| Years | Image | Event | Description | Keywords |
| 1524 | | Verrazano explores NE coast | | exploration, settlement, Indians |
| 1603 | | Martin Pring explores NE coast | | exploration, settlement, Indians |
| 1614 | | John Smith maps New England | | exploration, map, Indians |
| 1616 | | An epidemic of uncertain cause devastates southern New England. | | Indians, epidemic |
| 1628 | | Maypole at Mount Wollaston (Mass) | Miles Standish commanded an expedition against Thomas Morton's fur-trading post. Plymouth officials feared Morton's men were trading guns with Indians. | Pilgrims, Hawthorne, Standish, maypole, Indian" |
| 1629 | | Plymouth colonists estabish a trading post at Cushnoc on the Kennebec River in Maine. | Other traders were active nearer the coast. | Plymouth, Indians, settlement |
| 1633 | | Small pox epidemic further decimates coastal Indian groups. | A succession of epidemics reduced the Massachusetts by as much as 90%. Other groups were totally wiped out. In contrast, the Narragansetts of Rhode Island were lightly affected. | Indians, epidemic, Rhode Island |
| 1635 | | Roger Williams founds Providence, RI | Banished from the Bay Colony for his religious beliefs, Williams and his followers found refuge among the Narragansetts. | colony, settlement, Indians, Rhode Island |
| 1637 | | Pequot War | | Indians |
| 1642 | | English Civil War begins | | |
| 1646 | | Massachusetts begins to establish "praying towns" | | Indian |
| 1654 | | Harvard establishes Indian College | | Indian, Harvard |
| 1660 | | Mashpee established as a Christian Indian town | Richard Bourne was the first missionary and pastor. | Indian, Mashpee |
| 1660 - 1725 | | A succession of conflicts transforms indigenous/ colonial relations. | A map from the 1704 Deerfield website shows the colonial Northeast, c, 1660-1725. | Indian war |
| 1662 | | The Wampanoag sachem Wamsutta dies mysteriously. | Wamsutta, also known as Alexander, was Massasoit's oldest son and Metacom (or Philip's) brother. | Indian, Philip |
| Return to Top |
| 1675 | | King Philip's War | Read a modernized version of Philip's account of Indian grievances originally contained in a narrative by the Rhode Island Quaker, John Easton | Indians, Philip |
| 1677 | | Surviving Indians confined to Praying Towns | | Indian, Philip |
| 1683 | | Mary Rowlandson's narrative | The birth of the "captivity narrative" as a American genre | Philip, women |
| 1685 | | Simon Popmonit becomes minister at Mashpee | The first native-born pastor died in 1720. The Mashpee congregation refused to accept Joseph Bourne until he learned to preach in Wampanoag. | Mashpee, Indian |
| 1689 | | King William's War begins | This colonial version of a European war pitted French and Abenaki forces against English settlers and their Indian allies. | Indians |
| 1689 | | Abenaki kill Richard Waldron in Dover, NH | The attack on Waldon's garrison was in part retaliation for a double cross at the end of King Philip's War. | Indian, Philip, NH |
| 1702 | | Queen Anne's War begins | A second round in an ongoing conflict between New France and New England. | Indians |
| 1704 | | Deerfield Massacre | A winter raid resulted in the deaths or captivities of three-fifths of the town's inhabitants. The attacking force included men from Odanak and Schaghiticoke, where many New England refugees had gathered after King Philip's War. | Indians, French, frontier, captivity" Philip |
| 1725 | | Lovewell's Defeat at Pigwacket | A failed raid in central Maine provoked songs and sermons about the heroism of New England soldiers. | Indians, Maine |
| 1739 | | King George's War begins | Another round in the intercolonial wars. | Indians, New France |
| 1745 | | Pigwackets in exile in Massachusetts | Caught between English and French forces, the Pigwackets spent King George's War as refugees in Massachusetts | Indians |
| 1760 | | Reuben Cognehew carries Mashpee petition to London | | Indian, Mashpee |
| 1763 | | Treaty of Paris ends 7 Year's War | | revolution |
| 1772 | | Paul Revere engraves a "portrait" of King Philip | | Indian, Philip |
| 1812 | | War with England | sometimes called the "second war for Independence" | revolution |
| Return to Top |
| 1813 | | William Nell ships out of Charleston, S.C. as a steward | | maritime, abolition |
| 1814 | | Washington Irving, "Philip of Pokanoket" | An early, sympthetic account of King Philip | Indian, Philip |
| 1824 | | Lydia Maria Child, "Hobomok: A Tale of Early Times" | A distraught Puritan woman marries an Indian. | Indians |
| 1824 | | A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison published | | Indian |
| 1826 | | James Fenimore Cooper, "The Last of the Mohicans" | The trope of the disappearing Indian was already well-established by the time Cooper wrote. | Indian |
| 1827 | | James Fenimore Cooper, "The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish" | A little-known novel about King Philip's War | Indian, Philip |
| 1827 | | Catharine Sedgwick, "Hope Leslie, or Early Times in Massachusetts" | Features a friendship between a Puritan woman and a Pequot woman. | Indian |
| 1829 | | William Apes publishes "A Son of the Forest" | | Indians, Mashpee |
| 1829 | | First performance of "Metamora" | | Indian, Philip |
| 1830 | | Indian Removal Act | This eventually led to the forcible removal of 20,000 Cherokees from Georgia to Oklahama along the infamous "Trail of Tears" | Indian, Jackson |
| 1831 | | Maria Stewart begins public speeches condemning slavery. | Stewart, a free black, may have been the first women in the U.S. to give public speeches against slavery. | abolition |
| 1831 | | Charles W. Upham, "Lectures on Witchcraft" | An account by a Unitarian minister who used the Salem story to warn against the dangers of religious and political zeal. | witch |
| 1831 | | Mohegan Church built | | Indians |
| 1833 | | Indian Declaration of Independence | Part of Mashpee Revolt led by "Blind Joe" Amos and William Apes | Indian, Mashpee, Apes |
| 1835 | | Rhode Island Historical Society collects materials from Indian graves. | This is only one example of New England museums accessioning grave goods, bones, and hair from burial sites deliberately or accidentally disturbed. | museums, bones, Indians |
| Return to Top |
| 1836 | | John Warner Barber , "Historical Collections of Connecticut" | | |
| 1836 | | William Apess. Eulogy on King Philip | | Indian, Philip |
| 1839 | | Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Algic Researches | One of many ethnographic works published by the Indian agent and self-taught scientist, it contained a version of the myth of Hiawatha. | Indians |
| 1841 | | Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "The Skeleton in Armor" | | bones, Indians |
| 1842 |  | Eleanor Field gives the Rhode Island Historical Society a basket purportedly made during King Philip's War. | | |
| 1846 | | Mexican War begins | | |
| 1851 | | J.W. DeForest, "History of the Indians of Connecticut" | | |
| 1853 | | Nathaniel Hawthorne publishes a campaign biography for his former Bowdoin classmate Franklin Pierce and is rewarded with a consulship in England. | | |
| 1856 | | Senator Charles Sumner caned after delivering his speech "Crime Against Kansas | | Longfellow Civil War |
| 1858 | | Black seamen parade in Boston and Providence to celebrate West Indian independence. | | maritime |
| 1860 | | Matthew Brady photographs Edwin Forrest as "Metamora" | | Indian, Philip |
| 1861 | | Civil War economy boosts Massachusetts manufacturing | | economy |
| 1861 | | Civil War begins | Lincoln was inaugurated in March; confederates fired on Fort Sumter in April. | Civil War |
| 1862 | | Hawthorne published "Chiefly About War Matters" in The Atlantic Monthly | The Liberator denounces the essay, noting that the anonymous author was reported to be Nathaniel Hawthorne. | Civil War |
| 1863 |  | Lincoln delivers Gettysburg Address | | Civil War |
| Return to Top |
| 1865 | | Robert E. Lee surrenders | | Civil War |
| 1868 | | Deerfield first exhibits door from "Indian House" | | Deerfield massacre, museum |
| 1869 | | Massachusetts enfranchises Indians | This ended the "protected" status that originated in the colonial period. Communities like Mashpee were divided | Indian, franchise |
| 1875 | | Custer defeated at the Battle of Little Bighorn | | Indians |
| 1880 | | Memorial Hall dedicated in Deerfield | A battered door from the so-called "Indian house" was a prominent feature. | Deerfield, museum, Indian |
| 1887 | | Edward Bellamy, "Looking Backward" | | |
| 1887 | | Ellen Rounds repairs the "Damm Garrison" | In 1915, she donated it to Dover, New Hampshire's new "Woodman Institute." | Indian wars, door, museum |
| 1915 | | Frank G. Speck, "Decorative Art of the Indian Tribes of Connecticut" | | |
| 1924 | | American Indians granted citizenship and the right to vote | | |
| 1931 | | Gladys Tantaquidgeon (1899-2005) founds the Tantaguidgeon Museum at Mohegan. | | Mohegan, Indians |
| 1940 | | World war II fuels new industries in New England | | economy |
| 1942 | | Touro Synagogue designated a National Historic Site | . . . the Georgian influenced building is situated on an angle within the property allowing worshippers standing in prayer before the Holy Ark to face east toward Jerusalem. | |
| 1990 | | Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act | | Indian, bones |
| 1992 | | The Last of the Mohicans filmed | | Indian |
| 1998 | | Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center Opens | | Indian |
| Return to Top |
| 2001 | | Peabody Museum at Harvard continues to repatriate human remains | Check the Harvard website for additional stories on NAGPRA | bones Indians |
| 2002 | | Church at Mohegan restored and museum installed. | | Indians |
