Cherokee Indians Research Paper

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In 1838-39 U.S. troops, ordered by the state of Georgia, expelled the Cherokees from their homeland in the Southeast and removed them to the Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma. The demand for fruitful land during the rapid growth in the southeast led to the removal of the Cherokees along with the discovery of gold on Cherokee land. There was a racial prejudice towards the Native Americans from the white southerners. Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States (1829–1837) during this time. During his presidency many legal issues came about when he did not follow the treaties made by the National Government with the Cherokee Nations.
Perhaps the most controversial element of Jackson’s presidency was his strategy regarding Cherokees, which involved a mass filtering of ethnic groups. Jackson was a great supporter of a policy known as Indian removal. The movement of the Cherokee Indians was also known as the ‘Trail of Tears’, which was one of the saddest events in the history of United States, where thousands of Cherokees were stripped of their land in Georgia and were forced to march across the nation in search of a new home. Many tribes and portions of tribes had been removed to Arkansas Territory and further west of the Mississippi River as they suffered tragedy and a mass loss in numbers. So I believe that they should not have been forced to move from their lands.

When looking into the passages from white and Cherokee resources you can see a recurring theme of prejudice with the white sources. In Andrew Jackson’s annual message he states “It has been policy of Government to introduce among them the arts of civilization, in the hope of gradually reclaiming them from a wandering life” (Wheeler 187). ...

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...s well as 2,500 or more died in the makeshift stockades before the journey, and 13,149 who began the trip, only 11,504 arrived in Indian Territory” (Wheeler 185). “In addition, several hundred died soon after arriving by either violence or disease” (Wheeler 185).
The removal of Indians was unjust and very wrongful, they made treaties with whites to protect themselves and their land only to later have it stripped away from them. This caused not only tension between native tribes but even more with natives and whites, this caused a mini civil war between the tribes during the actual Civil War when Native Americans fought on both sides. With this the natives still held strong to their cultures and languages even during the time when the whites began education them to the new ways. In hindsight this was later recognized as one of the saddest times in US history.

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