Removal of the Native Americans

¶ … removal of the Native Americans from the United States of America. In the year 1830, Five Civilized Tribes which included the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Seminole, Choctaw and Creek were still residing in the eastern side of Mississippi. At that time, the other tribes had been forcefully moved to the western side. There were indeed several reasons that made the Indians to be removed. The various reasons are provided in this paper. Again, the effects of their removal are also looked at in a detailed way. This paper further provides the reasons why their removal was not justified.

In the year 1830, Five Civilized Tribes which included the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Seminole, Choctaw and Creek were still residing in the eastern side of Mississippi. At that time, the other tribes had been forcefully moved to the Western side. These tribes were expressed as "civilized" since a number of the tribesmen had taken up several European-American characteristics and cultures. The Cherokees wrote a language of their own. The language was developed by a person whose name was Sequoyah. It was thereafter published in a newspaper, both in English and Cherokee (Foreman 1932)

The 1830 Indian removal act that was passed and commissioned by the Twenty-First Congress of the U.S. was not justified. This is because the main motivation behind it was their greed for land. Their desire for the land that was belonging to the Five Civilized Tribes was fueled by their hatred for the Indians. The removal of the great Five Civilized Tribes was not justified. This was evident several years after the Indian Removal Act of 1830 was passed and implemented. There were cases of forcible removals that began with the Cherokee Indians from Georgia. They were the first lot to suffer the injustices of the highly flawed Indian Removal Act. The year1802 saw the signing of a compact by the Georgia legislature that awarded the federal government all of the Georgian claims to lands in return for the federal government to get rid of all the title deeds belonging to Indians in Georgia. However in the middle of 1820s the people of Georgia became skeptic of the government promised commitment to its fair bargain of the pact. A substantial amount of land in Georgian belonged to Cherokee Indians. (Foreman 1932). They had a great fear of losing their dear land so they ensured that there was a written constitution in order to guide the process. The constitution had a proclamation that the Cherokee Indians and their nations had the total jurisdiction over their own land and territories. At this point in time, the process of removing the Indians had become complicated with issues of human rights with the Cherokee Indians making their own claims in the courts of law. The Cherokee Indians made efforts to be understood by the U.S. administration by presenting their case to the then newly elected U.S. president Andrew Jackson who unfortunately told them off by claiming that he had no powers to interfere with the legal conditions that were well stated in the Georgian legal system. President Jackson came up with solution to the Cherokee Indian problem by promptly coming up with a mechanism of removing the Cherokee Indian tribes to western lands. This move according to him would minimize the contacts between the Cherokee Indians and the white colonialists. The same trend was noted to have occurred between the civilized mean and the colonialist. In the state of Florida, the Seminoles experienced similar land disputes. Another Indian tribe called the Creek was also embroiled in protracted battles with the federal army in order to preserve their lands located in Georgia and Alabama. Similarly, the Choctaw and the Chickisaw were also engaged in disputes in Mississippi. In order to have peace the government came up with a move that was aimed at removing the Five Civilized Tribes away from their native lands to a new land in Oklahoma. President Jackson claimed that this was aimed at protecting the Five Civilized Tribes and giving them tome to fully adjust to the white man's culture. What makes the removal of the Five Civilized Tribes unjustifiable is the fact that they were removed from their vast and relatively rich land to be resettled in the a smaller and less valued land located in Oklahoma. The process of moving them also resulted in several deaths (Foreman 1932).

The Trails of Tears

The Trails of tears is probably one of the biggest injustices that were done to the Five Civilized Tribes. This is because the ten years of relocating the over 70,000 Indians were forced to leave their homes and then be relocated to the less comfortable lands in Oklahoma. They were given a large part of Oklahoma other than the Panhandle. The government made a commitment to let them stay in the "Promised Land" indefinitely. This was however not the case since the land they were given was later rescinded by the government and the Five Civilized Tribe and pushed to other reservations. Several members of the Five Civilized Tribes died as a result of disease and famine. The Five Civilized Tribes were exposed to inhuman conditions which denied them their basis human rights. The members of the Five Civilized Tribes had to walk for long distances with very little rest. The aim of the removal was to provide the settlers more productive land (Foreman 1932).

