florida's southern swamps and everglades perhaps five hundred seminoles remained in florida nearly invisible in the deep swamps their lands often covered with water they lived by hunting and gathering and by raising vegetables and small plots above the water line they built elevated home and they learned to avoid the deadly water moccasins that occupied their swamps but civilization occasionally discovered isolated ban people on in resistance against the army for three years but finally outnumbered and out of resources bowlegs and his followers surrendered and were sent west of the mississippi yet several hundred seminoles managed to stay behind in the vast uncharted everglades the government finally gave up pursuit of these last free seminole indians and to this day they never formally surrendered like the melting pot that we came america the seminoles are a patchwork of different peoples and cultures they are indians african slaves and other refugees united in a struggle to create a separate nation a rise dramatically from the desert floor oh it is here where the navajo nation and carved its civilization many centuries ago the navajos ancient ancestors came to this land from northwest canada over seven hundred years ago and settled in the bedrock canyons of what is now in northern arizona and new mexico they invaded the homelands of the cliff dwelling on a soggy with a drove south towards mexico  navajo created a unique culture based on raising crops and herding livestock weaving and crafting jewelry while white settlers avoided this dry rugged landscape held it in special reverence the land became a source of sustenance and spiritual nourishment they learned to grow patches of corn and desert soil and planted peach orchard in canyon bottom lands when father sky provided rain mother earth provided fruit grain and pasture the most common symbol of the navajo spiritual link to the land was the hold on a dome welling made  hogans were used for both housing and ceremonial purposes there entrances always faced east toward the rising sun almost every act of navajo live from the building of hogans to the planting of crops was ceremonial in nature accompanied by songs and prayers sand paintings were part of many navajo healing ceremonies and had the power to restore order to the world these paintings were made by medicine men who sprinkled colored sand on the the ceremonial hogan the designs told stories from the navajo creation myth when the first holy people were miraculously produced from corn rain pollen and precious stones by the god in the sixteen hundreds the spanish introduced sheep and horses to the navajo they became among the southwest's most renowned herdsmen and writers but women played a vital role in tribal life to nearly every n o woman was skilled at hand weaving using sheep's wool on whether the loons there decorative rugs and blankets with patterned designs or symbolic pictures became known the world over at the and allowed the slave trading to continue the indians could only watch in growing anger as soldiers built their first military post in eight hundred fifty one in its name the whites spoke their feelings for the n must be cleared away if the territory was to be open to settlement so carlton chose a new place for the navajos a flat and desolate waste land far away on the pickles river called boss career here guarded by soldiers from fort sumner carlton planned for the navajo to become self sufficient farmers but barb and seato refused saying i will not go to the boss i will never leave my country not even if it means that i will be killed carleton showed his old friend kit carson to head the military campaign against the navajo carson was reluctant at first not wanting to fight the indians he had traded and lived with it in the past but the summer of eight hundred sixty three starve them into submission to keep carson's men destroyed most of the herds and crops between forty five and canyon to shape in six months time in january eight hundred sixty four carson led three hundred soldiers into the sheer walled reaches of canyon to share the last navajo stronghold the soldiers burned hogan's slaughtered livestock destroyed corn fields and took the women and children captive and killed them in their mus siegel was captured but manually told escaped with four thousand members of his band the eight thousand navajo who had surrendered set out on the long walk a terrible three hundred mile journey to captivity hungry homesick and nearly naked against the cold two hundred navajo died along the way to the wasteland that general carleton considered a fine reservation but indians who escaped the reservation told of a barren drought stricken land where they lived like prairie dogs in burrell's kit carson continued to hunt those who were still free it's september eighteenth sixty six chief manually and twenty three hungry ragged warriors surrendered at a military post in northwestern new mexico his band had resisted capture for more than three years but now they were too exhausted to fight on the days of a free navajo nation where o people died at the box due to starvation and disease the sooner it is abandoned and the indians removed the better said the reservation superintendant and so on june first manually to bargain seat and five others met with army commander william tecumseh sherman to sign a treaty when the navajo leaders first saw sherman they were fearful of him because his face was the same as carlton's fierce and hairy with a cruel mouth but his eyes were different he had the eyes of a man who had suffered and seen much pain sherman told the navajo my children i will send you back to your homes and so the government allowed the navajo to return to  reservation in their old homeland when we saw the top of the mountain from albuquerque said manually we felt like talking to the ground we loved it so the navajo would never forget those four years but they never lost their spiritual link to miami it is in this land and in the giant mountains that surrounded and the sky above that the very soul of the navajo can be  it was the cheyenne and t time a cota who fought the hardest for their land and lives and these two nations would be the last to ride in freedom across the great plains here the vast prairie stretched from texas to canada and from had many of the same ceremonies and rites and to each of them the american buys and was life a gift from the great spirit by eight hundred fifty millions of buffalo moved like a dark living see across the land this was truly the buffalo's kingdom and the