Native American Struggles

There were Five Civilized Tribes that lived in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. White people were not happy with the land they were on and Jackson forced them to move to the Great Plains because he believed there would be no conflict with them there. In 1830 Jackson pushed for the Indian Removal Act which allowed Native Americans to move west. In 1790 the federal government recognized the Cherokee as a separate nation which led to Georgia taking their land in 1830. The Cherokee went to the United States Supreme Court and they said they had the right to be on that land but President Jackson did not agree which caused the Trail of Tears.

Jackson supported the white men who wanted to see this plan through, because the Indians land was very valuable. They felt they had a legal right to their land, so the Cherokee Indians took Andrew Jackson to court. The case made it all the way to the Supreme Court. Even though the Supreme court had ruled that the Cherokees had a legal right to stay on their land in Worcester v. Georgia, but Jackson still forced them out of their land. The law required the government to negotiate removal treaties fairly, voluntarily and peacefully, which Jackson did not even attempt to

Andrew Jackson had a history with the Native Americans from his days in the military, and the first Seminole war. Jackson wanted to remove the Cherokee Nation from land east of the Mississippi, so white settlers could peacefully move into the Cherokee territory. Therefore, the Indian removal act of 1830 was put in place, which allowed the federal government to move the Cherokee to western territory. The Cherokee fought back against the act in both the supreme court cases Cherokee Nation v. Georgia and Worchester v. Georgia. Although Worchester v. Georgia was successful, the government refused to enforce the ruling, Jackson attempted to remove and create a treaty with the natives but divided them and created conflict between the tribe.

Their land was extremely sacred to them, and they claimed the land first. In addition to these beliefs, the Cherokee could argue that between the years 1814 and 1824, the federal government signed upwards of ten treaties with the Native Americans establishing them as a country and preventing the government from taking this land. According to the tribe, President Jackson was “ignorant” in regards to the ways of the Cherokee, resulting in his confusion as to why the land is so important to them. Nevertheless, they agreed to relocate, though not without major reluctance, and began building their lives once again.

So even after the Cherokees win their case they are still forced to move due to a new treaty known as the Treaty at New Echota (Takaki, p.88), along with the Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole in what is known as the Trail of

The Indians believed that since they were a part of the United States they should be entitled to protection under its laws, but since this was not working they were left with another choice, and decided to take action against the Indian Removal Act and Georgia. Being very cultured and knowledgeable in the ways of the white man and their laws they decided to use Georgia’s strategy of law against in a “fight fire with fire” sort of sense to join the Cherokee Nation in suing the state of Georgia in a case that would eventually go all the way to the Supreme Court. The Indians had also decided to insult to injury by hiring the former attorney general under Adams and Monroe, William Wirt. Jackson had showed his disdain of this action by commenting “The course of Wirt has truly been wicked” (Remini 242). This comment also shows the betrayal Jackson felt knowing that a fellow American was hindering the inevitable expansion of the United States and removal of the Indians.

The dispersing of the Indians, particularly the five civilized tribes of the southwest: Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole fairly began before the approval of the Indian Removal Act. As the European-Americans were progressing the procedure of passing the Act was bound to happen. They were once a secluded society and now forced to a loss of war. The Indian Removal Act was signed on 1830 by President Andrew Jackson. The act allowed President Andrew Jackson to provide the states with federal funds to remove the civilized tribes and reject the Indians from letting them to be part of the European-American society.

Could you imagine being moved from your home and march hundreds of miles at gunpoint! It sounds like a nightmare but it was a reality for many innocent people they were forced to move to a whole different place and try to survive. In 1820 the treaty of doak 's stand was one of the very first removal of native and land. Andrew jackson gave a talk /speech to the choctaw proposed land exchange for land in the mississippi for land in arkansas but the choctaw nation did not want to sign the treaty but jackson forced the natives to sign jackson was not yet president.

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”.

The conflict between the Americans and the Natives for the Native’s lands caused the government to created an Act to move the Natives. This compromise was the Indian Removal Act, “An Act to provide for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing in any of the states or territories and for their removals west of the river Mississippi” (United). The Act was passed on May 30, 1830 (Removal), and moved the Natives’ across the country from Georgia to Oklahoma (adamelhamouden). The Removal Act was for all Indians, but there were many other treaties that the government used to move the Natives. The Cherokees used the Treaty of New Echota.

President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830 which gave funds to move the Indians west of the Mississippi River. The state of Georgia annulled the constitution of the Cherokee and they ordered that their tribal lands must be seized. Even though the Cherokees were not doing anything wrong, the State of Georgia still shut them out and had their lands seized. The Cherokee tribe hired a lawyer and brought this case all the way to the Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Marshall upheld the Cherokee tribe's

On July 17, 1830, the Cherokee nation published an appeal to all of the American people. United States government paid little thought to the Native Americans’ previous letters of their concerns. It came to the point where they turned to the everyday people to help them. They were desperate. Their withdrawal of their homeland was being caused by Andrew Jackson signing the Indian Removal Act into law on May 28, 1830.

Although Jackson was important, he was part of many terrible things. Around the 1820s there were many major indian tribes in eastern United States such as Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole. This soon came to a change. Andrew Jackson thought these Indians were in the way of eastern development, using the Indian Removal Act which the congress had approved he decided to kick them out and send them west. In 1831 the Supreme Court ruled that the Cherokee Indians had the right to self government and the United States could not interfere with that.

The Plight of Native Americans in the Age of White Oppression Through the years that White Americans expanded to the west, Native Americans faced much discrimination and oppression on their culture and way of life. Native Americans were pushed further west from their homelands as Whites continued to expand and take over the North American continent. In this time, many Whites came to the realization that they were mistreating Native Americans. As a result, they established reserved lands for Native Americans called reservations.

The original inhabitants of North America were actually the first people to be subordinated by Europeans. The Native Americans who survived contact with the white people who landed in Plymouth Rock and other east coast locales were usually removed from their ancestral homes; usually far away from their homes (Schiffer, 2004). What we have written so far in this chapter about conceptualizing childhood applied mostly to European children and some American children. But how childhood was conceptualized in Native American tribes comes from either white settlers or missionaries – not from Native Americans themselves. It seems, however, that Native Americans children were handled permissively by their parents and not subjected to corporal punishment