Brief Summary: Impact Of The American Revolution On Native Americans

Wuster 1

Tanner A. Wuster

Dr. Steven Schulte

History 131-006

1 November 2017

Impact of the Revolution on Native Americans Different ethnicities and genders were impacted by the American Revolution. Groups such as whites, slaves, and women. All of them lost and gained different things from the revolution. For the Native Americans, it was a complete tragedy. "Another group for whom American independence spelled a loss of freedom- the Indians." (Foner, 222). In the beginning of the revolution, patriots worked hard to ensure Indian neutrality. However, it gradually became clear to most of the natives that a liberated America put in place greater threats against their freedoms and their way of life more than the British authority that controlled

This greedy act was signed by the seventh president of the United States, Andrew Jackson. Land-hungry Americans discharged into the coastal South and began moving near and into what would later become the states of Mississippi and Alabama (U.S. Department of State). The main tribes that were living there seemed to be their greatest obstacle of moving westward, so white settlers pleaded to the federal government to remove them. From a lawful point of view, the United States Constitution authorized Congress to "regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes" (U.S. Department of State). This lead to Andrew Jackson encouraging Congress to acknowledge the Removal Act of 1830. Thus, permitting the president to provide land west of the Mississippi River to Native American tribes that accepted to move from their homelands. As a motivation for the Indians, "the law allowed Indians financial and material assistance to travel to their new locations and start new lives" (U.S. Department of State). It also stated that the Indians would be living on their new land under the defense of the U.S. With the dwelling Removal Act, white settlers and Jackson had the freedom to corrupt and impend the tribes into signing the treaties and leaving the

At the completion of his presidency, he had signed close to seventy removal treaties into the law books. The outcome was the movement of nearly fifty-thousand eastern Native Americans to different western territories; opening up millions of acres east of the Mississippi to the white settlers, (McGill). Even though some Indian tribes felt helpless, some fought for their rights. The Cherokees did not give up. The Cherokee tried to keep their land by enforcing laws against the selling of land, "any sale of Cherokee lands punishable by death." (McGill). Numerous Cherokee tribes labored together as a self-governing nation, challenging the legislation in the United States courts. "In 1832, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Cherokees, but some tribes still signed treaties giving the federal government the legal authority to "assist" them in their move to the Indian Territory." (Native American). "Assist" in their terms meaning removing them with force of having no