The Five Civilized Tribes' land in Cherokee, Georgia was very resourceful due to the discovery of Gold in the area. The fact that the Indians were denied the chance of having a formal administrative office was also a breach of their rights to association and forming their cultural meetings. The holding of any form of tribal legislature were also banned in Georgia for the Cherokee. The fact that the legal rights of the Five Civilized Tribes were trampled upon is evident when they were denied the right of making lawsuits against any white individual and families. President Jackson also guaranteed the Indians of an autonomous control of the west in order to act as a very strong incentive to the process of emigration. The fact that the Federal agents employed unethical techniques of negotiation in order to convince the Five Civilized Tribes to relocate beyond Mississippi is also unacceptable. They employed intimidation, bribery and trickery in order to realize their goals of expelling the Indians out of their native land (Dunning 1898).

Despite this acculturation, numerous white settlers loved the piece of land. A number of them were claiming that their residence in the place jeopardize both security and peace. A number of the states in the U.S. such as Georgia in the year 1830 passed a ruling which outlawed the residence of whites on any territory of the Native American. The effective date was March 31, 1831. The whites wiling to live in the place had to possess a valid permit from the authorities.

As they were residing in the homelands which were inside the southeastern side of American, a number of the members who were coming from these tribes started to practice commercial agriculture. Besides, they decided to live as the Americans were living. A number of them started plantations while others owned slaves (Lindberg and Matthews 2002)

Reasons for their removal

The Native Americans were standing in the white settlers' way.

During the 19th century, United States was speedily growing. As a result, it stretched into the south. The white settlers as a result were facing what they were considering as an obstacle. This is the region where the Seminole, Creek, Cherokee, Chickasaw and Choctaw nations were living. To the white settlers and also numerous other white Americans, the Indian residents, stood in the white settlers' way of growth. The settlers were in a dire need for pieces of land to enable them to plant cotton. As a result, the white settlers made much pressure on the state to take the Indian Territory. Indeed the American settlers greatly hungered for the land that was owned by the Indians. They as a result started violent conflict to enable them to acquire the pieces of land that belonged to the Indians. The treaties that followed compelled the tribes to give up huge pieces of land to the government of the United States (Foreman 1932).

The Seminoles were harboring fugitive slaves

A great advocate for the removal of the Indians was Andrew Jackson. He was ailing from Tennessee. In the year 1814 he made a command to the military forces of the United States. The forces defeated a group of the Creek population. The white settlers acquired about 22 million acres piece of land when they defeated the Creeks. The pieces of land were in the central Alabama and southern Georgia. The United States got more land in the year 1818 when, they punished the Seminoles because they were harboring the slaves who escaped. The troops of Jackson therefore attacked Spanish Florida, acquiring the land (Foreman 1932).

The removal saved the Indian nationals from the white's depredations

The attitude of Jackson toward the Native Americans was demeaning and also paternalistic. He was viewing them as little children who required guidance. He tended to believe that the policy of removal had great benefits to the Indians. Majority of the white Americans were thinking that United States was not capable of extending past Mississippi. The removal was capable of saving the Indian nationals from the white's depredations (Foreman 1932).

The removal could make them to govern themselves peacefully

It was assumed that the removal was to resettle the Indians in a region where they were capable of governing themselves peacefully. However, a number of Americans viewed this as being a mere excuse for a cruel and appalling course of action, and complained against the removal of the Indian nationals. Their complaints however could not prevent the southeastern populations from being removal. The first lot of people to sign the removal treaty was the Choctaws. They did this in September 1830. A number of them decided to reside in Mississippi (Foreman 1932).

