Transcript Affirmative Action - Teaching American History

Native American Removal Policy
and the 'Trail of Tears'
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Early American Views of Native
American Land Rights
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From the beginning of European settlement on the East Coast
of what would become the United States, American colonists
looked for justification to displace Native American populations.
This piece written by John Cotton, a Puritan leader, who helped
establish the groundwork for colonization and property rights as
the measure for “possession” of the land.
 The placing of a people in this or that country is from the
appointment of the Lord. . .
 Quest. Wherein doth this work of God stand in appointing a
place for a people?
 Answ. First, when God espies or discovers a land for a
people, as in Ezek. 20:6: "He brought them into a land that
He had espied for them." And, that is, when either He gives
them to discover it themselves, or hears of it discovered by
others, and fitting them. “
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This is an excerpt of a letter written in Boston
four years after its founding, with future
Connecticut governor John Winthrop explaining
the difficulties of establishing a self-sustaining,
self-governing settlement.
Most notably, Winthrop described the colonists'
mounting conflict with the Indians and the death
of many Native Americans from smallpox as a
sign of providence and good fortune.
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“Our Churches are governed by Pastors, Teachers
ruling Elders and Deacons, yet the power lies in the
whole Congregation and not in the Presbytery [not in
a larger council of churches] further than for order and
precedence. For the natives, they are near all dead of
the smallpox, so the Lord hath cleared our title to
what we possess.”
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Hopewell Treaty with the
Cherokee (1785)
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Beginning shortly after the founding of the United
States, Georgia officials initiated agreements with the
Cherokee Indians of the area that eventually eroded
the Cherokees' claims to the land.
The opening act in the dispossession of Cherokee
lands was concluded at Hopewell, Georgia in 1785.
Specifically, the treaty established boundaries for
Cherokee hunting grounds, erecting limitations on
culturally significant land.
Although, in the treaty's conclusion, “the hatchet,” is
said to be “forever buried” and peace and friendship
re-established, the post-Hopewell realities proved far
different.
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Holston Treaty with the Cherokee
(1791)
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Six years after the Hopewell Treaty, another
landmark US/Cherokee treaty was concluded at
Holston manufacturing further boundaries and
“extinguishing forever all claims of the Cherokee
nation" to land in the stipulated areas.
Expanding upon the dispossession guaranteed at
Hopewell, the Holston treaty began the progressive
erosion of Cherokee land rights on non-hunting
grounds.
Marked by its aggressive rhetoric, the Cherokees
“agreed” to “relinquish and cede” all lands residing
outside the established demarcation line and
permitted citizens of the United States access to a
road running through Cherokee lands, as well as
navigation of the Tennessee River.
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Treaty of Cherokee Agency
(1817)
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This treaty marked the beginnings of a new campaign
designed to divide the Cherokee nation with an everpresent eye on the ultimate goal of mass removal.
Although extensive land seizure was included as part of
the treaty, the nature of the government’s grand strategy
could be seen by 1817.
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"The United States, my children, are the friends of both parties,
and, as far as can be reasonably asked, they are willing to
satisfy the wishes of both. Those who remain may be assured of
our patronage, our aid, and good neighborhood. Those who wish
to remove, are permitted to send an exploring party to
reconnoitre the country on the waters of the Arkansas and White
rivers, and the higher up the better, as they will be the longer
unapproached by our settlements, which will begin at the mouths
of those rivers.”
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Treaty of Washington (1828)
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This treaty addressed members of the Cherokee nation
west of the Mississippi, guaranteeing them seven million
acres of land and a “perpetual outlet” west as far “as the
sovereignty of the United States,” extends.
Such agreements set the stage for the justification of
mass removal.
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ART. 7. The Chiefs and Head Men of the Cherokee Nation,
aforesaid, for and in consideration of the foregoing stipulations
and provisions, do hereby agree, in the name and behalf of their
Nation, to give up, and they do hereby surrender, to the United
States, and agree to leave the same within fourteen months, as
herein before stipulated, all the lands to which they are entitled in
Arkansas,
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Andrew Jackson’s First Annual
Message to Congress (1829)
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While denying the
sovereign right to Native
American tribes within
state limits, threatening
extinction as a
consequence for
remaining east of the
Mississippi, and
combining the language
of paternalism, Jackson
lays out his policy of
voluntary removal to
areas west of the
Mississippi.
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The Indian Removal Act
(1830)
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Passed during Andrew Jackson’s second year in office, the Indian
Removal Act set the stage for his administration’s handling of
Native American affairs during the remainder of Jackson’s
presidency.
Removal of eastern tribes to lands west of the Mississippi
became the hallmark of Jacksonian Indian policy including, most
notably, the 'Trail of Tears,' (which actually transpired shortly after
Jackson had left office.)
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“Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America, in Congress assembled, That it shall and
may be lawful for the President of the United States to cause so
much of any territory belonging to the United States, west of the river
Mississippi, not included in any state or organized territory, and to
which the Indian title has been extinguished,”
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Worcester v. Georgia (1832)
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In this landmark decision, the Supreme Court ruled the State of
Georgia had no power to pass any law affecting the Cherokee
Nation, maintaining the exclusivity of federal jurisdiction.
As a distinct political community bound by territorial boundaries
and established rights, Worcester, in principle, guaranteed the
sovereign claims of the Cherokee nation and the lands within their
boundaries.
Although a potential watershed moment, the decision sparked
intense disagreement between the three branches and crumbled
under the weight of Jackson’s objection.
Responding to Chief Justice John Marshall’s written decision it was
rumored Jackson remarked, “The Chief Justice has made his
decision, now let him enforce it.”
Unfortunately for the Cherokee Nation the social principles outlined
in Worcester never became a political reality because of later
developments.
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Treaty of New Echota (1835)
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After a winding trail of treaties designed to dispossess
the Cherokee Nation of various parts of their land, the
Treaty of New Echota represented the final blow to
traditional Cherokee land rights.
Dripping with paternalism, New Echota ceded all land
possessed by the Cherokee Nation east of the
Mississippi to the United States and reaffirmed the seven
million acre and perpetual outlet commitments.
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“The United States shall always have the right to make and establish
such post and military roads and forts in any part of the Cherokee
country, as they may deem proper for the interest and protection of the
same and the free use of as much land, timber, fuel and materials of all
kinds for the construction and support of the same as may be
necessary…”
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In an impassioned letter to
Congress, Chief John Ross
exposed the illegitimacy of the
Treaty of New Echota and
described its consequences on
the people of the Cherokee
Nation.
His words echo through the
history of treaty negotiations
between Native Americans and
the government of the United
States.
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“We are overwhelmed! Our hearts
are sickened, our utterance is
paralyzed, when we reflect on the
condition in which we are placed,
by the audacious practices of
unprincipled men, who have
managed their stratagems with so
much dexterity as to impose on
the Government of the United
States, in the face of our earnest,
solemn, and reiterated
protestations.
The instrument in question is not
the act of our Nation; we are not
parties to its covenants; it has not
received the sanction of our
people. “
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The 'Trail of Tears'
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In 1838, General Winfield Scott arrived in Georgia with
approximately 7,000 men to enforce the provisions of the
Treaty of New Echota, which prescribed the relocation of
the Cherokees in Georgia to what is now Oklahoma.
Somewhere between 3,000-5,000 Cherokees died en
route in what became known as the 'Trail of Tears.'
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