The Changing World of Native Americans

Since the early colonial era, white settlers had forced Native Americans off their land. The Native Americans believed that the Great Spirit had provided all the land anyone would ever need. By 1780 few of the Atlantic Seaboard tribes remained – killed by either disease, war and starvation.

Indian Resistance Indian Confederacy – a group made up of the Shawnee, Delaware, Miami and Potawotami tribes. Treaty of Greenville – the peace treaty that ended the Battle of Fallen Timbers in which the Native Americans had to give up the southeast quarter of the Northwest Territory (Ohio) Treaty of Fort Wayne - Opened all of the Northwest Territory to settlement.

Indian Resistance Red Sticks 2000 militant Creek warriors who would fight to get back what was theirs. In 1814 after a bloody struggle Gen. Andrew Jackson would defeat the Red Sticks in Tennessee. Now two-thirds of Creek land was ceded to the US as the price of defeat.

Indian Resistance Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa aka the Prophet joined forces with the British against the Americans during the War of 1812.

Indian Responses Cultural Revitalization – Led by the Prophet, it was a movement to bring back the old beliefs and traditional ways of the Native American Indian Cultural Accommodation – Led by the Cherokee, it was a realization that the white man was here to stay and that violence and opposition would be futile. It was a peaceful compromise between the best of both worlds.

Cultural Accommodation Many Cherokee gave up the “teepee” and became successful farmers. Some even became plantation owners. Some became successful businessmen running stores, mills and the like. Many even converted to Christianity.

Boarding schools taught children not just to read and write but geography, history etc.

Cultural Accommodation The Cherokee adopted English as a second language. They created written laws and had a democratic constitution. The Cherokee Phoenix Newspaper printed articles in both Cherokee and English.

Sequoyah The son of a Cherokee mom and a white trader. When a child, he vowed to never learn the white man’s tongue, but realized that to survive you needed to follow the white man ways. Inspired by three “white hunters” who read from “an odd collection of leaves”.

Sequoyah Spent 12 years creating a written Cherokee language. 20,000 words were represented by 86 symbols.

Defeat of the Native Americans In response to land-hungry white settlers, beginning in 1817 Presidents Monroe, Adams and Jackson had advocated the removal of Native Americans to public lands west of the Mississippi River on land perceived as “The Great American Desert”.

Defeat of the Native Americans In 1830 Congress passed the Indian Removal Act allowing the federal government to pressure the 125,000 Native Americans east of the Mississippi to cede their ancestral land to the US and move to Indian Territory. By 1833 only the Cherokee and the Seminoles remained in the Southeast.

The Defeat of the Cherokee Worcester v. Georgia – Chief John Ross argued the legality of the forceful removal of Cherokees from their lands. In 1832 Chief Justice John Marshall sided with the Cherokee and recognized the right of the Cherokee people as an independent nation to their own land and laws. President Jackson ignored the ruling.

“The Trail of Tears” In 1838 President Martin Van Buren ordered that the Cherokee were to be forced by the point of gun and bayonet from their home.

“The Trail of Tears” The US Army forced 18,000 Cherokee to walk up to 1000 miles from Georgia to Indian Territory (Oklahoma).

“The Trail of Tears” For several months the Cherokee trekked through unfamiliar lands with little food or shelter during inclement weather.

“The Trail of Tears” Over 4,000+ (one quarter) of the Cherokee died due to exposure, hunger and disease.

“The Trail of Tears” “The Cherokees are nearly all prisoners. They had been dragged from their homes and encamped at the forts and military places, all over the nation. In Georgia especially, multitudes were allowed no time to take anything with them except the clothes they had on.”

“The Trail of Tears” “The trail of the exiles was a trail of death. They had to sleep in the wagons and on the ground without fire. I have known as many as 22 of them to die in one night of pneumonia, die due to ill treatment, cold and exposure.”

The Aftermath The fate of the Cherokee suggested that there was little hope for the survival of Indian culture.

The Aftermath No matter how the Native Americans chose to approach the white man, eventually they would be overwhelmed by the white settlers flooding into the West.