The growing population of the residents of America made the Indians to be removed

The United States' population which expanded swiftly during the 19th century created a lot of tensions with the Indians who were situated within the boundaries of the different states. Although the government did not require sovereign Indian enclaves in the boundaries of the states, there was no need by the Indians to move or to sacrifice their distinctive identities. The land of Cherokee that they lost was tremendously valuable. Due to the growing population, they were in need of land. That forced them also to pay for some pieces of land. The Chickasaw were different from other tribes because they got compensation in the form of cash from the United States for their pieces of land which were lying in the eastward side of Mississippi, the other tribes however exchanged land grants (Foreman 1932).

Discussions

It is evident that Jackson's justification for the removal of the Indians was in actual sense not justified. This is because the Indians were forcefully removed from their native land with which they had strong cultural attachments. The removal of the Five Civilized Tribes from their native land via the biased and prejudiced Indian Removal Act of 1830 was a serious violation of their legal, human and political rights (Crute 1987)

Violation of political right

The fact that the land and freedom of the Five Civilized Tribes were taken away was a grave violation of their consent. They were made captives when the Indian Removal Act of 1830 gave soldiers the authority to imprison the Five Civilized Tribes in horrible stockades. Their protests through the existing legal systems (courts) were not honored and the court always never favored them. Their voices and desires which they tried to advocate for were blatantly ignored (Corbett 1978)

Violation of legal rights

The fact that the Five Civilized Tribes had their lands grabbed (stolen) through the use of dishonest treaties was a serious violation of their legal rights. They even established treaties with the colonialists that had special guarantees for their residence, peace and privileges. These were however breached as was evident in the letter from Cherokee Chief John Ross who protested to the U.S. Senate as well as House of Representatives of how the various trespassers looted, injured and even murdered members of the Five Civilized Tribes (Gibson 1981)

Violation of human rights

The human rights of the Five Civilized Tribes were seriously violated when they were subjected to inhuman conditions and were deemed subordinate to the rest of the U.S. population. Jackson called them 'savages' and were compared to livestock. They were herded like farm animals and subjected to extremely horrible conditions. Their health deteriorated as a result of the mistreatment and lack of shelter and clothing. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 also denied the Five Civilized Tribes their democratic rights and was a direct violation of their political rights (Gibson 1981)

Annotated bibliography

Crute, Joseph H. Units of the confederate states army. Midlothian, Virginia. Derwent Books .1987

The book is stating that as December 1861 was coming to an end, the Department of Association of Trans-Mississippi had employed and prepared about 41 people with cavalry regiments that totaled to about 28,693 men. Incorporated in this figure were regiments and battalions both totaling to five (5,145) men who were brought up from the nations of Chickasaw, Cherokee, Seminole, Choctaw, and Creek Nations.

Dunning, William a. Essays on the Civil War and Reconstruction. New York, NY Macmilliam Company, 1898

This article is stating that the consequences of restoration were particularly difficult on the individuals of the Indian Territory, when the territory was becoming a discarding ground by the central government for Indians who came from the entire United States. The Indians were colonized on pieces of land that were forcefully taken from Five Tribes which were colonized through the reconstruction policies. Those who joined the Chickasaw, Cherokees, Creeks, Seminole, and Choctaw tribes were the Wichitas, Delawares, Kickapoos, Poncas, Pawnees, Caddos, Shawnees, Osages among other tribes.

Lindberg, Kip and Matthews, Matt. "To Play a Bold Game: The Battle of Honey Springs" North and South Magazine December 2002: pgs. 56- 61.

The article is stating that in the month of July, the Confederate origin in the Indian Territory met another disaster when their effort to get the Union forces back into Kansas was crushed. Confederate General Douglas Cooper had driven north towards the Texas road to a region that was called Honey Springs. It was situated approximately twenty-six kilometers to the southwestern part of Fort Gibson. The battle that resulted, and the following decrease of Fort Smith, together with the discontinuation of the logistical help of the territory that was on the western side of the Mississippi by the confederation, was an indication of the last momentous Civil War that took place in the Indian Territory.