The Treaty Party

The history of the relationship between Indigenous Peoples of the North America and European settlers represents a doubtlessly tragic succession of events, which resulted in a drastic decline in Indigenous population leading to the complete annihilation of some Native groups, and bringing others to the brink of extinction. This disastrous development left the Indigenous community devastated, shaking their society to its very pillars. From the 1492 Incident and up to the 19th century the European invasion to the North America heavily impacted the social development of the Indigenous civilization: apart from contributing to their physical extermination by waging incessant war on the Indian tribes, Anglo-Americans irreversibly changed the Native lifestyle discrediting their entire set of moral guidelines. Using the most disreputable inventions of the European diplomacy, the colonizers and later the United States’ government not only turned separate Indigenous tribes against each other but have also sown discord among the members of the same tribe. One of the most vivid examples of the Anglo-American detrimental influence on the Native groups is the history of the Cherokee Nation and the U.S. Indian Removal Policy. The Cherokee removal from Georgia (along with many other Indian nations) was definitely an on-going conflict that did not start at any moment in time, but developed in layers of history between the Native Americans, settlers of various cultures, and the early U.S. government. This rich and intricate history does not allow for easy and quick judgments as to who was responsible for the near demise of the Cherokee Nation. In 1838, eight thousand Cherokees perished on a forced march out of Georgia, which came to be called the T...

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...l of Tears that had no connection whatsoever to the Ridge party. There were many historical figures involved in the betrayal of the Cherokee Nation: from anti-treaty members who wanted to renegotiate the treaty at the last minute to receive higher payments for themselves, to unscrupulous Chiefs who were already signing off parcels of land in return for “awards” (John Ross, 4), to the U.S. President Andrew Jackson who never had any actual intention of helping the Indigenous Peoples in the first place. The Treaty Party, however, had only the best interests of their people in mind, and consciously took an largely unpopular stand. The legend holds that as Major Ridge put his signature on the Treaty of New Echota, he said, “I have signed my death warrant”. His words turned out to be prophetic: the Treaty Party members were assasinated in 1839 by John Ross’s supporters.