What were Native American wars and battles like in precolonial North America? Do we have any records of inter-tribal conflict, oral or otherwise?

I’m a Texas History historian, and I might be able to offer some help on this topic. As far as pre-colonial, I’m not certain you will find much information as there were no record keeping before the Europeans showed up. However, there are some accounts of Native American warfare from the early Colonial period.

Spain was the first European country to establish colonies in what is today North America. The Spaniards started moving up into the present day American Southwest as early as the 1520s. As an example, the Coronado Expedition took place in the 1540s...which was about twenty years before the first English colonists arrived at what would become Roanoke, Virginia.

According to the records of the Spanish explorers, the Native Americans were living in situations similar to the Ancient Greeks. Each village was what Greeks called city-states, essentially their own individual kingdoms...and each kingdom was very independent of the others unless they were trade partners.

Warfare would often erupt over hunting lands and home turfs. The battles would mostly be till death, or complete assimilation, of one of the tribes. It was very brutal.

One incident that strikes out in my mind, is of a battle that happened in the vicinity of Enchanted Rock State Park in Llano County, Texas today. “The Enchanted Rock” is a name given to a bald, granite, dome of a hill that rises several thousand feet into the air. According to an old legend that has been handed down through the ages, there was once a tribe of warriors who were forced to seek refuge upon the summit of Enchanted Rock.

Their people had been in conflict with an encroaching tribe for several years, and their numbers had finally dropped so severely that they were forced to flee to the summit of Enchanted Rock to seek out refuge. They held out only for a while longer, but after a huge assault up the hill, the reminder of the tribe was vanquished and conquered. Stories claim that their ghosts still roam the bald slopes of Enchanted Rock today.

Putting folklore aside, in 1680, the Spanish colonists in New Mexico were completely overwhelmed and defeated by a major uprising of a confederation of Native tribes. This event was called the Pueblo Revolt, and it had major affects on the Spanish colonies at the time.

The Spaniards retreated to the Rio Grande and established Presidio del Norte which is now present day El Paso, Texas. Every attempt that the Spanish tried to reclaim their lost territory in New Mexico failed for various reasons. It was looking pretty dim for the future, and by 1683, the Spaniards were brainstorming ways to expand their El Paso settlement.

In early October, 1683, a group of Native Americans rode into El Paso and wanted to speak to the governor. The delegation was led by a man named Juan Sabetta, and he was a Christianized Native who was very fluent in Castilian, Spanish, and native languages from across present day Texas.

He met with Governor Petris Cruzate and wanted to set up a partnership with the Spaniards to help his people, who were called Jumanoes, to reclaim their homelands from the encroaching Apaches. In exchange for European assistance, the Jumanoes would help the Spaniards establish settlements and missions in the Jumano homelands (which covered pretty much all of western and west central Texas).

In the meeting between Cruzate and Sabetta, the Jumano told in-depth details of a number of battles that the local tribes of Texas had fought against the Apaches. Some of these accounts were probably dramatized quite a bit, but Sabetta claimed that the Jumanoes and Apaches would clash in desperate battles on the prairies.

The engagements would include at least a few hundred warriors on each side, and more often than not, the Apaches would usually be the victors. In one instance, according to Sabetta, the Jumanoes were barely holding out and the Apaches were closing in.

All of a sudden, according to Sabetta’s statement, a cross drifted down from the sky and a heavy voice from the Heavens called out to the Junanoes to take up the divine symbol and drive back the Apaches! Sabetta said that the fight then turned in favor of the Jumanoes, and they won the day.

Of course, this account is most likely false, but it did indeed aid in convincing Cruzate to agree to the alliance. A few months later, in the December of 1683, what would become the Mendoza Expedition was formed which would eventually penetrate into the western portions of the Texas Hill Country and lead to the first attempt to establish a Spanish/Native American settlement on the present day Llano River.

Anyhow, I hope you find this information helpful. Not exactly pre-Colonial, but definitely before the introduction and widespread use of muskets and rifles among the Native tribes.

Also, for reference purposes, you can find the transcript of the meeting between Cruzate and Sabetta in the 2012 book “Juan Dominguez de Mendoza: Soldier and Frontiersman of the Spanish Southwest” which was published by the University of New Mexico Press.

So my knowledge is limited mostly to the Prairies of western Canada, but here goes. There's very little documented information about warfare prior to the horse era on the prairies, with the exceptions being about particularly large massacres. Even now, information about these, such as the massacre near Fort Edmonton are hard to track down. During the horse era, warfare among the plains nations was usually low intensity with relatively little bloodshed, and mostly based on raiding for horses and furs. When there was combat, it had a tendency to be somewhat disorganized, as the raiding culture put emphasis on individual feats. This tendancy towards individual heroics was exploited to great effect by the Metis against the Souix at the battle of Grand Coteau (Histoire l'ouest Canadien defeated 1822 a 1869). The exception to this were the conflicts between the Blackfoot Confederacy and Iron Confederacy (Cree), and to a lesser extent the Crow. Warfare between these two alliances was brutal and constant, with large massacres (ie. Red Ocre Hills, 1866) and constant raiding and skirmishes (ie. 5 kill hill) occurring even throughout the smallpox epidemic. The war between the two eventually culminated in the Battle of the Belly River, in which the attacking Cree were routed and chased across the plain being killed for around 50 km, losing around 300 men. I'm getting a bit long winded here, so if you want more info, or links and references I'd be happy to share. And I would recommend reading about the Haida, who raided neighboring tribes in massive war canoes, and are sometimes considered the Vikings of the Northwest