1. Native Americans in Georgia
SS8H5 – The student will explain the significant factors that affected the development of Georgia as part of the growth of the United States between 1789 and 1840.
d. Analyze the events that led to the removal of the Creeks and Cherokees; including the roles of Alexander McGillivray, William McIntosh, Sequoyah, John Ross, Dahlonega Gold Rush, Worcester v. Georgia, Andrew Jackson, John Marshall, and the Trail of Tears.

2. Early History
As early as 1763, the Creek Indians made treaties to cede land.
In 1783, when the United States was formed, the U.S. government recognized the Oconee River as the unofficial boundary between the Creek Indians and the white Georgians.

3. The Oconee War (between Creeks and settlers)
Unfortunately, many white settlers were not content with staying on land east of the Oconee River, and many Creeks refused to leave the land in question.
Creek Chief Alexander McGillivray, met with then-president George Washington in New York, and signed the Treaty of New York in 1790.
Alexander McGillivray was the son of a Scottish trader and Creek mother. He studied Greek and Latin in Charleston, and he, like his father, was a loyalist during the American Revolution. After the war, he confiscated his father’s Creek land, and became a powerful leader.

4. The Treaty of New York firmly established the Oconee River as the official boundary between the Creeks and the whites.
The Creeks agreed not to move into white controlled territory, and the American government gave the Creeks permission to punish white settlers who moved west of the Oconee River.

5. The Red Sticks
The Red Stick Creeks were named after their red war clubs. Most Red Stick villages were in Northern Alabama, so they are also called the “Upper Creeks.”
The Red Sticks fought the Americans during the American Revolution (in other words, they sided with the British)
Later they became violently “anti-civilization.” They killed domesticated animals, destroyed farms, and attempted to get rid of anything that was a product of white civilization.

6. White Sticks
The White Stick Creeks lived mostly in more southern areas, so they were also called the “Lower Creeks.”
The White Sticks fought along-side the Americans during the American Revolution.
They accepted the Government’s “civilization plan” better than the Upper Creeks.

7. The Creek War
Red Stick Creeks chose to go to war to fight for their land claims; White Stick Creeks wanted peace
Red Sticks attacked Fort Mims, killing more than 400 people (including women and children)
The Battle of Horseshoe Bend, in Alabama, ended the Creek War in 1814; Andrew Jackson led the U.S. troops
The Creeks were forced to give up nearly all their land to the U.S. government

8. The Indian problem
Indians only became a problem after the Revolution when mass immigration started and the need for Indian land occurred.
At the constitutional convention the Indian problem was raised by Georgia in an attempt to get national support.
Thus, American pioneers did not need the indians. they needed the Indians’ land.

9. Jeffersonian Indian policy
The essence of Jeffersonian Indian policy was coexistence and gradualism, that is, the steady if slow accommodation of Indians to Angle-American lifestyle through the transforming process of civilization, culminating in their actually intermarrying into the dominant Anglo-American society.

10. Jefferson believed that "civilization would bring peace" between Indians and settlers. Thus under his leadership the national government placed its "greatest hope in its policy of bringing civilization to the Indians." Jefferson constantly urged tribal leaders to change their life-style in order to require less land for their people.

11. President Andrew Jackson
He fought with Congress over any legislation that appeared to favor the rich, a philosophy known as "Jacksonian Democracy."
He also continued to fight the war on the frontier by signing the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which allowed the American government to forcibly relocate Native Americans to territories west of the Mississippi River. His opponents dubbed him "King Andrew," suggesting abuses of power in the name of the people.
President Andrew Jackson

12. Chief William McIntosh
His father was a Tory captain during the war for independence, and his mother was a member of a powerful Creek family.
He was a cousin to the Governor of Georgia (George Troup – who wanted the Indians out of Georgia)
He led American, Lower Creek and Cherokee forces against the Red Sticks in the Creek War.
Was called “White Warrior” by the Creeks.
He signed the Treaty of Indian Springs (1825) which gave up Creek lands in Georgia to the U.S.; McIntosh was later murdered (shot, stabbed, and scalped) by rival Creeks for signing the treaty.

13. Government Actions toward Native Americans
Continental Congress: Reaffirms 1763 British policy (tribes accorded independent nation status; lands west of the Appalachian mountains are Native American; royal government must approve all land purchases).
Northwest Territory Ordinance: Opens the Midwest for settlement; declares U.S. government responsible for Native American property rights and liberty.
Bureau of Indian Affairs is created under the jurisdiction of the secretary of war.
Indian Removal Bill: Mandates all Indians must move west of the Mississippi.

