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Thomas jefferson policy to assimilate the american indians in the 1780s
The removal of American Indian tribes
Discrimination of native american reservation versus non-reservation natives
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In the book, The Cherokee Removal, Perdue and Green argue that the Cherokee Nation was treated unfairly by the U.S. Government in the 1800s. The majority of Americans were not fond of the Native Americans, and the Americans felt as if the Native Americans were on their rightfully owned property. Perdue and Green display how the states were trying to remove the Natives when they write, “A state could use its legal institutions to make life for Indians so miserable that they would gladly sell their lands and flee to the West” (Perdue and Green, 73).
His views regarding the Indians were distorted by his absolute loathe towards them, creating a toxic environment for the Natives. Due to the constant requests and suggestions to relocate the Indians west of the Mississippi River, a dry place seemingly uninhabitable for farm life, Andrew passed the “Indian Removal Act” which remunerated the “Five Civilized Tribes,” the Creek, Chickasaw, Seminole, Cherokee, and Choctaw to abandon their lands and move west of the Mississippi. Although this may sound fair, paying the tribes to migrate someplace else, the lands that they were given was much too unsuitable for the sustainability of crops and the conditions they had to endure during their journey west were absolutely sickening. Some tribes accepted the policy, whereas the Cherokee was defiant against the unethical policies, stating that the policy did not apply to them as they were a separate and independent nation with their own individual laws. Jackson, being the tyrant he is, ignores the Cherokees’ statements and continues to enforce the policy, even though the Supreme Court had already settled on a final ruling.
The document, Thomas Jefferson’s secret message to Congress about the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1803, tells us about Jefferson’s views of westward expansion and Native Americans. Jefferson really liked the idea of westward expansion; in addition, he saw the remarkable opportunities associated with it. Jefferson believed that the Native Americans could be coaxed into willingly giving up their land. The Americans were more deserving of Indian territories in the eyes of Jefferson, so he wanted to change their minds and get the Natives to hand over their land. Jefferson wanted to utilize two tactics to achieve this goal.
Prominent figures such as Thomas Jefferson wanted to encourage the Indians to pursue agriculture in the west so their land could be utilized (Document F). Adding on to this idea, other government officials went so far as to dictate that the Indians’ had no claim to their land. In 1823, the case of Johnson v M’Intosh, the Supreme Court decided that tribes solely had a “right of occupancy” to their land. Likewise, President James Monroe proclaimed that the tribes had no right to keep their land from the common people in Document I. Like his late mother and countless other Americans, Jackson believed the Indians should be transported away (Presidential Podcast). The federal policies leading up to 1830 were similar to Jackson’s removal decision.
"It will be my sincere and constant desire to observe toward the Indian tribes within our limits a just and liberal policy, and to give that humane and considerate attention to their rights and their wants which is consistent with the habits of our Government and the feelings of our people." -- Andrew Jackson’s speech about the Indian Removal Act of 1830 in 1830. The Cherokee are a Native American Tribe that live in Oklahoma and North Carolina, and have lived there for decades. In 1830, Andrew Jackson (the president during this time) was mad because the Cherokee Indians had been hurting and scalping people in Georgia. Because of this, Jackson put up the idea of a removal act, a way to get the Cherokee to either move out of Georgia or abide by state law.
The Cherokee had several major objections to moving to new locations. The Cherokee wanted to stay instead of moving to a place such as Arkansas because it is “unknown” to them and is already occupied by the Indians. Therefore, the Indians would look at the Cherokee as if they did not belong or be seen as an enemy when the Cherokee meant no harm. Also the Indians were not really supplied by wood and water, which was bad for the Indians because they could not live as agriculturalists, but also bad for the Cherokee because they were worried there was not a lot of land for farming. Furthermore, the Cherokee had major objections because the people around the Cherokees were so different compared to them.
During Andrew Jackson’s presidency, he faced tremendous conflict with the Indians. As the United States began to expand, more and more issues began arising between the Americans and their Indian neighbors. Jackson had to decide whether or not to move the Indians out of Georgia and into a section of land in the west that he had specifically set aside for that purpose. Knowing the impact his decision would carry, he weighed the options before coming to a conclusion. Ultimately, he chose to move the Indians west.
The removal of the Cherokee, or more commonly known as the “Trail of Tears,” was a defining American event that left an incredible historical impact. The Cherokee and other Native American tribes were being moved westward by the American government for various reasons such as disputes with white settlers, the desire for the gold on the Cherokee lands, the desire to civilize them and other reasons. However, it was far from a simplistic dispute between whites and Native Americans. There were many whites, including President Jackson, as well as some Cherokee, who supported the policy to move the Indians west. Opponents of the removal also included both whites and Cherokee.
There were tribes known as the Five Civilized Tribes that lived in the regions of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Florida. These tribes were the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles. They all lived in peace with each other and adopted many cultural ways and customs of the whites. Unfortunately, some Americans believed forcing the tribes, specifically the Cherokees, out of their regions would be a great personal achievement. Georgia was first on the list to seize and to do so the president gave the Cherokees a “choice”.
An ethical issue related to medical care is pain management and the inappropriate judgment of patients being labeled as “Drug Seeking”. There are statistics that prove there is a rise in abuse in opiates within communities. However, at what point does the nurse or provider get to decide what is an adequate pain threshold and how much they should endure? When does the ethical duty to relieve pain and suffering subside to personal biases?
However, Jefferson knew that the Native Americans way of life could no longer exist in the expanding United States. For whites to obtain western land, the Native Americans had to give up hunting and turn to agriculture and household manufacture as their new way of life. Therefore, civilizing of Native Americans was a crucial part of Jefferson’s strategy. If they resisted he said they will be dealt
Andrew Jackson's Justification for Indian Removal The threat of Indians occupying American territory had become a serious issue in the United States. When Thomas Jefferson was serving his term as president, he influenced the United States government by trying to get the Indians to become "civilized." To many Americans, "civilization" meant that the Cherokees had to learn and adapt to their lifestyle.
The year 1838 was the beginning of a dreadful tragedy in America’s history which in turn led to the deaths of 4,000 out of the 15,000 Cherokee as they made the 1200 mile journey on what is infamously known as The Trail of Tears (Ehle). Initially the Cherokees, an indigenous Native American group, territory included parts of Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and the southern Appalachian Mountains (Ehle). A lot of the original Cherokee territory was taken and sold by the U.S. Government. In fact, when Andrew Jackson became president in 1828, he made a lot of profit from selling Cherokee territory to the people (Purdue). This could have encouraged him to pass laws to remove the Cherokee to Missouri as well as the discovery of gold fields in northwest Georgia (Gilbert).
Take Back Our land: Tecumseh Speech to the Osages “We must be united” was the plea from Tecumseh to the Osage tribe. In 1811, Tecumseh, known as the “Greatest Indian”, gave a speech pleading with the Osage tribe that they should unite together to fight against the white man (Tecumseh, 231). He goes on to tell how they had given the white man everything they needed to recover health when they entered their land but in return the white man had become the enemy. The speech to the Osages by Tecumseh illustrates the dangers of the white men to the Indian tribes, and why the tribes should unite together against the white man.
Adam Sorenson Prof. Riggs COMP 01112 2/12/18 Misrepresentation of Native Americans Native American’s for many years now have been viewed as lone warriors or squaw, some people don’t even know that they still exist! People just think of the Native American people in storybook tales and nothing more then that. The Native Americans have been living in the United States for awhile now and were the first ones on the country’s soil. They were here way before Christopher Columbus and the other European Colonists even discovered America and they are still present in the U.S.
