The U.S got the Louisiana Territory in 1803. Then during his presidency, Andrew Jackson got Congress to pass the Indian Removal Act. This act stated that all Indians that wished to follow their own tradition must move to the Indian Territory where they would have more than 70,000 square miles of free land. When this act was passed, all Indians but the Cherokee signed the Treaty of Echota agreeing to move. Jackson thought it was necessary to take action against them to enforce the law. But the question is was the U.S justified in passing the Indian Removal Act forcing all Indians to move. I say no, the U.S was not justified in passing the act. The Indians have had a right to this land way before we did.…
The Cherokee people were forced out of their land because of the settler’s greed for everything and anything the land had to offer. Many Cherokee even embraced the “civilization program,” abandoning their own beliefs so that they may be accepted by white settlers. Unfortunately for the Cherokee though, the settlers would never accept them as an equal citizen. A quote from historian Richard White says it very well, “The Cherokee are probably the most tragic instance of what could have succeeded in American Indian policy and didn’t. All these things that Americans would proudly see as the hallmarks of civilization are going to the West by Indian people. They do everything they were asked except one thing. What the Cherokees ultimately are, they may be Christian, they may be literate, they may have a government like ours, but ultimately they are Indian. And in the end, being Indian is what killed them.”…
comeback. Much of this determination in from anger, so much has been taken from them that their angry emotions towards the non-Native Americans is quite understandable. Land has been taken from the Native Americans, they have been forced to relocate several times. While relocating their economic resources are taken from them and they are not given any chance to provide for themselves. The reservations in which the Native Americans are…
Those were the reasons why the Cherokees were moved by the Americans. The Americans moved the Cherokees because the Americans don’t want them to kill innocent American citizens. Also they agreed to move by signing the treaty. When they signed the treaty they also got five million dollars. That is why the Americans moved the Cherokees in…
In “Move the Cherokee to Indian Territory” by Jack Andrews, it states, “We should also remember that these Indians have waged war on America since 1775.” This quote shows that the Americans and the Indians have been enemies since 1775. The article also says, “In 1776 the Cherokees ravaged American settlements in North and South Carolina, killing men, women and children. In many cases their victims were scalped alive and even burned at the stake.” This shows that the Americans are justified for the seeing the Indians as enemies because of the way that the Indians have treated them in the past. It would be madness to invite someone who had kidnapped and murdered a friend to stay at one’s home. The opposing side might argue that Americans have treated the Indians badly as well by cheating them during trading and breaking agreements. However, if the Indians were to move away to the Indian Territory, they would be free to govern themselves and would not have to deal with any or all Americans ever…
The Cherokee should be able to stay because the government said that the land belonged to them and their fathers before them. From the letter it said,“These governments perfectly understood our right to the land and our right of self-government.” and “Our fathers gave it to us as their children.” The Cherokee did not want to give up their land because they had owned the land for generations and the government knew this. The land belonged to them first and they have the right to stay there and not be forced to leave.…
The Native Americans were treated horribly, when they trusted the Americans. The U.S., stole their horses and many died from diseases. This information was gotten from the article called “Allow the Cherokee to Stay,” it stated “Their horses were stolen and hundreds died from disease and malnutrition on the journey.” This quote means that they agreed to move nicely and calmly, but the U.S., still did not treat them fair. That’s not all, when one tribe called the Lakota Nation agreed to move westward because there would be food, water, and land. The U.S., tricked them and they went to imprisonment camps. This was in the article called “ The Betrayal of Native Americans”, it said, “Instead, many Lakota live on reservations (or prisoner of war camps, as they might be called) like Pine Ridge, which is annually one of the most impoverished places in the United States.” This states that Native Americans agree to move where it would be better, but the U.S. still treated them horribly. It was not only the U.S., it was also Canda. The Canadians agreed to help the native groups with money because the U.S. and Canada were the richest nations back then. Instead, the Canadians poisoned their water, soil, and air. Some of the native groups were from the first nations. They were the Inuit, Métis tribe, and others . This was in the article called, “The Betrayal of Native Americans”. The quote stated, “Instead of honoring its…
Removing the Cherokees from their original home was disgraceful choice made by the United States government. Forcing the Cherokees out of their rightful land just so they could use it for resources they didn’t currently have access to was tragic. Historian Richard White said…
