On the Removal of the CherokeeIn the first half of the 19th century, the United States was experiencing enormous growth. Thomas Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase, acquisition of the Texas, California, and Oregon areas all helped make the United States a nation that spanned the continent "from sea to sea." the other.” This massive expansion, however, did not take place peacefully. The five civilized Native American tribes in the southeast were particularly difficult. The most civilized of these tribes, known as the Cherokee, had westernized to the point of having an elected government, a written constitution, and a written language. They had their own towns and stores and even owned slaves. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayBy 1839, most of the Cherokee tribe had been moved to designated Indian territories west of the Mississippi River, in accordance to the Treaty of New Echota. , in what became known as the “Trail of Tears.” This essay will examine the background and rationale for federal Indian removal policy, particularly as it relates to the Cherokee Indians, and the validity of this argument by examining the history of the Cherokee tribe and its relationships with governments state and federal. With the settlement of the eastern coastal areas of what became the United States, the Native American population in these areas began to be pushed inland by the new arrivals. European settlers used a variety of techniques to displace the Indians, with hostile takeovers and treaties being favorites. The Cherokee were no exception. VO King notes that between 1785 and 1866 the Cherokee "signed thirty-five treaties with the United States, by which they ceded fifty-six thousand square miles of territory." This was due to a strategy developed by President Thomas Jefferson who as early as 1803 "suggested the exchange with the Indians of their lands east of the Mississippi for equal areas to the west, located within the Purchase of Louisiana. In the years following the American Revolution, Americans began to push westward with renewed vigor. This westward movement was spurred both by the availability of cheap land through government sales of the public domain and by a sense of manifest destiny. The first obstacle to this westward movement were the Native American tribes who had lived on these lands for centuries. Friction between the newcomers and the Indians resulted in small-scale wars started by both sides. The Cherokee had suffered severely during the Revolutionary War because of their allegiance to the British crown. To show their support, they attacked various American forts in the South in the 1770s. These military actions by the Cherokee were repulsed and led to counterattacks by American armed forces. As a result, “Cherokee power was broken, crops and villages destroyed, and warriors scattered.” The Cherokee no longer had military power after the war and so the option of armed resistance against the invading settlers was not viable. The new American government had to decide what to do with the Indian problem. There were really only three choices: annihilation, westernization or elimination. The first choice was rejected for various reasons. The Westernization of Indians became one of the first alternatives defended by George Washington who sought to integrate them into American society. William McLoughlin comments that "the Americans wantedtwo things of the Indians: peace and land.” He goes on to point out that President Washington's plan, as presented to Congress in 1789, was based on the idea "that Indians could and should be civilized to the point of becoming 'incorporated' or integrated as equal citizens." Thus began the Cherokee movement toward Westernization. Due to the continued loss of Indian land, the Cherokee found that hunting was becoming increasingly difficult and thus their need for meat became great. Following Washington's policy, the chief federal agent of Indian Affairs among the Cherokee, a man named Dinsmoor, began providing aid to the tribe. Mcloughlin notes that Dinsmoor helped "persuade the Creeks and Cherokees to abandon hunting for agriculture", which was not difficult due to the continued lack of hunting as a food source for the tribes. Dinsmoor then distributed "ploughs, spinning wheels, cotton cards, and looms at government expense and employed white women to teach spinning and weaving to Indian women." The end result of this federal aid was that of a bootstrap effect on the Cherokee. tribe putting them on the path to a society that would have many of the same attributes as its American neighbors. Eventually, the Cherokee overcame their traditional view of farming as women's work and adopted it on a large scale. The Cherokee also began to own light textile production assets. Some Cherokee even became wealthier than their American counterparts through their own business ventures. In 1821, a Cherokee leader named Sequoyah developed a written language for the Cherokee people based on their language. This made the Cherokee tribe the only North American Indian tribe in history to have a written language. The tribe quickly caught on, and within just a week of learning, individuals could use it to convey information perfectly. Mcloughlin notes that "Sequoyah's invention provided a new means of expression among the Cherokee." By 1825, most Cherokee could read and write in their native language. Sequoyah's advances also helped spark further advances in Western style. In 1828, the Cherokee of New Echota established the very first Native American newspaper called the Cherokee Phoenix. The newspaper was distributed in English and Cherokee. Another important step in the evolution of the Cherokee toward Western society was the translation of the Bible into the Cherokee language by the editor of the Cherokee