People\'s History of the US by Zinn

¶ … People's History of the U.S. By Zinn

The responses to the Indian removal campaign were as diverse as the tribes themselves. Some fought, some surrendered, and within some tribes, they did both. For one tribe, the Creek, there were those that chose to fight Andrew Jackson's troops and protect their land. In some cases, this involved aggressive attacks against U.S. encampments. Others within the Creek Nation chose to cooperate with U.S. troops, lured by the promise of friendly relations if they should comply. As such, they joined Jackson's forces in battle against their fellow tribe members. They were rewarded, after the U.S. massacre, with seizure of their land. Some Native American groups chose to sign treaties with the government and believed that they would be relocated to areas that were more secure. This was rarely true, and as a result indigenous people were shuttled from one place to another, often far from their home territory. Compromises made with the government rarely worked in the Natives' favor.

2. In general, the history of indigenous-white relations is a story of oppression and mistreatment. While a lot of violence occurred on both sides of the several Indian-U.S. government wars, there is little question that the government were the aggressors in their relentless removal campaign. Before this removal campaign, however, white settlers had to rely upon the Natives' knowledge of the land upon which they were now making a home. This reliance created peace. But once the itch of capitalism set in and the use of land for mass farming was necessary, relations changed. Speckled Snake felt, in short, that the white man was a father, who had been nourished by the Indians' kindness and now became large and powerful. He went on to say that the "father" only wanted his "sons" to stay away now, while he swallowed up the resources of the land. In a certain sense, he is correct. The white man did become great on the back of the Indian, but had grown more powerful and was using that power to move the Indian further and further afield.

3. The negotiations between the U.S. And the First Nations were more or less one-sided in favor of the government. Some of the treaties may have seemed kind, but on closer look changed the culture and fabric of the Indian lifestyle, eroding their power. One example is Jackson's 1814 treaty which created individual ownership of land, as the Indians had shared a more communal attitude toward the Earth and this created competition. Other treaties were simply ways to make Indian removal official and did not provide for any advantages to the Native people. They gave over land to the government upon threat of violence if the Natives resisted. Even more of an insult than the general unfairness of the treaties was the fact that the government did not always abide by them.