Dates:  Early Colonial times until 1924

The Indian Wars were the multiple armed conflicts between European governments and colonists, and later American settlers or the US government, and the native peoples of North America.  These conflicts occurred across the North American continent from the time of earliest colonial settlements until 1924.  In many cases, wars resulted from competition for resources and land ownership as Europeans and later Americans encroached onto territory which had been inhabited by Native Americans for the previous centuries.  There was population pressure as settlers expanded their territory, generally pushing indigenous people northward and westward.