American Indian Wars

In this episode, we focus on the American Indian Wars, a long and devastating series of conflicts between Indigenous North Americans, European colonial powers, and later the United States. We explore how the expansion of white settlement, the seizure of tribal lands, and government policies of forced removal drove centuries of violence from the colonial era through the late nineteenth century. The episode traces major turning points, including eastern colonial conflicts, the Trail of Tears, wars across the Great Plains and Pacific Northwest, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn. We also examine the creation of reservations, the erosion of tribal sovereignty, the catastrophic impact on Native communities, and the way modern scholars understand these wars through the history of genocide, resistance, and survival.