Phoenix named Boudinot. Mcloughlin comments that these advances helped the Cherokee cross the "great dividing line between a primitive civilization (pre-literate) and a civilized society (literate). Mary Young comments that by 1830, thanks to Washington's Westernization plan, "the Cherokee had schools, churches, plantations, slaves, as well as a written language, a newspaper, and a constitution." Obviously, Washington's plan to westernize the Indians was at least proven possible by the example of the developing Cherokee tribe. Daniel Howe notes that in an official report on the nation's Indian tribes to the U.S. government, Jedidiah Morse reported that the five civilized tribes were "advancing economically and educationally and were advised to leave them alone." His report was published in 1822, but failed to thwart the hostile feelings directed by their white neighbors toward the various Indian tribes. “White settlers were deeply unhappy with the presence of the natives; in addition to occupying good cotton-growing land, theytraded with free blacks and sometimes provided refuge for escaped slaves. One of the aims of the report was to invalidate the main justification for suppression that prevailed at the time. “In the past, whites justified the taking of Native lands by arguing that the Indians were not fully utilizing them. » With this justification gone, proponents of Indian expulsion turned to legal Indian removal without regard for any sort of justification. Greed for land and resources and general racism governed most people's thoughts whenever the expulsion of the Indians was mentioned. There was much motivation to implement the expulsion of the Indians by the whites. One of the primary causes of this motivation was that of Manifest Destiny, the feeling that God had ordained that a new and expansive nation should stretch from coast to coast. This idea was shared by many Americans at this time and thus helped smooth out small pockets of poverty. Resistance to the idea of ​​Indian removal. Another big motivation for implementing elimination was the immense growth the cotton industry was experiencing at that time. Advances in the manufacturing of cotton such as Cotton Gin as well as the existence of a growing global demand for this product helped to explode the industry. Prucha notes the “seemingly endless demand for cotton to feed the new mills in England and the North East” as an indication of this growth. It became increasingly profitable to grow cotton using slave labor. Plantation owners, as well as others, eagerly eyed the land occupied by the Cherokee Indians, which was perfect for growing cotton. Perhaps the greatest motivation came with the discovery of gold in the Georgian mountains in 1828 and the subsequent "gold rush" of 1829. The problem was the fact that most of the gold had been discovered on Cherokee tribal lands. This obstacle has not stopped the flow of fortune seekers looking to win big. They ignored the fact that they were in violation and got to work. As Americans poured into Cherokee lands, the Georgian state government was under great pressure to remove the Indians completely. Howe comments that "at times during the Georgia Gold Rush, neither the Cherokee Nation nor state authorities nor the federal government could enforce law and order. » The situation was chaotic with tens of thousands of lawless miners in the region. The state of Georgia had long coveted the lands held by the various Indian tribes living within its borders. As early as 1802, the state of Georgia realized that it would be a legal nightmare to attempt to remove the Indian tribes themselves. The state government's solution was to strike a deal with the federal government. In fact, Georgia renounced its claims to the area that is now part of Alabama and Mississippi. In exchange for this, the federal government promised the eventual relinquishment of all Indian land titles in the state of Georgia. This became known as the Compact of 1802. By the late 1820s, Georgia was increasingly concerned that the federal government would not keep its promise. As pressure mounted and demand for Indian-owned land increased, the state of Georgia "accused the federal government of bad faith in failing to uphold its end of the bargain." Georgia threatened the federal government that if it did not comply with the compact, Georgia would extend state law to allIndians and that's exactly what she did. Prucha notes that “the state has taken the law into its own hands. His course of action was to extend state authority and laws over Cherokee lands, thereby removing Cherokee territory from Indian country status, thereby placing the lands under Georgia's control. This action triggered the start of a major legal battle over the issue of sovereignty of an Indian nation. In 1785, the U.S. government signed a treaty with the Cherokee Nation. This treaty, known as the Treaty of Hopewell, defined the boundary of the Indian nation and recognized the right of Indian law over everything that happened within the nation, so that if an American citizen committed a crime within the nation, “this person would lose the protection of the nation”. The United States and the Indians can punish him or not as they wish. " Ironically, the treaty goes on to state that "The hatchet shall be buried forever, and peace given by the United States and friendship restored between the said States on the one hand, and all the Cherokees on the other , will be universal. It is also interesting to note that this treaty confirmed the right of the United States government to regulate trade with the Indians and that the Indians existed "under the protection of the United States of America and of no other sovereign whatever." . Problems arose for the state of Georgia when the Cherokee Nation decided to take the case to the