Indian Removal Essay

Indian Removal

Looking throughout the overwhelming events the American Revolution had on everyone involved, allows us to examine how the governments’ policies toward the Indians changed over time. It shows how the policy changes effected the Indians as well as the Americans’, their attitudes toward each other as the American’s pushed westward and the Indians resisted. Then the actions on both sides which lead up to the final removal of all Indians to west of the Mississippi in 1830’s.

The government as well as the Americans’ attitudes toward the Indians at the beginning of the Revolution was pretty much the same as Thomas Jefferson’s, which was that given time the Indians could possibly change their ways and conform to white society’s way

In 1807, the United States extracted treaty rights to Illinois, southern Indiana, and eastern Michigan from weakened tribal leaders. The government Jefferson and the American people saw their new nation growing from 5.3 million to 9.6 million within a 20 year span in the early 1800’s and realized that one thing stood in its way, the Indians. White settlers in the southwest were taking millions of acres from the tribes in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Georgia. Each of tribes standing alone were powerless against the overwhelming odds against them. Nevertheless, during this time two great Indian leaders stood out giving them hope, Tenskwatawa and Tecumseh. Tenskwatawa, revered as a prophet by all the tribes, recovered from the wicked effects of alcohol, coinciding with a religious Awaking. He began speaking to the tribes on the sinful nature of the white society. His speeches were able to unite several tribes. Accordingly Tecumseh in 1809 had the foresight to see that the only hope each of the tribes had was to stand as one. Consequently, creating the Tecumseh Confederacy. In 1823, the Supreme Court heard Johnson v. McIntosh . The Illinois and Pinakeshaw tribe had sold land to white settlers and then later ceded the same land to the United States government. The court sided with the United States, therefore in doing so the Supreme Court designated a position for tribes inside the new political system. It stated the tribes had fundamental property rights, and they were a sovereign entity that wasn’t required to answer to the states but to the Federal government solely. Then in 1828 came a huge change in the Indian policy with Andrew Jackson elected as president. During Jackson’s military service while fighting