Red Horse, a Lakota chief, recorded a detailed eyewitness account of the Battle of Little Bighorn. He recalls seeing a rising cloud of red dust just before US soldiers charged...
Cherokee Nation v. Georgia
In 1831, the Cherokee Nation brought a case against the state of Georgia to the Supreme Court. They argued that as a separate foreign nation, certain Georgia laws overstepped...
Advertisement for Colonists for Pennsylvania
William Penn acquired a large section of American land in a debt settlement and transformed it into a thriving colony. He wrote this tract (and others) to recruit British...
A Most Awkward, Ridiculous Appearance
Benjamin Franklin left behind quite a legacy as an inventor, politician, and philosopher. Yet when he first arrived in Philadelphia, his future wife thought he had “a most...
An Account of Sitting Bull's Death
James McLaughlin worked as an Indian agent for most of his life. His most infamous act, however, was ordering the arrest of Sitting Bull for fear that his participation in the...
Report on the "Sioux Outbreak of 1890"
In 1890, the US government feared an imminent Indian uprising among the displaced Sioux people. General Nelson A. Miles reported from the field summarizing the issue at hand. The...
On the Necessity of Indian Removal
In this speech, President Andrew Jackson defends and praises the Indian Removal Act. With complete disregard for the cultural heritage associated with tribal lands, he exalts the...
Work and Labor in This New and Wild Land Are Very Hard
In this account, Gottlieb Mittelberger reveals the plight of poor German families who migrated to America in the 18th century. It was normal at the time for poor Europeans to fund...
The Starving Time
The Jamestown settlers imagined life in the New World would be flowing with abundance, but things were not as they expected. Not only were they agriculturally inexperienced, but...