United States Supreme Court, after attempting to ask Congress for help, and the president remained unanswered to challenge the loss of rights to its own territory. They hired arguably two of the best constitutional lawyers in the country, John Sergeant and William Wirt. Wirt “had been attorney general under Monroe and Adams.” The attorneys “sought an injunction against Georgia’s encroachment into Indian Territory in violation of the tribe’s treaty rights.” They argued that the Georgia law was invalid because the Cherokee Nation was a sovereign nation under its own jurisdiction, with only the U.S. government having any power over it. It would also serve as the basis for bringing the case to the Supreme Court, which has jurisdiction over cases between states and other nations. Wirt also highlighted the various treaties between the federal government and the Cherokee and how they demonstrated the sovereignty of the Indian nation. The case now known as Cherokee v. Georgia was a dismal failure. “The justices voted 4-2 to sidestep the issue.” Their reasoning was summed up by Chief Justice John Marshal when he explained that the Cherokee were not in fact a sovereign nation but rather a "dependent interior nation." Thus, without sovereignty, the Cherokee could not bring cases to the Supreme Court, because the Supreme Court would have no jurisdiction in the matter. After Cherokee v. Georgia was dismissed, the state of Georgia was quick to test its new power. jurisdiction when they convicted a man named Corn Tassel of a murder committed within the Cherokee Nation. Before his sentence could be carried out, the Supreme Court “requested arguments on appeal.” The state of Georgia blatantly ignored the Supreme Court and handed down Tassel's death sentence. The Supreme Court did nothing to punish this disobedience. Howe speculates that this has been the case because of a recent movement to repeal the Supreme Court's ability to hear appeals from state courts. “Although rejected, the bill appears to have intimidated the Court, as it took no action in the face of the contumacious behavior of the Georgian authorities. » After the state of Georgia took control of the Cherokee Nation, the state decided to show off a littlemuscles. . Since the Revolutionary War, there has been an influx of religious missionaries into the Indian territories. These missionaries established schools and churches and ministered to the local Indian population. They taught children to read and taught them the ideals of the Christian faith. Missionaries were sometimes even sponsored by the U.S. government in an effort to contribute to the fight against the Westernization of the Indians, as previously noted. The State of Georgia did not like to see missionaries with the Indians because it knew that "Christian missionaries were among the most effective opponents of suppression." A westernized Indian tribe would be virtually impossible to eliminate. Thus, the State of Georgia “decided to interrupt this educational process and expel the missionaries.” This he did by an 1831 state law which stipulated that no white person could live in Indian Territory without a license. Another problem arose for the state of Georgia when two Christian missionaries, Samuel Worcester and Elizur Butler, refused to leave the Cherokee Nation and were arrested by Georgia state authorities because they had not no permit under new state law. This event ultimately brought the issue of Indian sovereignty before the United States Supreme Court in Worcester v. Georgia. The court ruled in favor of the Indian tribe. John Marshal delivered the court's opinion when he "declared the extension of state law onto Cherokee lands unconstitutional." Although a monumental decision, the State of Georgia refused to accept the ruling because the State had "systematically denied the Court's right to hear the case." With the Supreme Court's decision effectively ignored, the only federal authority that could have influenced the release of the two missionaries was President Jackson. Jackson, however, was completely against the idea of ​​Indian sovereignty and refused to act on the issue. He is believed to have said: "John Marshall has made his decision: now let him carry it out!" » So while the decision was a great victory for the Cherokee, it was effectively overturned by the state's refusal to implement the decision. The situation was finally defused when Georgia released the missionaries and repealed the part of the law that barred whites from Indian Territory. The state still asserted its right to Cherokee law. Eventually the way was opened for the complete elimination of the Cherokee Indians. The Jackson administration and the state of Georgia were big supporters of the idea of ​​total withdrawal. The unofficial justification for the total Indian withdrawal was that it was a humanitarian action by a benevolent nation. The idea here was that in the face of a hostile and ever-advancing Western population, the only way for Indians to maintain their culture and autonomy was to simply get out of the way. Jackson demonstrated this principle in a speech to Congress when he declared that to save the "red man" from this "total annihilation, perhaps, the general government kindly offers him a new home and offers to pay all expenses of its move and installation. » Even though a good majority of the American population supported the expulsion of the Indians based on the above argument, they nevertheless supported Indian rights. John Ehle notes that more than "six thousand people signed a petition to Congress, supporting the Cherokee cause." The majority of the population was against the involuntary removal of the Indians. To establish legal precedence for removal, President Jackson signed into law the Indian Removal Act of 1830. This law authorized removal..