Many Americans opposed the removal of the Native Americans and argued that they too had been civilized and should be allowed to remain on the homelands, specifically Davey Crocket. This was a valid point of debate for the Native Americans, although at this point the strength in numbers for the government were overwhelming compared to that of the Native Americans living on their homeland. On the other hand, some of the natives thought strategically about agreeing with the treaty because this would alleviate “white harassment”(Indian Removal, PBS). This shows the debate amongst the natives themselves, over the removal act, leaving some tribes divided and again assisting with the destruction of their
This led to conflicts and therefore partially led to the destruction of the Native American way of life. The white Americans quickly claimed land and would move the Plains Indians around as they saw fit, usually affected by where gold had recently been discovered. This culminated in putting the Native Americans on reservations. In many of the agreements and treaties signed over land the settlers would claim never to go back on their promises “as long as grass grew” and “the mountains stood”. Breaking the promises would have shown the Native Americans that the settlers thought little of their intelligence, and also would instil a lack of trust in the settlers, as now every apparently solemn vow to not attack certain areas or to treat the Plains Indians better etc.
The Removal Act stated that the United States Government had the right to forcefully move the Native Americans to different lands as long as they compensated them for the land that they had to give up in the east. The US Government did not give the Native Americans any say regarding their move. Once the Removal Act signed into place they had to follow it. The move negatively impacted on the tribes’ health, their population and their way of living. Out of about 15,000 Cherokee that were forcefully moved to the West, about 4,000 died on the road there.
The removal of the southern Native Americans was devastating to the Five Civilized Tribes. They were forced to leave their land and move to the west on reserved areas of land. Some left peacefully, others stayed and fought. The U.S. government tried to intervene and create treaties, but also enforced removal. The government didn’t do much to protect the Native Americans, nor were they able to enforce their own laws regarding Native American land and treaties.
The Native Americans were outraged by the white people trying to take their land that was set aside for them. The result was reservations wars broke out between the white people and Native Americans. As battles broke out, reformers wanted to put in place a new humane policy. The policy was to destroy native ways but save the Indians from themselves and make Indians into what white people thought they should be. After the reservation wars broke out and the conflict between the Native Americans and whites continued to rise, the new focus was the idea of civilization.
Tecumseh Biography Tecumseh was a Native American leader of the Shawnee. Tecumseh worked to unite other Indian tribes to against white expansion into the west in the early 1800s, and he was also became a hero figure in American Indian and Canadian history. Tecumseh was born in March, 1768 on the Scioto River, near Chillicothe, Ohio. He was the second son of Pucksinwah, the Shawnee warrior who was killed in the Battle of Point Pleasant. With the last aspiration of his father, he was trained to be a warrior and never made peace with the whites.
Clearly, Columbus should have empathized with the Native Americans by respecting their values and negotiating through fair trade rather than violence and deceit. This relates to Robert McNamara’s first lesson because Columbus failed to empathize with Native Americans and their unique values. ii. The Whisky Rebellion: In the early 1790s westerners in the United States rebelled against Alexander Hamilton’s excise tax on whisky. Westerners viewed this tax as unfair because whisky often served as a medium of exchange and because the tax would make western farmers who were forced to distill their grain into whisky for portability reasons less competitive with eastern grain
Sherman wanted permission for white emigrants to cross the Indian lands as well as for permission to build three forts on the Bozeman Trail. Red Cloud of the Oglala announced that no such concession would be made especially since he had seen soldiers marching off to build the forts before they even had permission, as they wanted him to accept the decision to allow emigrants to settle on the last of the great Sioux hunting grounds. He angrily broke off the talks and stormed off, and vowed to defend the territory and shut down the trail, when he was unable to reach agreement with the army negotiators, he resorted to sending out war parties that attacked emigrants and army patrols. These hit and run tactics were difficult for the army to deal with and at the time the Indians arrived on the scene of the attack, the war parties had disappeared. Fort Phil Kearny was one of three forts on the Bozeman trail connecting the Platte River with mines of Montana.
History has been cruel to Native Americans. Slowly, new settlers forced the natives to migrate from their cultural tribal lands to unknown territory. These settlers also pushed the natives to abandon their native values and accept their European beliefs as true. The natives had no choice but to find a new place to call home, a new means of survival and a new way to preserve their culture. Fast forwarding these effects through time, “What You Pawn I Will Redeem,” a story of a homeless Spokane Indian named Jackson Jackson by Sherman Alexie, captures the drastic loss that Native Americans have experienced and the effects that their losses have created up to the modern day.
“It will be a place dense and civilized population now occupied with savage hunters” (Source C). Andrew Jackson Presented this statement to congress when he was trying to pass the Indian Removal Act. This is not entirely true the Indians were just doing what they had been doing for many, many years. The Indian removal Act is genocide and is looked over by so many people as not a big deal, but it is a huge deal. The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) is trying to get many sports teams to change from using Indians as they’re Mascot.