indians who followed the herds cast only a small shadow under the sky for the teton the cotai and cheyenne the byes and was in doubt with supernatural powers and they took from their herds all they needed for their existence they killed only enough animals to supply their needs for the winter they stripped the meat carefully to dry in the sun storing bone marrow in fact in skins treating the scene use for bowstrings and thread and curing the hide for t p covers clothing and moccasins the cheyenne thought of themselves as the beautiful people for centuries they lived as farmers and potters in the great pine forests above the source of the mississippi their famous dog soldiers warrior society was a powerful military organization half the warriors of each band were members and they roamed at will over a large territory hunting and raiding the cheyenne were known for their advantage religious beliefs they held a life renewing sundance ceremony every midsummer after the tribes left winter camps and gathered for the buffalo hunt it was their most important religious ritual a thanksgiving to the mysterious power and the rebirth of life on earth the return of the season of growth but by the end of the civil war there was a force on the plains racing like a storm cloud from the east it would soon change the century old life for the cheyenne people covered wagons streamed across the prairie cattle graze the grasslands and whites began to slaughter buffalo for their hides and sometimes just for pleasure soon hundreds of buffalo bones lay scattered on the southern plains there any flesh rotting in the hot prairie sun after the territory of colorado was created in one thousand nine hundred eighty one the whites wanted to open the entire land for settlement and to force the cheyennes into submission colorado governor john evans declared war to press the indians onto reservation the district military commander colonel john shifting to and ordered his men to burn villages and kill cheyennes wherever and whenever found this preacher turned soldier said it is right and honorable to use any means under god's heaven to kill indians that would kill women and children but the cheyenne peace chief black cattle said it is not my intention or wish to fight the whites i want to be friendly and peaceable and keep my band so i want to live in peace black kettle had once shook the hand of president lincoln and washington and he prided himself that he had never let a raid against the settlers creek massacre that most of black kills warriors were out hunting when seven hundred soldiers attacked the sleeping village black cattle raised an american flag and a white banner over his teepee but the troops shot everyone they found screaming indians fled in all directions i handful of warriors fought back and the screw machine continued for four hours along the creek then at noon silence fell two hundred cheyenne  over dead two thirds of them women and children nine chiefs had perished and the old black kettle escaped unharmed his wife was shot nine times and left for dead shipping tins boys as he called  paraded through denver showing the scalps severed arms and legs of the indians but rumors of the atrocities spread terrible enough to outrage the american public kit carson himself a battler of indians called it the action of a coward or a dog over the next three years and alliance of indians ravaged the south platte valley they rip down telegraph wires and pillage stagecoach stations branches military outposts and towns scores of settlers were killed and their women and children dragged away as captives now public opinion turned back against the indians and the united states launched a full scale indian war still hope to spare his people and he led eighty families to a refuge south of the arkansas river by eight hundred sixty eight the kansas military commander philip sheridan was convinced that the cheyennes had to be punished sheridan ordered the brash and flamboyant lieutenant colonel george armstrong custer to proceed toward the washing tall river the suppose that winter seat of the hostile tribes to destroy their villages and ponies to kill or hang all warriors and bring back all women and children for years after sand creek history seemed to be thrown into a cruel and endless loop custer's he meets seventh cavalry attacked a sleeping cheyenne village of the arkansas river where black cattle and his people were camped in a matter of minutes one hundred three cheyennes lay dead including the great black kettle and his wife cheyenne were herded on to a reservation in western indian territory where the war path and the buffalo hunt was replaced by food rations and christianity spiritual devotion served them well in their struggle to remain free among native americans even today the cheyenne will always be known as the beautiful people of the pla the most famous of north american indians was the mighty nation they dominated the heart of the great plains from what is now minnesota to montana from the upper missouri river to the black river they fiercely resisted the white man's rule for fifty years old and back the tide of western expansion until they could fight they look ahead all regionally coming from the south east would mean migrating along the atlantic coast and then passing over the great lakes they farmed and hunted in the upper mississippi river area of minnesota until finally settling in the great plains in the early seventies hundreds the luck built a free ranging lifestyle around to animals the buffalo and the horses they depended on the buffalo for food clothing and lodging it was an animal and dolled with supernatural powers a gift from the wise one above but luckily a medicine would be powerless in the face of the white man by the early eight hundred sixty s the like cota had lost most of their land through treaties all that remained in their possession was the sacred hay sapa and some hunting grounds in yet in eight hundred sixty six the whites came to them again this time for permission to make a great road through the powder river country to the newly discovered gold fields of montana the great chief red cloud hated the idea of an immigrant road through the lakotas last hunting ranges when the white man comes in my country he leaves a trail of blood behind him i have two mountains in that country the black hills and the big horn mountains i want the great father to make no roads through them the request for permission was only a sham soldiers were already on their way to secure the road with a line of forts redcloud