Mountain Windsong by Robery J. Colney reflects upon the Indian Removal Act in 1830 through a love story between Oconeechee and Whipperpool. The story unfolds as LeRoy asks his grandfather about the “windsong” on the Carolina reservation where Cherokees descendants once lived. However, these Cherokees were forced to move West because of the laws that were passed by President Andrew Jackson. The tragic narrative gives insight to the historical text and culture of the Cherokees. As we walk along the Trail of Tears through Whipperpool’s narrative, it was clear that despite the removal of the Indian Act, President Andrew Jackson completely abused his power forcing the Cherokees out west undermining them as citizens of the United States. Due to …show more content…
In order to understand this racial ideology against the Cherokee Freedmen, it traces back to the historical context of the struggle of what the Cherokee tribe experienced by the Whites. Many laws and various acts were passed between the Cherokee tribe and the United States government. Racial profiling was used against the Cherokees in order for the government to get their land and profit from it. In Mountain Windsong the opening passage revealed the trauma the Cherokee …show more content…
Interesting enough all parties unanimously concluded that the Freedman and their descendants were citizens in the Dawes Roll act in the Constitution of 1975 which included “Cherokee by Blood,” “Minor Cherokees by Blood,” “Cherokee Freedmen,” “Minor Cherokee Freedmen,” “Delaware Cherokee,” and “Intermarried Whites.” In the 1975 Constitution it affirmed that the Dawes Roll was the mainstream behind the Freedmen’s social and political rights. According to Chief Smith voted that the 195 Consitituion exclude the Freedmen descendants and maintain the Indian Nation strictly of Indians. Many political delegates agreed with this view and the result was a 13-2 vote on June 12, 2006, which approved the amendment stating “The Cherokee people exercised the most basic democratic right, the right to vote. . . . Their voice is clear as to who should be citizens of the Cherokee Nation. No one else has the right to make that determination. It was a right of self-government, affirmed in 23 treaties with Great Britain and the United States” and quoting back to Waguli in which 4,000 Cherokee lives were lost on the Trail of Tears. As time passed it was clear the Cherokee Nation intentionally altered these declarations as it was done to them by the Whites, as seen
Often history lessons debate the ruling between the United States Supreme Court and the Cherokee Nation. In 1831 Chief Justice John Marshall deemed the Cherokee Nation a “ward to its guardian”. Chief Justice Marshall pointed to Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution as evidence; separated "foreign nations" and "Indian tribes" because they did not consider the Indian nations as either foreign or independent. [1] Since the Cherokee were not a foreign state, he concluded, the Court had no original jurisdiction powers, and so it could not grant the injunction that the Cherokee desired.
The authors of each article tackle the daunting task of representing the Indian Removal Act, the Trail of Tears, and president Andrew Jacksons approach, appropriately while also including their own personal opinions. They also must back up their points with fact and reason. Each author has a unique opinion compared to the others, and when read all together, provide a better understanding from multiple sides and sources. The question the authors debate is whether Andrew Jackson was justified in his removal of Native Americans by use of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Was he protecting the safety of the Native Americans by moving them, or was he only progressing the agenda of the white man?
Unit 1 Essay How would you feel if someone wanted to remove you from your home? You wouldn’t let that happen right, but what if i said that it was a law that if i wanted to take you and remove you, you had to leave? Well that’s probably how the Indians felt when Andrew Jackson made a speech to congress on “ Indian Removal “. This has a very big impact on our history today, it kinda reminds me of when white people didn’t want any African Americans around, but I am not gonna get into that subject. Now Andrew Jackson went to congress and gave a speech telling the congress we need to remove the indians so we can have room for our own living.
All that the Cherokees wanted was the liberty to remain in the land that they had been inhabiting for generations. Instead, they were tossed around like dolls by the U.S. The Native Americans stood up for themselves and the rules that the U.S. was founded on, yet they got punished. This letter from the Cherokee nation shares the same
The Cherokee Nation wrote a petition in 1830 requesting to be exempt from the Indian Removal Act, according to The Trail of Tears: A Journey of Loss. It said the Cherokees disagreed this act would benefit them and they wanted to remain in the land of their ancestors. They pointed out their right to stay there with their laws and treaties with the U.S. and asked them to respect those laws. They explained how there was only failure ahead if they went out to the unknown, but none of this mattered. The U.S. government refused these petitions, even with 16,000 signatures, but Congress used the treaty to force all Cherokees off their land
The first section covers the period between 1870 and 1900 and details the creation of the myth of Appalachian whiteness. In this period regional reconciliation and nativist anxieties gave racial purity of the mountaineer new meaning. This section details how myths about Appalachia’s racial past, particular in regards to the absence of slavery, served to construct the region as racially pure and deserving of the uplift efforts of northern reformers. The second section examines the discourses that fashioned the mountaineer as possessing a tainted whiteness through an exploration of the popular discourses surrounding the “hillbilly” and the “tri-racial isolate.” These discussions were rooted in early twentieth century concerns over national health, race purity, and the nature of social change and isolation, By illustrating how the discourses on white and tri-racially mixed Appalachians aligned between 1900 and 1920, I hope to show how both helped to fashion the racial identity of the other.
