Indian Betrayal Looking back at the history of the United States, there are many instances and issues concerning race and ethnicity that shape the social classes that make up the United States today. There are many stories concerning the American Indian that are filled with betrayal, but there is probably none more cruel and shameful as the removal of the Cherokee Indians in 1838. Blood thirsty for money and property, the white settlers would soon use dirty methods to drive the Cherokee out of their home- lands. The United States government played a critical role in the removal of the Cherokee. “Soon the state governments insisted on the removal of the native peoples, who were already out numbered by the white settlers and considered to be uncivilized “heathens,” not worthy of the land they held” (Sherman 126). This was the attitude of the white settlers. Because of the color of their skin, they spoke a different language, and they were not accustomed to the white mans’ way of life, the Cherokee people suffered many great afflictions even unto death. The white settlers coveted the land of the Cherokee Indians for a couple of different reasons. First, the Cherokee Indians occupied the mountains and valleys of Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia. This land was very fertile and the Cherokee Indians had become proficient farmers. “Cotton quickly was becoming king in the south, and the Indians occupied land suitable for cotton growing” (Perdue 54). The white man discovered that an abundance of gold could be found in Georgia, the heart of the Cherokee territory. With this knowledge they would soon use cruel and brutal tactics in attempt to drive the Cherokee out of their land. Many ... ... middle of paper ... ...inia: Time-Life Books, 1994 Ehle, John. Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation. New York: Anchor Press, 1988. Kelly, Laurence C. Federal Indian Policy. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1990. Mancini, Richard E. Indians of the Southeast. New York: Benford Books, 1992. Matthessen, Peter. Indian Country. New York: Penguin Books, 1992. Oswalt, Wendell H. This Land Was Theirs. California: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1998 Perdue, Theda. The Cherokee. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1989. Sherman, Josepha. The First Americans: Spirit of the Land and the People. New York: Smithmark, 1996. Steele, Ian K. Warpaths: Invasions of North America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. Wilkins, Thurman. Cherokee Tragedy. Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1986.
The American Indians were promised change with the American Indian policy, but as time went on no change was seen. “Indian reform” was easy to promise, but it was not an easy promise to keep as many white people were threatened by Indians being given these rights. The Indian people wanted freedom and it was not being given to them. Arthur C. Parker even went as far as to indict the government for its actions. He brought the charges of: robbing a race of men of their intellectual life, of social organization, of native freedom, of economic independence, of moral standards and racial ideals, of his good name, and of definite civic status (Hoxie 97). These are essentially what the American peoples did to the natives, their whole lives and way of life was taken away,
Ellis, Jerry. Walking the Trail: One Man's Journey along the Cherokee Trail of Tears. New
The removal of the Cherokee Indians from their lands in the southeast is the largest Indian relocation in American history (Sides 362). It was unjust for the Americans to seize Indian land in order to make room for more Americans and immigrants. The Indians had done nothing to deserve this type of brutal treatment. These Indians had no way of fighting back to the Americans, so it was both unfair and unjust. The Trail of Tears, or as Indians called it The Trail where the Wept, was a trail of sickness and despair (Ehle 385). No person should ever have to go through what the Cherokees and other tribes went through. Even though the Americans had some viable reasons to desire the Indian land, they had no right of forcibly removing the Indians out without all of their consent.
Supreme Court Decisions Introduction The research paper will discuss the Supreme Court’s decision on the cases Cherokee Nation v. Georgia and Worchester v. Georgia. The discussion will cover the conflict of the decision, the decision that led to the trail of tears and the implications of the court making a decision without an execution arm. Cherokee Nation v. Georgia
Historian Richard White put it the best when he said ““The Cherokee are probably the most tragic instance of what could have succeeded in American Indian policy and didn’t. All these things that Americans would proudly see as the hallmarks of civilization are going to the west by Indian people. They do everything they were asked to do except one thing. What the Cherokees ultimately are, they may be Christian, they may be literate, they may have a government like ours, but ultimately they are Indian. And in the end, being Indian is what kills
The once great tribes of Native Americans are now all gone from the land in which their forefathers were born in. This act of ethnic-cleansing was called the Indian Removal Act. This law authorized the removal of Native Americans to move to the west of the Mississippi River in exchange for land. Although this act lead to the growth of America, the Native Americans shouldn’t have had to relocate. The Native Americans shouldn’t have relocated because they were becoming more civilized, because they were on the land first, and they were not safely transported as the government promised.
