Indian Wars · War Crimes & Atrocities
The American Indian Wars (1775–1924) were accompanied by a systematic pattern of atrocities that modern scholars and the U.S. government itself have increasingly characterized as ethnic cleansing and, in some cases, genocide. The violence was not incidental but structural: U.S. policy explicitly sought to eliminate Indigenous peoples' political independence, cultural identity, and physical presence from desired territories. Massacres of civilian populations, deliberate destruction of food sources, forced marches in lethal conditions, and the removal of children to forcibly assimilate them were all tools of a policy whose stated goal was the elimination of 'the Indian problem.' The death toll from direct violence, disease, starvation, and displacement is estimated at hundreds of thousands to over a million across the full period.
230+
deaths
Victims: Cheyenne and Arapaho civilians at Sand Creek, Colorado Territory(Estimated 230 killed; U.S. Army reports acknowledged 500+ Indian bodies; approximately two-thirds were women and children)
300+
deaths
Victims: Lakota Sioux men, women, and children(Estimated 250–300 Lakota killed; 25 U.S. soldiers killed (mostly by friendly fire from Hotchkiss gun crossfire))
4,000+
deaths
Victims: Cherokee Nation and other southeastern tribes(Estimated 4,000–8,000 Cherokee deaths during removal; additional thousands from other removed tribes; combined total from all southeastern removals may exceed 15,000)
50+
deaths
Victims: Indigenous children across the United States(53 death records confirmed at federal schools; thousands died of disease and neglect; the 2022 Interior Department report documented 53 burial sites associated with boarding schools)