Through his presidency, he made efforts to preserve the union of the nation through any means necessary, as explained himself in his Proclamation on Nullification. Such qualities may be revered as honorable ones—and yet, it is impossible to ignore the horrid acts that Jackson also enacted while serving. The written piece, for example, includes a description of Jackson’s persistent use of the ‘Spoils System,’ which is labeled as being filled with “inefficiency in competency, and outright corruption.” A more harrowing example, however, comes in a letter written by a soldier, John G. Burnett, who was involved in the expulsions of Native Americans onto the Trail of Tears following the Indian Removal Act of 1830, giving him credibility in his interpretation of the event. Burnett describes the act—an act heavily promoted and signed into law by Jackson—as the “most brutal order in the History of American Warfare.”
The Long, Bitter Trail: Andrew Jackson and the Indians written by Anthony F.C. Wallace is the story of the Native Americans being forced to move west in America in the 19th century. Wallace begins by introducing the desire for Native American land in the U.S. and ends with the aftermath of the Removal Policy and the legacy that still lives today. The book is organized into four chapters; The Changing Worlds of the Native Americans, The Conflict over Federal Indian Policy, The Removal Act, and The Trail of Tears.
A lot of preassure from congress saying the Cherokees would not be protected made part of
The Trail of Tears event of the removal of the Indians happened in 1838. “At the beginning of the 1830s, nearly 125,000 Native Americans lived on millions of acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida–land their ancestors had occupied and cultivated for generations. ”(History.com Staff). In this event, the Cherokee community of Native Americans was forced by the US government to move from their native home in the Southern part of the contemporary America to what is known as the Indian territories in Oklahoma. Arguments over land, restrictions, and laws were common amongst the Indians and settlers/whites.
In 1825, Georgia finalized a fraudulent treaty entitling themselves to most of the Creek Indians’ land, but the Cherokees refused to leave. Georgia then deprived the Cherokee Indians of all legal rights in 1828, which influenced Jackson’s Indian Removal Act in 1830. The Act allowed state officials to override federal protection of Native Americans so Georgia could force the Cherokees westward to Oklahoma, or Indian Territory. In 1838, the military lead thousands of Cherokees there on what was called the Trail of Tears. Along the way, about ¼ died of hunger, disease, and the mistreatments of white men they encountered.
Indians had lived in the same areas for many years and had become much more accustomed to being civilized and had even started schools, making laws and becoming farmers. But all of that didn’t matter, there was increasing pressure to open up the area the Indians inhabited so the white men could settle there. The Indian Removal Act stated that all Indians must move to lands west of the Mississippi River, Jackson said the Indians would receive money for the land they lost and that all expenses would be paid for. The act was supposed to be voluntary but they were pressured to go and the tribes that did not go peacefully were forced. While most tribes did go peacefully the Cherokee Indians wanted to fight the Removal Act and took it to the Supreme
The Genocide: Trail of Tears/ The Indian removal act During the 1830s the united states congress and president Andrew Jackson created and passed the “Indian removal act”. Which allowed Jackson to forcibly remove the Indians from their native lands in the southeastern states, such as Florida and Mississippi, and send them to specific “Indian reservations” across the Mississippi river, so the whites could take over their land. From 1830-1839 the five civilized tribes (The Cherokee, Choctaw, Seminole, and Chickasaw) were forced, sometimes by gun point, to march about 1,000 miles to what is present day Oklahoma.
This source has significant value to historians but, like any other source, has its limitations. Andrew Jackson’s motivation to remove the Cherokee from their homeland originated from an avid persona to benefit the Americans. The speech analyzes Jackson’s motivation, and specific plans to remove the Cherokee. In consideration of the speech being written in 1830, the audience can learn how Jackson was rather harsh towards the natives in order to benefit himself and others. This is evident with Andrew Jackson’s actions and his presumptions of the Natives.
Throughout the 19th century Native Americans were treated far less than respectful by the United States’ government. This was the time when the United States wanted to expand and grow rapidly as a land, and to achieve this goal, the Native Americans were “pushed” westward. It was a memorable and tricky time in the Natives’ history, and the US government made many treatments with the Native Americans, making big changes on the Indian nation. Native Americans wanted to live peacefully with the white men, but the result of treatments and agreements was not quite peaceful. This precedent of mistreatment of minorities began with Andrew Jackson’s indian removal policies to the tribes of Oklahoma (specifically the Cherokee indians) in 1829 because of the lack of respect given to the indians during the removal laws.