14. Government Actions toward Native Americans
Indian Removal Act (1830)
This act called for the expulsion of all Native Americans from southeastern states and their relocation to the territory west of the Mississippi.
Combining two Supreme Court Cases (1832), the court ruled that the Cherokee were a “domestic dependent nation”.
1830– As forced segregation becomes the new Native American reality most reservations are established.
Appropriations bill rider: ended federal recognition of Native American tribes as independent or as “domestic dependent nations”

15. Cherokee culture…
Before contact, Cherokee culture had developed and thrived for almost 1,000 years in the southeastern United States--the lower Appalachian states of Georgia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, and parts of Kentucky and Alabama.

16. Background information
Since first contact with European explorers in the 1500s, the Cherokee Nation had been recognized as one of the most progressive among American Indian tribes.

17. Cherokee life until 1710…
Life of the traditional Cherokee remained unchanged as late as 1710, which is marked as the beginning of Cherokee trade with the whites.

18. Sequoyah
Cherokee culture continued to flourish with the invention of the Cherokee alphabet by Sequoyah in 1821.
Cherokee had newspaper called The Phoenix

19. Unlike the Creeks, the Cherokee made an active attempt to adopt white culture.
Syllabary – first written language by Native Americans
Created by Sequoyah (George Gist or Guess)
Also called “talking leaves”
Was used in the Cherokee newspaper “Cherokee Phoenix.”

20. Cherokee and Assimilation
USA constitution
Supreme court
Schools and education
Towns
western clothing
Cherokee Constitution
Supreme court modeled after USA
Could read and write
Same design as USA
Wore the same style of clothing and used Western Names

21. Cherokee interaction…
After contact, the Cherokees acquired many aspects of the white neighbors with whom many had intermarried. Soon they had shaped a government and a society that matched the most "civilized" of the time.

22. Elias Boudinott Publisher of the Cherokee Phoenix
Bilingual newspaper in Cherokee and English
The Cherokees published their constitution (based after the US Constitution) in the Phoenix
Published in New Echota, the Cherokee capital

23. Other adoptions of white society:
A Supreme Court – based on the U.S. Supreme Court

24. Homes, like settlers’ homes

25. And a capital of their nation, New Echota

26. Gold!
The discovery of gold in north Georgia (1829) increased demand for Cherokee land
Thousands of gold seekers rushed to North Georgia
Cherokees asked the U.S. government for help.
Soldiers were sent, but Georgia leaders were furious because they did not want the U.S. government interfering. (The State of Georgia even threatened to go to war against the U.S. Government if they didn’t back off!)

27. The Great Intrusion…
In 1829 Gold was discovered in North Georgia in Dahlonega. This was on Cherokee Land. Thousands of miners converge on to the land to get rich quick known as the Dahlonega Gold Rush. The US government built a mint in 1838 as an indication of Georgia’s successful growth. However non of this success was shared with the Cherokee.
Migration from the original Cherokee Nation began in the early 1800s as Cherokees wary of white encroachment moved west

28. A government decision…
The white communities turned on their Indian neighbors and the U.S. Government decided it was time for the Cherokees to leave behind their farms, their land and their homes

29. Indian Removal Act
In 1830 the Congress of the United States passed the "Indian Removal Act." Although many Americans were against the act, most notably Tennessee Congressman Davy Crockett, it passed anyway.

30. Removal
1830 – Indian Removal Act gave Pres. Jackson authority to make treaties with native Americans
Jackson called on the Cherokees to relocate or fall under Georgia's jurisdiction.
What are the Cherokees’ choices?

31. The bill became law
President Jackson quickly signed the bill into law. The Cherokees attempted to fight removal legally by challenging the removal laws in the Supreme Court and by establishing an independent Cherokee Nation.

32. Worcester V. Georgia (1832)
1828 – General Assembly decided to end the Cherokee nation and declared their laws null and void
Missionaries who lived among Cherokees building schools and churches were forced to leave the Cherokee nation or sign a Georgia oath of allegiance
They refused, were arrested, and put in state prison.
One missionary, the owner of this house, Samuel Worcester, was thrown in prison when he refused to leave the Cherokees. He took the State of Georgia to court.

