Native American Rights In The 1800s

They did not really have any other options so they ended up giving up their land and signing the Treaty of New Echota in 1838. Cherokee Chief John Ross stated that it was not fair if only a few people were signing it. In 1836 the Senate approved a treaty by a single vote. In 1838 when the treaty arrived only 2,000 Cherokee people had moved. Martin Van Buren told the army to get the rest of them out and in 1838 General Winfield got to the Cherokee nation with a lot of troops and told them to get out and it would get bad if they didn’t

In the article by Anthony F. C. Wallace, “The Hunger for Indian Land in Andrew Jackson’s America,” the reasons for America's need for Indian land is discussed. The purpose of this article is to explain the Indian removal that occurred under Andrew Jackson’s presidency. The thesis of this essay states that Americans kicked the Natives off of their land to fulfill a selfish desire to expand the cotton industry.           The first point Wallace uses to support his thesis is how Jackson’s financial interest in the land affected the removal of Natives.

For example, why would a female Native want to own a hunting knife if her job was to harvest the corn fields? The Natives also worked as a community, willingly giving away objects and tools that no longer served a purpose to them to others that needed them. The lack of desire for ownership confused the English colonists greatly, but also allowed them to easily take advantage of the Native Americans since they were not aware of the land they were sitting on. The only way that an English colonist could own land was if it was given to him by the Crown or if it was purchased from the Natives, which led to colonists making ridiculously unfair deals with Native Americans for monumental amounts of land. For example, one

For instance, the aftermath of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, which unfairly seized millions of acres of Native American land, brought upon white expansion,“speculators, farmers, and planters proceeded to take Indian’s land ‘legally,’ while absolving themselves from responsibility for Indian removal”(Towards the Stony Mountain, 91). The use of the treaty enabled the US to extract Native land without feeling guilty because it was done legally. They insist they are not responsible for removal due to the Treaty being passed; nonetheless, this was just another form of Indian removal committed in a misleading approach. Moreover, President Thomas Jefferson’s letter to Andrew Jackson reveals his plan to assimilate the Cherokee into farmers, leading to an agricultural way of life, which would diminish their need for land(Assimilation Doc. 2). Considering the fact that this would have an outcome of boundless vacant land, it is apparent that the US was not disclosing the complete truth behind the proclamation.

This quote shows that the Indians were willing to stand up for themselves and not go down without a fight because they know they didn't do anything wrong and that they didn't deserve that type of treatment. Many Native Americans suffered from exposure, disease, and starvation while in route to their destinations, and many people died, including 2,000-6,000 of the 16,542 relocated Cherokees. European Americans and African American freedmen and slaves also participated in the five civilized tribe relocations. This shows how President Andrew Jackson didn't care what happened to the Native Americans even if they died. The items listed above are examples of how poorly the Indians were treated and not respected as

Native Americans, the original group of people who lived in America, had bullied by white people in many ways. White people took their land and treat the native Americans unfairly. Native American suffered from this kind of situation. In 1800s, the U.S. government sent word that they had interest of buying Native Americans ' land. As a great leader and speaker of native Americans, Chief Seattle spoke out to replied U.S. government and stated that White people can do nothing more to harm them.

Manifest destiny was the belief that colonist were destined to expand across North America and that it was their god given right. Although Native Americans were indigenous the the land, colonist felt that it was their destiny to redeem and colonize the rest of the land. They felt that Native Americans were not making right use of the land and letting it go to waste. In result, Native Americans were not seen as anything more as an obstacle in the pursuit of Manifest Destiny. During the Indian Removal Act of 1830, Indian groups who were still inhabiting the south east would be moved across the Mississippi to designated Indian territory, which is now known as Oklahoma.

Imagine being forced to leave your home, just for the reason of white settlers needing land to plant cotton. In 1814, Andrew Jackson from Tennessee commanded, the U.S. military forces that defeated a faction of the Cherokee nation. In their defeat, they lost 22 million acres of land. The Cherokees were given two years to migrate voluntarily, at the end of the two years the Cherokees would be removed by force. In 1838 only 2,000 had migrated and 16,000 remained on the land.

When the Europeans began colonizing the New World, they had a problematic relationship with the Native Americans. The Europeans sought to control a land that the Natives inhabited all their lives. They came and decided to take whatever they wanted regardless of how it affected the Native Americans. They legislated several laws, such as the Indian Removal Act, to establish their authority. The Indian Removal Act had a negative impact on the Native Americans because they were driven away from their ancestral homes, forced to adopt a different lifestyle, and their journey westwards caused the deaths of many Native Americans.

The Plight of Native Americans in the Age of White Oppression Through the years that White Americans expanded to the west, Native Americans faced much discrimination and oppression on their culture and way of life. Native Americans were pushed further west from their homelands as Whites continued to expand and take over the North American continent. In this time, many Whites came to the realization that they were mistreating Native Americans. As a result, they established reserved lands for Native Americans called reservations.

Another example of the Native Americans not having equal political rights was in the letter sent by the Cherokee Nation of Indians, who stated “The letter says we will be punished if we refuse to go along with the treaty.” “Have we violated any of our many treaties? Have we acted in bad faith? We have done no such thing....” This quote portrays that even though the Native Americans have done nothing, Whites keep accusing them of violating their treaties.

First of all, Native Americans were settled on a hotbed of natural resources which included oil and precious metals such as silver and gold. There was also much fertile land that would entice farmers and frontiersmen to move out west. On this land there was so much potential economic opportunity for farmers, cattle drivers, miners and many other occupations. The government developed the popular public misconception that the indians were misusing the land and that Americans had the right to take advantage of the opportunities that lie in the west. These ideas led to the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 which authorized encroachment of Indian lands by the US government in order to divide up reservations and control Indian activity.

“The amount of deaths along the Oregon Trail was drastic, and it is estimated that five percent of migrants died on the journey, about 15,000 deaths in total” (Alchin). Pioneers suffered from many issues while on their journey. Due to the many obstacles they would have to overcome. The pioneers traveling on the trails faced the most difficulty trying to survive and thrive in the West due to resources, weather, and disease.

There have been plenty of encounters with Native Americans being forced from their land but this is one of the most significant. Native Americans had three options when settlers first came: they could assimilate with the encroaching European population, they could be relocated, or they could genocide. While being relocated there was major death count. To stop the death count from theses relocations Congress attempted to create a separate Homestead Act for the Natives called the Dawes Act but it failed. So instead of helping the Native Americans they decided to turn them into European Natives and change their ways.

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.