Preview

White Americans Vs Cherokee Indians

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1224 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
White Americans Vs Cherokee Indians
It is speculated that the Cherokee tribe migrated to the Southeast between the years 600 and 1000; centuries before the first regular contact with Europeans. In the years before the 1500’s, when the Europeans started settling in America, the Cherokee lived an exceptionally sedentary lifestyle with the women doing mostly farm work while the men hunted. However, as contact with the white Europeans grew more common, the Cherokee developed a sense of dependence on them for goods and a more “civilized” personality. By the 1800’s, as the Southeast states, such as Georgia, started to expand a particularly important debate came into play. This controversial dispute was over the removal of the Cherokee Indians out of the limits of the states and moved …show more content…
America had many treaties with the Cherokee and other Native Americans, and many people, Americans and Cherokee, believed that by ignoring those treaties would be immoral and unconstitutional. Jeremiah Evarts who was a strongly opposed to removal states how all attempts to force the Cherokee out of their land, “are acts of oppression” and “the United States are firmly bound by treaty to protect the Indians from force and encroachments on the part of a State”. Americans were deeply concerned about the stain it would put on America and by forcing the Cherokee out of their land, America is ignoring Indian rights. Similarly, a majority of the Cherokee were gravely opposed to removal and firmly stood their ground and stayed where they were until they were dragged out. Their reasons for this are very simple; their ancestors had been living on the land long before any white settlers and they believed that God had given them that land, and along with the treaties between them and America, clearly give them the rights to the land. In an address to the Cherokee Council in 1830, it is expressed to, “remain on the land of our fathers. We have a perfect and original right to claim this,...The treaties with us, and the laws of the United States,...guaranty our residence, and our privileges, and secure us against intruders”. To the Cherokee people and many Americans, it seemed unfathomable that America created a constitution based on freedom and rights, but now they are taking the rights away from the people who occupied the lands before them. To these people it was immoral and unconstitutional to ignore the treaties that had been made and force the Cherokee out of their

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Indian Removal Act went against the indian’s rights, and the indians did not want to move off their land. The Indians were forced off their land because of the Indian Removal Act. The Cherokee tried to go to court to fight the Indian Removal Act, explaining that the act was against their rights. The Cherokee did lose, and eventually were forced to follow the Indian Removal Act. The Native Americans that were moved also had rights to original land they lived on. For example, the Cherokee had a written constitution that explained that the Cherokee had full control of the land. That did…

    • 377 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When the government told the Indians to move, they said they would give them bigger land, money and support to move. “The Cherokee Nations cedes to the United States all the land claimed by said Nation east of the Mississippi River… 7,000,000 acres of land is guaranteed to the Cherokees west of the Mississippi” (source 5). The United States as well, “agreed that the land herein guaranteed to the Cherokees shall never, without their consent, be included within…any State or Territory” (source 5). As the Indians were getting ready to leave, the Americans took…

    • 604 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cherokee Nation is a book written in 1830 by what appears to be someone who sympathized with the tribes in the south east. It is evident that the author of Cherokee Nation is an Indian telling the Native Americans’ story with everything that happened during the westward expansion of the White Americans in the 19TH century. Former president of the United States Thomas Jefferson thought the nation’s future depended on its westward expansion and with the Louisiana Purchase that took place in 1803, it successfully doubled the size of the country. By 1840, almost 7 million Americans had migrated westward in hopes of locking land and being well-off.…

    • 327 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the late 1780’s the US began urging the Cherokees to stop hunting and their traditional ways of life and to instead learn about how to live, farm, and worship like Christian Americans. Despite everything the white people in Georgia and other southern states that abutted the Cherokee Nation refused to accept the Cherokee people as social equals and urged their political representatives to take the Cherokees land. The purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803 gave Thomas Jefferson the chance to relocate the eastern tribes beyond the Mississippi River.…

    • 726 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When the settlers arrived they were shocked to see natives on a land they planned to call their own. The explorers refused to adapt to the natives way of living it almost seemed as they wanted to be in control of everything around them including the way children were taught what languages would be spoken and in what god they grew up believing in. the settlers were more about business and the native was all about being one with the land and living off the earth beautiful creation. The Natives adapted to the settlers beliefs and way of living but they would use their own symbols.…