33. Court ruling…
In 1832, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Cherokee on the issue in Worcester v. Georgia. In this case Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the Cherokee Nation was sovereign, making the removal laws invalid. President Jackson refused Federal protection for the Cherokee and is quoted as saying that if the Judge decides in favor of the Cherokee then he has to protect them.

34. A divided nation…
The Cherokee would have to agree to removal in a treaty. The treaty then would have to be ratified by the Senate. President Jackson kept pressuring them to leave.
By 1835 the Cherokee were divided and despondent. Most supported Principal Chief John Ross, who fought the encroachment of whites starting with the 1832 land lottery.

35. The Treaty of New Echota
Back in Georgia, a small group of Cherokees (Major Ridge, John Ridge, Elias Boudinott, and others) felt that they would rather be paid for their land than have it stolen from them.
They arranged & signed a treaty – The Treaty of New Echota -- in 1835 that paid the Cherokees $5 million in exchange for their land.
In the treaty, it was agreed that the Cherokees would move to Indian Territory.

36. Removing the Cherokees…
The Treaty of New Echota, signed by Ridge and members of the Treaty Party in 1835, gave Jackson the legal document he needed to remove the First Americans.

37. Ratification of the treaty…
Ratification of the treaty by the United States Senate sealed the fate of the Cherokee. Among the few who spoke out against the ratification were Daniel Webster and Henry Clay, but it passed by a single vote.

38. The removal of Indians began…
Despite John Ross protesting against the removal President Van Buren sent in the troops to round up the Cherokee and have them leave the state of Georgia.
In 1838 the United States began the removal to Oklahoma, fulfilling a promise the government made to Georgia in 1802.

39. Removal
Between 1832 and 1835, Cherokees were stripped of their land as Georgia gave it away in land lotteries.
Many Cherokee families voluntarily moved to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) to begin new lives.
In Washington D.C., Cherokee Chief John Ross, an attorney, was filing motions on behalf of the Cherokee Nation to the Supreme Court, in an attempt to stop Georgia from giving away Cherokee land.

40. General Wool protested the move….
Ordered to move on the Cherokee, General John Wool resigned his command in protest, delaying the action.

41. The invasion of the Cherokee nation….
His replacement, General Winfield Scott, arrived at New Echota on May 17, 1838 with 7000 men. Early that summer General Scott and the United States Army began the invasion of the Cherokee Nation.

42. Trail of Tears
After three years of waiting for the Cherokees to leave their land, U.S. General Winfield Scott and the U.S. army rounded up the Cherokees and placed them in stockades.
Approximately 15,000 Cherokees were forcibly removed to Indian territory by foot, and by boat almost 1,000 miles.
Around 4,000 died from disease, exposure, or hunger

44. Marching to Oklahoma….
In one of the saddest episodes of our brief history, men, women, and children were taken from their land, herded into makeshift forts with minimal facilities and food, then forced to march a thousand miles.

45. Loss of life
Under the generally indifferent army commanders, human losses for the first groups of Cherokee removed were extremely high.

46. Reorganization of Cherokees into smaller groups
John Ross made an urgent appeal to Scott, requesting that the general let his people lead the tribe west. General Scott agreed. Ross organized the Cherokee into smaller groups and let them move separately through the wilderness so they could forage for food.

47. Arriving in Oklahoma
Although the parties under Ross left in early fall and arrived in Oklahoma during the brutal winter of , he significantly reduced the loss of life among his people. About 4000 Cherokee died as a result of the removal.

48. The Trail Where They Cried
The route they traversed and the journey itself became known as "The Trail of Tears" or, as a direct translation from Cherokee, "The Trail Where They Cried" ("Nunna daul Tsuny").

49. Map of the Trail of Tears

50. Map of Indian Removal

51. Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
Those who were able to hide in the mountains of North Carolina or who had agreed to exchange Cherokee citizenship for U.S. citizenship later emerged as the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians of Cherokee, N.C. The descendants of the survivors of the Trail of Tears comprise today's Cherokee Nation with membership of more than 165,000.

52. Those that didn’t go
22 wealthy mixed families were given Georgia citizenship but were required to buy back their own land
700 to 800 escaped and hid in the North Carolina mountains – the site of the present-day Eastern Cherokee reservation.

54. Resources
The Trail of Tears
Cherokee Messenger