-designed so that readers can study the past
1 - first task of historians is finding the evidence
-facts and clues = documents, letters, memoirs, interviews, pictures, movies, novels, & poems
2 – Questions and compare the sources
Historians look for answers beyond act and motive
Historians collaborate w/ one another to seek help from specialist in other disciplines
Each document is a witness from the past and open to interpretation in different ways
Each book has a specific topic
Preface
December 1828, young Cherokee student polled the issue of Indian removal w/ her playmates
Andrew Jackson was an advocate of Indian removal
There was a possibility of moving west of the Mississippi dominated the children’s thoughts
All white Americans supported Cherokee removal
All Cherokee opposed
The drama itself took place against a complicated backdrop of ideology, self-interest, party politics, altruism, and ambition
Introduces the readers to the methodology of ethno history, which focuses on culture and the ways in which cultures change.
Focus of our ethno-historical research is on native people rather than on Indian - white relations.
Cherokees would not have migrated to the west if the U.S gov. had not forced them to do so.
As a declaration of Cherokee sovereignty, the constitution provoked GA to demand the destruction of this nation within its chartered borders & to pass legislation that made Cherokee survival in their homeland unlikely.
Chapter 2 - Georgia Policy
One of the most important keys to understanding the policy of Indian removal and its relation to the Cherokees lies in Georgia
Georgia: No state agitated more consistently or aggressively for expulsion of Native people from within its borders, no legislative sent more resolutions to Congress, no congressional delegation worked harder, and no press devoted more space to its support
The immediate history of GA campaign for Indian Removal begins in 1802 when the state and