America had many treaties with the Cherokee and other Native Americans, and many people, Americans and Cherokee, believed that by ignoring those treaties would be immoral and unconstitutional. Jeremiah Evarts who was a strongly opposed to removal states how all attempts to force the Cherokee out of their land, “are acts of oppression” and “the United States are firmly bound by treaty to protect the Indians from force and encroachments on the part of a State”. Americans were deeply concerned about the stain it would put on America and by forcing the Cherokee out of their land, America is ignoring Indian rights. Similarly, a majority of the Cherokee were gravely opposed to removal and firmly stood their ground and stayed where they were until they were dragged out. Their reasons for this are very simple; their ancestors had been living on the land long before any white settlers and they believed that God had given them that land, and along with the treaties between them and America, clearly give them the rights to the land. In an address to the Cherokee Council in 1830, it is expressed to, “remain on the land of our fathers. We have a perfect and original right to claim this,...The treaties with us, and the laws of the United States,...guaranty our residence, and our privileges, and secure us against intruders”. To the Cherokee people and many Americans, it seemed unfathomable that America created a constitution based on freedom and rights, but now they are taking the rights away from the people who occupied the lands before them. To these people it was immoral and unconstitutional to ignore the treaties that had been made and force the Cherokee out of their…
A country that was based on equal treatment, tolerance for others, and fought for their own basic human rights, stripped the Native Americans of their own and degraded their culture. The Indian Removal act was genocide. It represented a time when Americans were hypocritical; while they demanded rights, they denied other races the same treatment. The legacy that was left behind from the Indian Removal act was one of destruction, there is nothing that justifies the disdain and selfishness behind the federal government’s approval of the act, or the support it received from the white…
Assuredly said, the Indian Removal Policy was only beneficial to America. Through it all, America only gained more land while the Native Americans lost land. It was a great inconvenience for the Native Americans to be moved from one area of vast land to a smaller area, combining many different tribes together. Senator Theodore Frelinghuysen of New Jersey states in the 1829 Congressional Address that, “We have crowded the tribes upon a few miserable acres on our southern frontier; it is all that is left to them of their once boundless forest”. It is even acknowledge that the Native American’s were just rallied together and cast off into a some smaller land. Also on their journey to their new territory, two-thirds of the Native Americans died on their sorrowful trip and had called the road they were on the “Trail of Tears”. Obviously, the Indian Removal Policy was just so that America could gain land and was only beneficial to them not the Native…
In conclusion the Indians should stay on their land because the Indians were on the land way before we did. Also we treated the Indians poorly for years. Last but not least, we all have to admit that the Indians modernized themselves like us, so it should be easy for them to adjust to our life. So these are the reasons why the Indians should stay on their…
This may be true, that money can’t buy pride, but land can’t either. According to the article “REPARATIONS FOR NATIVE AMERICANS: ANOTHER TRAIL OF TEARS”, “Money cannot buy or return dignity and self-respect.” The same idea is presented in “Why Native Americans don’t want reparations”, that “Justice, for us, would require the return of our land, not money.” However, the land that the Natives once lived on have structures and other people living on them. Therefore, if the US gave the Natives land, it would have to be different from the one they once lived on. Otherwise, the US would have to relocate the current residents and destroy the buildings. From there, the US would have to make up for another…
The central issue regarding the Indian Removal Act is land and how to make everyone who occupied that land or wanted to occupy that land happy. My opinion on this matter is that Jackson issued the Indian Removal Act so white settlers could have more land, and President Jackson could move the Indians farther west. The problem with this proposal is he did not follow the rules of the act. All the Indian tribes were supposed to be moved voluntarily by the signing of treaties, but in fact they were not. This resulted in one-fourth of Cherokee Indians dying because they had to pick up and move 800 miles west. There were lives lost from suffering from cold, hunger, and diseases such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, smallpox, and cholera. Today, we recognize this forced move as the Trail of Tears.…
Still, American Indians have not really asked for reparations.” Which obviously states they don’t really think as native Americans as equal to us, like the real Americans. It is my sincere belief that the Native Americans would want their land back instead of money. The government was horrible back then and still is now. Some might argue and say that the native americans would prefer money but in my opinion I think it is the right choice to give them back their land.…