Brill, Marlene Tars. The Trail of Tears: The Cherokee Journey from home. Connecticut: The Millbrook Press, Inc., 1995.
Johansen, Bruce E. (1998). Debating Democracy: Native American Legacy of Freedom. Santa Fe, NM: Clear Light Publishers.
What was the Trail of Tears? The Trail of Tears was in 1838 to 1839. It was part of Andrew Jackson’s Indian Policy. The Cherokee were forced to give up their land east of the Mississippi River and were forced to migrate somewhere in present-day Oklahoma. The Cherokee then called this movement the “Trail of Tears”, because of the horrible effects they faced.
In the essay, “The Trail of Tears” by author Dee Brown explains that the Cherokees isn’t Native Americans that evaporate effectively from their tribal land, but the enormous measure of sympathy supported on their side that was abnormal. The Cherokees process towards culture also the treachery of both states and incorporated governments of the declaration and promises that contrived to the Cherokee nation. Dee Brown wraps up that the Cherokees had lost Kentucky and Tennessee, but a man who once consider their buddy named Andrew Jackson had begged the Cherokees to move to Mississippi but the bad part is the Indians and white settlers never get along together even if the government wanted to take care of them from harassment it shall be incapable to do that. The Cherokee families moved to the West, but the tribes were together and denied to give up more land but Jackson was running for President if the Georgians elects him as President he agreed that he should give his own support to open up the Cherokee lands for establishment.
Natives were forcefully removed from their land in the 1800’s by America. In the 1820’s and 30’s Georgia issued a campaign to remove the Cherokees from their land. The Cherokee Indians were one of the largest tribes in America at the time. Originally the Cherokee’s were settled near the great lakes, but overtime they moved to the eastern portion of North America. After being threatened by American expansion, Cherokee leaders re-organized their government and adopted a constitution written by a convention, led by Chief John Ross (Cherokee Removal). In 1828 gold was discovered in their land. This made the Cherokee’s land even more desirable. During the spring and winter of 1838- 1839, 20,000 Cherokees were removed and began their journey to Oklahoma. Even if natives wished to assimilate into America, by law they were neither citizens nor could they hold property in the state they were in. Principal Chief, John Ross and Major Ridge were leaders of the Cherokee Nation. The Eastern band of Cherokee Indians lost many due to smallpox. It was a year later that a Treaty was signed for cession of Cherokee land in Texas. A small number of Cherokee Indians assimilated into Florida, in o...
There has always been a big debate on whether the Cherokee Indians should have or should not have been removed from the land they resided on. Although the common consensus of the whites was for removal, and for the Cherokees it was against removal, there were some individuals on each side that disagreed with their groups’ decision. The Cherokee Indians should have been removed from their homeland because the Cherokees would not have been able to survive on their own with the way they were living, they would not have been able to exist amidst a white population, and if they were removed, the whites would have helped them create a new and prosperous civilization.
When European explorers first contacted the Cherokees in the 16th century, they have been consistently identified as one of the most socially and culturally advanced of the Native American tribes. Having thrived for hundreds of years before first European contact in the southeastern area of what is now the United States. Cherokee culture and society continued to develop, progressing and embracing cultural elements from European settlers. The Cherokee shaped a government and a society matching the most civilized cultures of the day.(1) In 1829, things changed when President Andrew Jackson ordered the round up and removal of the tribes for their land that held gold so coveted by the European
In the 1830’s President Andrew Jackson demanded that all of the Cherokee Indians must leave the land they have called home for thousands of years. They are faced with the decision to either leave, and make a dangerous journey west, or rebel against the government, and accept the consequences. The Cherokee have the best chance of survival if they accept their new tribal lands and move west, because If they resist the government and stay in their original lands, they will be punished by the United States, and if the Cherokee move west, the United States will pay them and give them many valuable resources.
Although the Declaration of Independence represents a milestone in American history, in 1776 this event was only significant for the white men who had taken over the lands of the New World. The reason why it was written that “all men are created equal” was because the founding fathers had a narrow definition of who qualified as a human, considering that Native Americans are addressed in this document as “merciless Indian savages.” This was further proved by Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act of 1830, which forcefully removed Native tribes from their ancestral homes. Despite the efforts of the Indian tribes to fight Jackson’s removal policy, and even if the government had proposed a less cruel and fairer plan to make use of the Indian lands, the core issue remained on the moral excuse used by Jackson and the government to justify the dehumanization of Indians and the forced appropriation of