put steel to his threat and for the in the spring of eight hundred sixty eight general william tecumseh sherman came to fort laramie to make a peace treaty with red cloud but the ogalala leader sent a message saying when we see the soldiers moving away and the forts abandoned then i will come down and talk reluctantly in the war department complied the bozeman trail forts were abandoned redcloud road triumphantly into fort laramie and signed the treaty declaring powder river country and the black hills unseeded indian territory in return red cloud promised to go on the reservation where he would never lift his hand against the whites again for eight years the lakota would try to forget the whites but in the summer of eight hundred seventy four lieutenant colonel george armstrong custer led one thousand two hundred men on a gold hunting expedition into the black hills and custer sent reports to the eastern newspapers of gold from the grass roots down the indians watched a torrent of riotous prospectors poor into the sacred heart of their nation in complete disregard for the treaty the lights had made when washington tried to buy the black hills  unable to buy the black hills president grant sent orders to the law to report to an agency or be declared hostile by the us and subject to military action meanwhile the plains tribes were gathering at rosebud creek for the sacred sundance on horseback coming down like grasshoppers with their heads down and their hats falling off they were falling right into our camp soldiers were indeed coming general sheridan had ordered troops to southern montana the invincible george armstrong custer drove his exhausted seventh cavalry through the rolling hills of montana in a real little a search for the indians finally on the morning of june twenty fifth eight hundred seventy six custer found his prey camped in a valley of the stream de la quota called greasy grass but which the whites would remember as the little bighorn long hair custard charged his soldiers straight into the indian  but a thousand warriors led by crazy horse met custer's troops and on a ridge now called custer hill longhairs forces were swallowed up by indians and were lost in the dust and smoke of history sitting bull's vision had been fulfilled the indians soon broke into small bands and scattered to the winds crazy horses all the lala kept up their attacks and sitting bull that his home ca otoh were forced to sign away their right to the powder river and they stop on the government said that they had violated the treaty by going to war with the us promised a reservation in the powder river country in may of eight hundred seventy seven crazy horse marched his band of starving move to fort robinson they came singing peace songs and crazy horse threw down three rifles giving up the warpath for ever but as crazy horse was brought into fort robinson a soldier bayoneted him in the back to the north a commission came to lure sitting bull back from canada offering to pardon his war crimes in return for surrender the leader refused asking what have we done that you should want us to stop it is all the people on your side who started us to making trouble if we must die we die defending our rights canada refused them a reservation and his people were homesick and weary of cold and hunger in july of one thousand nine hundred one sitting bull and his followers crossed the border over the next ten years the last of the lakota were brought on to the reservations and in all the vastness of the great plains not a herd of buffalo could be found sitting bull joined buffalo bill cody as wild west show selling autographed photos of himself to gawking children all across the continent the show's finale was a reenactment of the battle of the little big horn and the terrible indian wars were now only an entertainment for the victor on the reservation warriors lived on rotting scraps and dreams of their past inevitably a prophet came telling of a new messiah coming to bury the whites beneath the earth and bring the indian dead to li hunting grounds would be restored and the land would once again be heavy with buffalo this prophet was another medicine man named will vocal and his ghost dance religion swept across western reservations like a prairie when the dance lifting broken warriors into its trance bocas followers donned ghost shirts that would stop the white man's bullets fearing a new indian uprising major general nelson miles ordered troops on to the indian agencies those sitting bull was openly skeptical of the new religion the whites thought he was to blame for disturbances and ordered his arrest on the morning of december fifteenth forty three indian police led to him caught up a chief from his cabin shots were fired and sitting bull fell to the ground dead another band of soldiers had gone in search of the  whose people had gone to the bad lands where they could perform the ghost dance without fear the bluecoats caught up with them and the indians and the soldiers camped for the night beside wounded knee creek one five hundred soldiers stood guard over three hundred fifty men women and children one at sunrise the army began disarming the indians somehow a rifle went off and the soldier fell dead and both sides fired at what the army cut down half  dead their blood flowing together with twenty five corpses from the seventh cavalry the go shirts had been powerless and the snows fell for two days softly muffling the moans of the dying on new year's day of eight hundred ninety one the frozen dead of wounded knee were gathered in wagons and buried in a mass grave to shame and black elk said many years later i can still see the butchered women and children lying and scattered and i can see that something else died there in the bloody mud and was buried in a blizzard of people's dream died there it was a beautiful dream but the legacy of the teton still commands respect and admiration today their fight for survival against the u s army at little big horn created a legend yet ultimately led to their final defeat the spirit of the law a proud people who poured forth their blood to preserve a way of life will endure long after the stories of battle are for these nations each contributed a piece in the patchwork quilt that's become america from the iroquois a great law of peace which influenced the writing of our constitution to the cheyenne concept of peaceful resistance these great indian nations built a heritage that still inspires new generations of native americans they will always be a vital part of the american adventure