    • 191 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dbq Indian Removal

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages

    There were some reasons why the Cherokees moved in the first place. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 justified because the Indians did things that are very uncalled for. They did things like, scalping men, women, and children alive. and They also burned them on stakes. Also the Cherokees agree to move because they signed a treaty that if they sign it they agreed to move. Plus when they move they get to receive five million dollars and they also get a lot of land. So the Cherokees agree to move and get land and five million dollars and the Americans don’t want to die.…

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There were many events that led up to the removal of the Eastern Cherokee in the early-to-mid 19th century. However, it all really begins in 1830. Major Ridge was discussing treaties regarding selling land to the U.S. Government. The Cherokee believed that lived in their own sanctuary, their paradise, and that their ancestors had always lived here. Major Ridge felt if he could die to preserve his people land’s he would gladly do so. The Cherokee picked the wrong side during the American Revolution which caused American soldiers to desecrate Cherokee lands. He did not wish that same tragedy amongst his people. President Jefferson believed that eventually through cultural assimilation the Indian people and Americans would become one and we would…

    • 764 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the early 1800s, White settlements were expanding westward. This threatened the Cherokee land which was located in the Southeastern part of the United States. This left the Cherokee with a big decision to make for their entire tribe. Would they relocate West ,or stay for the White settlements to invade where they call home. After all, the Cherokee had owned the land for over 10,000 years. It was not the United States’ land to take. This is why many of the Cherokee Nation felt the need to stay. Others wanted to move because they felt that if they did not, then the United States territory would override the Cherokee customs and they would have to follow United States laws. Clearly the best chance of survival for the Cherokee was to stay in…

    • 401 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Cherokees understood their “national and individual rights” as not having the rights, which the fathers planned, in their favor. The U.S. see them as an evil eye unlike many other Indian tribes. Many of the members of the tribes are changing the culture and they agree that the American soil is not the land of their birth and affections.…

    • 470 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    This can be seen in “President Jackson’s Message to Congress ‘On Indian Removal’ ” in the lines “It puts an end to all possible danger of collision between the authorities of the General and State Governments”. The quote is about removing the natives from their homes to keep the state and federal governments from fighting, as well as giving the states more land, shown in the quote “It will relieve the whole State of Mississippi and the western part of Alabama…enable those states to advance rapidly in population, wealth, and power”. Once the states gained the land, they would also gain more power and be able to defend themselves from an invasion without assistance. This shows that American settlers used the land to gain power and didn’t care for it as much as the natives did since they didn’t see it as sacred or have a physical bond to…

    • 677 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    American Indians have been around for more than 15,000 years. Although Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492, there were already people living in what is now called the United States. During the 1800s, American Indians had to deal with all the immigrants from Europe “invading their land”. The Native Americans tried to resist relocation due to the Westward Expansion, but because of reduced population through disease and warfare and assimilation with the immigrants, they didn’t have much of a choice.…

    • 686 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    21. Both Native Americans and White Colonists thought that each group was “wasting” their own land. Colonists believed that the Natives weren’t using and spreading their land to its fullest potential while the Natives had never fathomed the fact that you could have individual ownership over an acre of space.…

    • 777 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the document it writes, “When the white man came to the shores of America, they found our ancestors in peaceful possession of this land.” and “You will slow down or even stop our progress in becoming civilized and in learning the christian religion.” The Cherokee owned thisland long before the white men had and felt as if they should not have to give it up. If the Cherokee were removed they would lose most of their progress. The Cherokee deserve to keep the land because they have lived there for their entire lives, and were trying to fit in with white…

    • 492 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cherokee Family Structure

    • 1693 Words
    • 7 Pages

    t is believed the Cherokee tribe originated in the Great Lakes area and are of Iroquoian descent. Due to unknown circumstances, the tribe eventually migrated to the Southeast portion of the the United States. The first record of interactions with the Cherokee people was in the sixteenth century with Spanish explorers. The Cherokee people have been considered highly innovative and adaptive. For example, instead of the traditional teepee, they built log cabins. As one of the largest Indian tribes, they branched off into smaller tribes yet remained connected by strong spiritual beliefs. After the European colonists came in the 1800s, the Cherokees did their best to adapt to new ways of life more in sync with the European settlers (indians.org).…

    • 1693 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This law required it to be negotiated peacefully and voluntarily, but President Jackson and the government ignored this and forced Native Americans to move off the lands they’ve inhabited for generations. One winter in 1831, the Choctaw were expelled from their lands and made their way to the new territory on foot without any food, supplies or assistance from the government whom have placed the predicament on them. It was, one Choctaw leader told an Alabama newspaper, a “trail of tears and…

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays