We Were Warriors Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ojibwe

The more widely accepted explanation of how people arrived in North America is that 12,000 to 60,000 years ago, nomadic tribes from Asia crossed the Bering Straits and moved southward and eastward throughout the continent. Whether you believe the wonderful sky woman story or the scientific one doesn't matter. What is certain is that when European explorers stumbled upon America in 1492 about 110 million indigenous Americans occupied the land.

Some other Native American tribes have similar legends about Sky Woman.

Answer: Mi'kmaq

Although it is often said that America was discovered in 1492, Mi'kmaq tribal stories give credibility to the Viking story. The legend of blue-eyed people coming from the east in a floating tree-filled island full of people, to the Mi'kmaq the Viking long ship may have looked like a large floating island.

Answer: 29th December 1890

On the morning of 29th December 1890, the massacre at Wounded Knee took place, taking its place in the history books as one of the most horrific atrocities in U.S. history. It directly impacted on the Miniconjou Sioux under their chief, Big Foot. Black Coyote a Lakota Sioux fired a shot when the Cavalr ordered surrender of all weapons. Whether he was hard of hearing as some believe or misheard the order and thought chief Big Foot had given the order to open fire on the troops we will never know, but two hundred men, women, and children died that day.

The wounded were left to freeze to death in the snow. Wounded Knee has become a symbol for American Indians in general, the last stand of North America's indigenous people in the nineteenth century.

Answer: General Winfield Scott

In 1835, the Cherokee signed The Treaty of Echota, selling the last of the Cherokee lands east of the Mississippi River for five million dollars to the American Government. This divided the Cherokee Tribe; half of the Tribe bitterly opposed the move to new lands in Oklahoma wanting to remain on their tribal homelands. General Winfield Scott was given the order to remove the Cherokee by whatever means possible. About 17,000 Cherokee were forced to relocate, most dying of starvation, disease and cold conditions before they reach their destination.

Answer: Sequoyah

The 86 characters invented by Sequoyah were based on individual syllables of the Cherokee words; anyone who could speak Cherokee could read and write after learning these characters. Sequoyah, (b.1767) has gone down in history as the only person to accomplish such a task entirely by himself. He died in Mexico in 1843, aged 76.

Answer: Matowaka

Captain John Smith declared that Pocahontas saved his life when she put herself between him and the executioners axe when he was captured by her people. In 1612, Matowaka was captured by the English and held hostage, it was at this time she fell in love with John Rolfe, and later married him. Pocahontas converted to her husband's faith and became a Christian, she changed her name to Rebecca, and she became an ambassador for peace between the English and Native Americans.

After being presented at the court of James I, she decided to return home but died of smallpox in 1617, but there are conflicting reports as to what illness she actually died of, some reports saying it was pneumonia and others tuberculosis.

The sad fact is she died young - only 22 years of age; she is buried at Gravesend in England.

Answer: A great feast

The Potlatch was a great feast in which a family chef and his clan expended a stockpile of goods that had been accumulated for months to stage a large feast, often as part of a wedding or coming of age ceremony, for invited guest from another clan or village.

Answer: Sacajawea

Sacajawea, (1788-1812) married a Toussaint Charbonneau a French Canadian trapper who was hired by Lewis and Clark as a guard. She herself proved to be an invaluable guard for the expedition. When they reached a Shoshone village, she was reunited with her brother, Cameahwait, the village chief. Sacajawea acted as interpreter for Lewis and Clark and helped them obtain horses from her brother's tribe.

She accompanied the expedition to the Pacific Ocean and on the return east to a Mandan village, where she and her family said goodbye to Lewis and Clark and went their separate ways. Sacajawea died on 20th December 1812; she was only 24 years old.

Answer: 1874

The gold rush of 1874 saw an influx of people setting up camp sites on the Black Hills when gold was discovered. The US government offered the Sioux six million dollars for the Black Hills, when the Sioux demanded seventy million the US government refused and ordered the Indians to the reservation agencies, and if they refused, they were to be treated as hostiles. Few complied.

This set the scene for the last great battles of the west for their home and freedom: Rosebud 1876, eight days later Little Bighorn 1876; the epic retreat of Joseph's Nez Perce to Canada 1877, the Ute wars of 1879; the Apache wars of the 1880's and finally, Wounded Knee in December 1890.

Answer: Geronimo

Geronimo was not only a warrior but also a medicine man and spiritual leader. As young man Geronimo served under another great Apache leader, Cochise (d 1874). When Cochise was pressured into signing a peace treaty in 1872, Geronimo along with a band of Apache warriors fled, raiding territories throughout the Southwest until they were captured in 1886. Geronimo's defeat signified the end of Apache traditional nomadic ways.