The Congress eventually followed suit by enacting the Indian Removal Act which was greeted by the newly elected President Andrew Jackson. Americans should feel no regret for the disappearance of Indians from the face of the earth, Jackson argued. "Philanthropy could not wish to see this continent restored to the condition in which it was found by our forefathers," he said to Congress in his State of the Union Address. "What good man would prefer a country covered with forests and ranged by a few thousand savages to our extensive Republic" (Perdue & Green 120).
Many Anglo-Americans opposed the Indian Removal Act. Missionaries especially were appalled at the plan to evict the Cherokee Indians by force. A Baptist Reverend, writing under the pseudonym of "William Penn," argued that the United States had no right to use force and evict the Cherokee of their ancestral lands. He cited Americans laws and provisions of agreements signed by both the U.S. Government and the Cherokee tribal government. He argued that "the removal of any nation of Indians from their country by force would be an instance of gross and cruel oppression . . . And therefore entirely unjustifiable" (Perdue & Green 98). On the contrary, Penn argued, the Unites States was bound to protect the Cherokee nation from any form of eviction.
The rights of the Cherokee to the land were also upheld by the United States Supreme Court. But the government of Jackson ignored the Court's decision, allowing many Georgians to enter the Cherokee territory. In the face of this pressure and a feeling of powerlessness, a minority group among the Cherokee, under the leadership of Elias Boudinot and John Ridge, decided to negotiate with the U.S. government. The group became known as the Treaty Party,...
Trail of Tears was an important experience that forever changed the history of the Cherokee Nation and the United States. Several thousand Cherokee Native Indians lost their lives when forced to leave their homelands through laws put in place by Federal authorities. The beginning of the negotiation of several treaties to establish land boundaries and trade routes started in 1776 between the nation of Native Americans and the United States.
The Trail of Tears, a U.S. Army-guided forcible removal of the native Americans from the southeast to west of the Mississippi, began in 1838, and thousands of Cherokee were displaced; thousands died along the way. The realities of these actions was a much different thing than the ideals of the United States. A nation that was built with tolerance and freedom as its precepts was not only forcibly expelling inhabitants
Cherokee Nation can be described as the government of the Cherokee people that is recognized by the federal government in the United States. Throughout its history, the Cherokee Nation has remained committed to safeguarding its people's intrinsic sovereignty while promoting and preserving the language, culture, and values of the Cherokee people. Moreover, the Cherokee Nation is increasingly committed to enhancing the quality of life for subsequent generations of Cherokee people
Disease ran through our people like wildfire, while others were simply to young or old to make the journey and gave up, to die alone by the side of the road. Some of the soldiers were kind to us, but others brutalized us and tormented the young women. My young daughter survived the trip, and together, we are trying to build a new life in the Indian Country. I
The Injustice of the Indian Removal Act 1830 Introduction The Indian Removal Act signed by Andrew Jackson in 1830 was meant to establish peace in the nation and to give the Native Americans their own territory where they could practice their own activities, traditions and culture without interference from the American government. However, the Act resulted in the forced migration of thousands of Native Americans from their traditional homelands to a region
He was viewing them as little children who required guidance. He tended to believe that the policy of removal had great benefits to the Indians. Majority of the white Americans were thinking that United States was not capable of extending past Mississippi. The removal was capable of saving the Indian nationals from the white's depredations (Foreman 1932). The removal could make them to govern themselves peacefully It was assumed that the
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