When the Cherokees exercise the same common sense and claim the same rights of whites on their own territory, this is seen as radical and out of order. To further quote the Committee's work, they remark that "No respectable jurist has ever gravely contended, that the right of the Indians to hold their reserved lands, could be supported in the courts of the country, upon any other ground than the grant or permission of the sovereignty or State in which such lands lie (Erbach, "The Cherokee Removal Group C. Readings")." In other words, like slavery, oppression of the Native Americans is acceptable when done by the state governments and the U.S. government can do nothing to interfere. Such reasoning would haunt the country later as it went into the Civil War.
In the response of the Cherokees, they freely admit that they have fought against the American Republic before on behalf of Great Britain, but did that because they were the most powerful force on the continent. Had they opposed Britain, they would have been crushed earlier. Then they made peace with America and entered into honorable treaties. They perceive only ruin if they leave the land of their fathers. They ask as a small nation to large and strong nation to have mercy on the small and poor and weak in the form of the Cherokee nation. They observe and point to the fate of the Native American tribes that have already been wiped out and ask if they, a remnant will also...
They also note they are now being treated like tenants on land that belongs to
Federal government to be expelled at will, even thought the
Supreme Court has recognized their rights. The President will not
honor the treaty obligations that the United States took upon itself and has amended time and again in treaty after treaty. They appeal to the Christian good will of the United States not to stop the progress of
culture and Christianity within the Cherokee nation (Erbach, "The Cherokee Removal Group D. Readings)." Unfortunately, even
assimilation will not bring them respite from the Trail of Tears.
To recap, the Cherokees found themselves in the classic double bind. The schizophrenic policy of the Federal government symbolizes the problems that the young nation had with its guilty conscience and the call of empire.
Bibliography
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Andrew Jackson and Indian Removal." http://www.teachushistory.org/indian-removal/approaches/andrew-jackson-indian-removal (accessed 31 March 2011).
Erbach, Jennifer. "The Cherokee Removal Group a Readings."
2002. http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/teachers/lesson5-groupa.html (accessed 30 March 2011).
Erbach, Jennifer. "The Cherokee Removal Group B. Readings."
2002. http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/teachers/lesson5-groupa.html (accessed 30 March 2011).
Erbach, Jennifer. "The Cherokee Removal Group C. Readings."
2002. http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/teachers/lesson5-groupa.html (accessed 30 March 2011).
Erbach, Jennifer. "The Cherokee Removal Group D. Readings."
2002. http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/teachers/lesson5-groupa.html (accessed 30 March 2011).
"Historical Documents: The Trail of Tears."
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h1567.html (accessed 31
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