Land, Growth, and Justice: The Removal of the CherokeesThere has always been a great debate over whether or not the Cherokee Indians should have been removed from the country. land on which they resided. Although the common consensus of whites was in favor of removal, and for Cherokees, against removal, some individuals on each side disagreed with their group's decision. The Cherokee Indians should have been expelled from their homeland because they would not have been able to survive alone with their way of life, they would not have been able to exist among a white population, and if they had been expelled, the Whites would have helped them create a new and prosperous civilization. The Cherokees could not have survived on their own due to their outdated way of life. “You lived by hunting deer and buffalo – all were driven west; you sold out to the coast and headed west in pursuit. As they were afraid there, your food failed you; you lived every year without food except for roots and other unhealthy things you could find in the forest. Deer and buffalo were the main source of food for the Cherokee and they became fearsome because the Cherokee hunted fifty thousand deer each year. The deer population plummeted due to the Cherokee's reliance on European goods with which they traded deer hides. There was one commodity that Europeans had that negatively affected the Cherokees, and that was alcohol. “Frequent wars and the abuse of spirits have also contributed to your numbers diminishing.” Alcohol was consumed in enormous quantities by the Cherokee, causing them to fall into a drunken stupor which, middle of paper, was more beneficial to them than if they remained. The whites wanted the Cherokee lands and would take them by force if necessary. The Cherokee alone could not have survived with their outdated and inefficient methods of living. The Cherokee living among the whites would not have fared well since the whites did not associate or relate to the Cherokee, which created conflict and rivalry between the two groups. Since the takeover of Cherokee lands seemed inevitable, the Cherokee should have agreed to move and adopt the ways of the whites. The Cherokee should have realized that the whites were a thriving power in comparison. Works Cited Becker, S., & Glover, L., & Wheeler, W. (2012). Discovering America's Past: A Look at the Evidence, Volume 1: To 1877 (7th edition pp.176-211). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning