Indian removal was the
United States government policy of
forced displacement of self-governing tribes of
Native Americans from their ancestral homelands in the
eastern United States to lands west of the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...
specifically, to a designated
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...
(roughly, present-day
Oklahoma).
The
Indian Removal Act, the key law which authorized the removal of Native tribes, was signed by
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...
in 1830. Although Jackson took a hard line on Indian removal, the law was enforced primarily during the
Martin Van Buren administration. After the passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830, approximately 60,000 members of the
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, th ...
,
Muscogee (Creek),
Seminole,
Chickasaw, and
Choctaw nations (including thousands of their
black slaves) were forcibly removed from their ancestral homelands, with thousands dying during the
Trail of Tears.
Indian removal, a popular policy among incoming settlers, was a consequence of actions by
European settlers in North America during the colonial period and then by the United States government (and its citizens) until the mid-20th century.
The policy traced its origins to the administration of
James Monroe, although it addressed conflicts between European and Native Americans which had occurred since the 17th century and were escalating into the early 19th century (as European settlers pushed westward in the cultural belief of
manifest destiny). Historical views of Indian removal have been reevaluated since that time. Widespread contemporary acceptance of the policy, due in part to the popular embrace of the concept of manifest destiny, has given way to a more somber perspective. Historians have often described the removal of Native Americans as
paternalism,
ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, and religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making a region ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal, extermination, deportation or population transfer ...
,
or
genocide
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the ...
.
Revolutionary background
American leaders in the Revolutionary and early US eras debated about whether Native Americans should be treated as individuals or as nations.
Declaration of Independence
In the indictment section of the
Declaration of Independence, the Indigenous inhabitants of the United States are referred to as "merciless Indian Savages", reflecting a commonly held view at the time by the colonists in the United States.
Benjamin Franklin
In a draft "Proposed Articles of Confederation" presented to the
Continental Congress on May 10, 1775,
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading int ...
called for a "perpetual Alliance" with the Indians in the nation about to be born, particularly with the six nations of the
Iroquois
The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian Peoples, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Indigenous confederations in North America, confederacy of First Nations in Canada, First Natio ...
Confederacy:
Early congressional acts
The
Confederation Congress passed the
Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (a precedent for U.S. territorial expansion would occur for years to come), calling for the protection of Native American "property, rights, and liberty";
the U.S. Constitution of 1787 (Article I, Section 8) made Congress responsible for regulating commerce with the Indian tribes. In 1790, the new U.S. Congress passed the Indian
Nonintercourse Act (renewed and amended in 1793, 1796, 1799, 1802, and 1834) to protect and codify the land rights of recognized tribes.
George Washington
President
George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...
, in his 1790 address to the
Seneca Nation which called the pre-Constitutional Indian land-sale difficulties "evils", said that the case was now altered and pledged to uphold Native American "just rights".
In March and April 1792, Washington met with 50 tribal chiefs in Philadelphia—including the Iroquois—to discuss strengthening the friendship between them and the United States.
Later that year, in his fourth annual message to Congress, Washington stressed the need to build peace, trust, and commerce with Native Americans:
In his seventh annual message to Congress in 1795, Washington intimated that if the U.S. government wanted peace with the Indians it must behave peacefully; if the U.S. wanted raids by Indians to stop, raids by American "frontier inhabitants" must also stop.
Thomas Jefferson
In his ''
Notes on the State of Virginia'' (1785),
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
defended Native American culture and marvelled at how the tribes of Virginia "never submitted themselves to any laws, any coercive power, any shadow of government" due to their "moral sense of right and wrong".
He wrote to the Marquis de Chastellux later that year, "I believe the Indian then to be in body and mind equal to the whiteman".
Jefferson's desire, as interpreted by
Francis Paul Prucha
Francis Paul Prucha (January 4, 1921 – July 30, 2015) was an American historian, professor ''emeritus'' of history at Marquette University, and specialist in the relationship between the United States and Native Americans. His work, ''The Great ...
, was for Native Americans to intermix with European Americans and become one people.
To achieve that end as president, Jefferson offered U.S. citizenship to some Indian nations and proposed offering them credit to facilitate trade.
On 27 February 1803, Jefferson wrote in a letter to
William Henry Harrison
William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773April 4, 1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States. Harrison died just 31 days after his inauguration in 1841, and had the shortest pres ...
:
In this way our settlements will gradually circumbscribe & approach the Indians, & they will in time either incorporate with us as citizens of the US. or remove beyond the Missisipi. The former is certainly the termination of their history most happy for themselves. But in the whole course of this, it is essential to cultivate their love. As to their fear, we presume that our strength & their weakness is now so visible that they must see we have only to shut our hand to crush them, & that all our liberalities to them proceed from motives of pure humanity only.
Jeffersonian policy
As president,
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
developed a far-reaching Indian policy with two primary goals. He wanted to assure that the Native nations (not foreign nations) were tightly bound to the new United States, as he considered the security of the nation to be paramount.
He also wanted to "civilize" them into adopting an agricultural, rather than a
hunter-gatherer
A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fung ...
, lifestyle.
These goals would be achieved through treaties and the development of trade.
Jefferson initially promoted an American policy which encouraged Native Americans to become
assimilated, or "
civilized
A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system).
Civ ...
".
He made sustained efforts to win the friendship and cooperation of many Native American tribes as president, repeatedly articulating his desire for a united nation of whites and Indians
as in his November 3, 1802, letter to Seneca spiritual leader
Handsome Lake:
When a delegation from the Cherokee Nation's Upper Towns lobbied Jefferson for the full and equal citizenship promised to Indians living in American territory by George Washington, his response indicated that he was willing to grant citizenship to those Indian nations who sought it.
In his eighth annual message to Congress on November 8, 1808, he presented a vision of white and Indian unity:
As some of Jefferson's other writings illustrate, however, he was ambivalent about Indian assimilation and used the words "exterminate" and "extirpate" about tribes who resisted American expansion and were willing to fight for their lands.
Jefferson intended to change Indian lifestyles from hunting and gathering to farming, largely through "the decrease of game rendering their subsistence by hunting insufficient".
He expected the change to agriculture to make them dependent on white Americans for goods, and more likely to surrender their land or allow themselves to be moved west of the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...
.
In an 1803 letter to
William Henry Harrison
William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773April 4, 1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States. Harrison died just 31 days after his inauguration in 1841, and had the shortest pres ...
, Jefferson wrote:
In that letter, Jefferson spoke about protecting the Indians from injustices perpetrated by settlers:
According to the treaty of February 27, 1819, the U.S. government would offer citizenship and of land per family to Cherokees who lived east of the Mississippi.
Native American land was sometimes purchased, by treaty or under
duress. The idea of land exchange, that Native Americans would give up their land east of the Mississippi in exchange for a similar amount of territory west of the river, was first proposed by Jefferson in 1803 and first incorporated into treaties in 1817 (years after the Jefferson presidency). The
Indian Removal Act of 1830 included this concept.
John C. Calhoun's plan
Under President
James Monroe, Secretary of War
John C. Calhoun
John Caldwell Calhoun (; March 18, 1782March 31, 1850) was an American statesman and political theorist from South Carolina who held many important positions including being the seventh vice president of the United States from 1825 to 1832. He ...
devised the first plans for Indian removal. Monroe approved Calhoun's plans by late 1824 and, in a special message to the Senate on January 27, 1825, requested the creation of the
Arkansaw and
Indian Territories; the Indians east of the Mississippi would voluntarily exchange their lands for lands west of the river. The Senate accepted Monroe's request, and asked Calhoun to draft a bill which was killed in the House of Representatives by the Georgia delegation. President
John Quincy Adams assumed the Calhoun–Monroe policy, and was determined to remove the Indians by non-forceful means;
Georgia refused to consent to Adams' request, forcing the president to forge a treaty with the Cherokees granting Georgia the Cherokee lands.
On July 26, 1827, the Cherokee Nation adopted a written constitution (modeled on that of the United States) which declared that they were an independent nation with jurisdiction over their own lands. Georgia contended that it would not countenance a sovereign state within its own territory, and asserted its authority over Cherokee territory.
When
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...
became president as the candidate of the newly-organized
Democratic Party, he agreed that the Indians should be forced to exchange their eastern lands for western lands (including relocation) and vigorously enforced Indian removal.
Opposition to removal from U.S. citizens
Although Indian removal was a popular policy, it was also opposed on legal and moral grounds; it also ran counter to the formal, customary diplomatic interaction between the federal government and the Native nations.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a cham ...
wrote the widely-published letter "A Protest Against the Removal of the Cherokee Indians from the State of Georgia" in 1838, shortly before the Cherokee removal. Emerson criticizes the government and its removal policy, saying that the removal treaty was illegitimate; it was a "sham treaty", which the U.S. government should not uphold. He describes removal as
such a dereliction of all faith and virtues, such a denial of justice…in the dealing of a nation with its own allies and wards since the earth was made…a general expression of despondency, of disbelief, that any goodwill accrues from a remonstrance on an act of fraud and robbery, appeared in those men to whom we naturally turn for aid and counsel.
Emerson concludes his letter by saying that it should not be a political issue, urging President Martin Van Buren to prevent the enforcement of Cherokee removal. Other individual settlers and settler social organizations throughout the United States also opposed removal.
Native American response to removal
Native groups reshaped their governments, made constitutions and legal codes, and sent delegates to Washington to negotiate policies and treaties to uphold their autonomy and ensure federally-promised protection from the encroachment of states. They thought that acclimating, as the U.S. wanted them to, would stem removal policy and create a better relationship with the federal government and surrounding states.
Native American nations had differing views about removal. Although most wanted to remain on their native lands and do anything possible to ensure that, others believed that removal to a nonwhite area was their only option to maintain their autonomy and culture. The U.S. used this division to forge removal treaties with (often) minority groups who became convinced that removal was the best option for their people. These treaties were often not acknowledged by most of a nation's people. When Congress ratified the removal treaty, the federal government could use military force to remove Native nations if they had not moved (or had begun moving) by the date stipulated in the treaty.
Indian Removal Act
When Andrew Jackson became president of the United States in 1829, his government took a hard line on Indian removal;
Jackson abandoned his predecessors' policy of treating Indian tribes as separate nations, aggressively pursuing all Indians east of the Mississippi who claimed constitutional sovereignty and independence from state laws. They were to be removed to reservations in Indian Territory, west of the Mississippi (present-day
Oklahoma), where they could exist without state interference. At Jackson's request, Congress began a debate on an Indian-removal bill. After fierce disagreement, the Senate passed the bill by a 28–19 vote; the House had narrowly passed it, 102–97. Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law on May 30, 1830.
That year, most of the
Five Civilized Tribes—the
Chickasaw,
Choctaw,
Creek,
Seminole, and
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, th ...
—lived east of the Mississippi. The Indian Removal Act implemented federal-government policy towards its Indian populations, moving Native American tribes east of the Mississippi to lands west of the river. Although the act did not authorize the forced removal of indigenous tribes, it enabled the president to negotiate land-exchange treaties.
Choctaw
On September 27, 1830, the
Choctaw signed the
Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek and became the first Native American tribe to be removed. The agreement was one of the largest transfers of land between the U.S. government and Native Americans which was not the result of war. The Choctaw signed away their remaining traditional homelands, opening them up for European-American settlement in
Mississippi Territory. When the tribe reached
Little Rock
( The "Little Rock")
, government_type = Council-manager
, leader_title = Mayor
, leader_name = Frank Scott Jr.
, leader_party = D
, leader_title2 = Council
, leader_name2 ...
, a chief called its trek a "trail of tears and death".
In 1831, French historian and political scientist
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis Charles Henri Clérel, comte de Tocqueville (; 29 July 180516 April 1859), colloquially known as Tocqueville (), was a French aristocrat, diplomat, political scientist, political philosopher and historian. He is best known for his wo ...
witnessed an exhausted group of Choctaw men, women and children emerging from the forest during an exceptionally cold winter near
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mo ...
,
on their way to the Mississippi to be loaded onto a steamboat. He wrote,
Cherokee
While the Indian Removal Act made the move of the tribes voluntary, it was often abused by government officials. The best-known example is the
Treaty of New Echota, which was signed by a small faction of twenty
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, th ...
tribal members (not the tribal leadership) on December 29, 1835.
Most of the Cherokee later blamed the faction and the treaty for the tribe's forced relocation in 1838.
An estimated 4,000 Cherokee died in the march, which is known as the
Trail of Tears.
Missionary organizer
Jeremiah Evarts urged the Cherokee Nation to take its case to the
U.S. Supreme Court.
The
Marshall court heard the case in ''
Cherokee Nation v. Georgia
''Cherokee Nation v. Georgia'', 30 U.S. (5 Pet.) 1 (1831), was a United States Supreme Court case. The Cherokee Nation sought a federal injunction against laws passed by the U.S. state of Georgia depriving them of rights within its boundaries, but ...
'' (1831), but declined to rule on its merits; the court declaring that the Native American tribes were not sovereign nations, and could not "maintain an action" in U.S. courts.
In an opinion written by Chief Justice Marshall in ''
Worcester v. Georgia
''Worcester v. Georgia'', 31 U.S. (6 Pet.) 515 (1832), was a landmark case in which the United States Supreme Court vacated the conviction of Samuel Worcester and held that the Georgia criminal statute that prohibited non-Native Americans from bei ...
'' (1832), individual states had no authority in American Indian affairs.
The state of
Georgia defied the Supreme Court ruling,
and the desire of settlers and land speculators for Indian lands continued unabated;
some whites claimed that Indians threatened peace and security. The Georgia legislature passed a law forbidding settlers from living on Indian territory after March 31, 1831, without a license from the state; this excluded missionaries who opposed Indian removal.
Seminole
The
Seminole refused to leave their
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...
lands in 1835, leading to the
Second Seminole War. Osceola was a Seminole leader of the people's fight against removal. Based in the
Everglades, Osceola and his band used surprise attacks to defeat the U.S. Army in a number of battles. In 1837, Osceola was duplicitously captured by order of U.S. General
Thomas Jesup when Osceola came under a flag of truce to negotiate peace near
Fort Peyton
Fort Peyton was a stockaded fort built in August 1837 by the United States Army, one of a chain of military outposts created during the Second Seminole War for the protection of the St. Augustine area in Florida Territory. Established by Maj. Gen ...
.
Osceola died in prison of illness; the war resulted in over 1,500 U.S. deaths, and cost the government $20 million.
Some Seminole traveled deeper into the Everglades, and others moved west. The removal continued, and a number of wars broke out over land.
Muskogee (Creek)
In the aftermath of the Treaties of
Fort Jackson, and the
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
, the Muscogee were confined to a small strip of land in present-day east central
Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = " Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County
, LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham
, area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...
. The Creek national council signed the
Treaty of Cusseta
The Treaty of Cusseta was a treaty between the government of the United States and the Creek Nation signed March 24, 1832 (). The treaty ceded all Creek claims east of the Mississippi River to the United States.
Origins
The Treaty of Cusseta ...
in 1832, ceding their remaining lands east of the Mississippi to the U.S. and accepting relocation to the Indian Territory. Most Muscogee were removed to the territory during the
Trail of Tears in 1834, although some remained behind. Although the
Creek War of 1836 ended government attempts to convince the Creek population to leave voluntarily, Creeks who had not participated in the war were not forced west (as others were). The Creek population was placed into camps and told that they would be relocated soon. Many Creek leaders were surprised by the quick departure but could do little to challenge it. The 16,000 Creeks were organized into five detachments who were to be sent to Fort Gibson. The Creek leaders did their best to negotiate better conditions, and succeeded in obtaining wagons and medicine. To prepare for the relocation, Creeks began to deconstruct their spiritual lives; they burned piles of
lightwood over their ancestors' graves to honor their memories, and polished the sacred plates which would travel at the front of each group. They also prepared financially, selling what they could not bring. Many were swindled by local merchants out of valuable possessions (including land), and the military had to intervene. The detachments began moving west in September 1836, facing harsh conditions. Despite their preparations, the detachments faced bad roads, worse weather, and a lack of drinkable water. When all five detachments reached their destination, they recorded their death toll. The first detachment, with 2,318 Creeks, had 78 deaths; the second had 3,095 Creeks, with 37 deaths. The third had 2,818 Creeks, and 12 deaths; the fourth, 2,330 Creeks and 36 deaths. The fifth detachment, with 2,087 Creeks, had 25 deaths. In 1837 outside of
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the county seat, parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, E ...
over 300 Creeks being forcibly removed to Western prairies drowned in the Mississippi River.
Chickasaw
Unlike other tribes, who exchanged lands, the Chickasaw were to receive financial compensation of $3 million from the United States for their lands east of the Mississippi River.
They reached an agreement to purchase of land from the previously-removed Choctaw in 1836 after a bitter five-year debate, paying the Chocktaw $530,000 for the westernmost Choctaw land.
Most of the Chickasaw moved in 1837 and 1838.
The $3 million owed to the Chickasaw by the U.S. went unpaid for nearly 30 years.
Aftermath
The Five Civilized Tribes were resettled in the new Indian Territory.
The Cherokee occupied the northeast corner of the territory and a strip of land in Kansas on its border with the territory.
Some indigenous nations resisted the forced migration more strongly.
The few who stayed behind eventually formed tribal groups,
including the Eastern Band of Cherokee (based in North Carolina),
the
Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians
The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians ( cho, Mississippi Chahta) is one of three federally recognized tribes of Choctaw Native Americans, and the only one in the state of Mississippi. On April 20, 1945, this tribe organized under the Indian R ...
,
the Seminole Tribe of Florida,
and the Creeks in Alabama
(including the
Poarch Band).
Removals
North
Tribes in the
Old Northwest were smaller and more fragmented than the Five Civilized Tribes, so the treaty and emigration process was more piecemeal.
Following the
Northwest Indian War, most of the modern state of
Ohio
Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...
was taken from native nations in the 1795
Treaty of Greenville. Tribes such as the already-displaced
Lenape
The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory inclu ...
(Delaware tribe),
Kickapoo and
Shawnee
The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...
, were
removed from Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio during the 1820s.
The
Potawatomi were
forced out of Wisconsin and Michigan in late 1838, and were resettled in
Kansas Territory. Communities remaining in present-day Ohio were forced to move to Louisiana, which was then controlled by Spain.
Bands of
Shawnee
The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...
,
Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the c ...
,
Potawatomi,
Sauk, and
Meskwaki (Fox) signed treaties and relocated to the Indian Territory.
In 1832, the Sauk leader
Black Hawk Black Hawk and Blackhawk may refer to:
Animals
* Black Hawk (horse), a Morgan horse that lived from 1833 to 1856
* Common black hawk, ''Buteogallus anthracinus''
* Cuban black hawk, ''Buteogallus gundlachii''
* Great black hawk, ''Buteogallus urub ...
led a band of Sauk and Fox back to their lands in Illinois; the U.S. Army and Illinois militia defeated Black Hawk and his warriors in the
Black Hawk War
The Black Hawk War was a conflict between the United States and Native Americans led by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader. The war erupted after Black Hawk and a group of Sauks, Meskwakis (Fox), and Kickapoos, known as the "British Band", cross ...
, and the Sauk and Fox were relocated to present-day
Iowa
Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wiscon ...
.
The
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...
were split, with many of the tribe resettled west of the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...
during the 1840s.
In the
Second Treaty of Buffalo Creek (1838), the
Senecas transferred all their land in New York (except for one small reservation) in exchange for of land in Indian Territory. The federal government would be responsible for the removal of the Senecas who opted to go west, and the
Ogden Land Company
The Holland Land Company was an unincorporated syndicate of thirteen Dutch investors from Amsterdam who in 1792 and 1793 purchased the western two-thirds of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase, an area that afterward was known as the Holland Purchase ...
would acquire their New York lands. The lands were sold by government officials, however, and the proceeds were deposited in the U.S. Treasury.
Maris Bryant Pierce
Maris Bryant Pierce (1811–1874; also known as Ha-dya-no-doh, Swift Runner), was a Seneca Nation chief, lawyer, and teacher. He was a tribal land-rights activist, and a major influence to the Second Treaty of Buffalo Creek of 1838.
Early life ...
, a "young chief" served as a lawyer representing four territories of the Seneca tribe, starting in 1838.
The Senecas asserted that they had been defrauded, and sued for redress in the
Court of Claims. The case was not resolved until 1898, when the United States awarded $1,998,714.46 in compensation to "the New York Indians".
The U.S. signed treaties with the Senecas and the
Tonawanda Senecas in 1842 and 1857, respectively. Under the treaty of 1857, the Tonawandas renounced all claim to lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for the right to buy back the
Tonawanda Reservation from the Ogden Land Company.
Over a century later, the Senecas purchased a plot (part of their original reservation) in downtown
Buffalo to build the
Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino.
South
Changed perspective
Historical views of Indian removal have been reevaluated since that time. Widespread contemporary acceptance of the policy, due in part to the popular embrace of the concept of
manifest destiny, has given way to a more somber perspective. Historians have often described the removal of Native Americans as
paternalism,
ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, and religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making a region ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal, extermination, deportation or population transfer ...
,
or
genocide
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the ...
. Historian
David Stannard
David Edward Stannard (born 1941) is an American historian and Professor of American Studies at the University of Hawaii. He is particularly known for his book '' American Holocaust'' (Oxford University Press, 1992), in which he argues that Europea ...
has called it genocide.
Andrew Jackson's reputation
Andrew Jackson's Indian policy stirred a lot of public controversy before his enactment, but virtually none among historians and biographers of the 19th and early 20th century.
However, his recent reputation has been negatively affected by his treatment of the Indians. Historians who admire Jackson's strong presidential leadership, such as
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr. (; born Arthur Bancroft Schlesinger; October 15, 1917 – February 28, 2007) was an American historian, social critic, and public intellectual. The son of the influential historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. and a s ...
, would gloss over the Indian Removal in a footnote. In 1969,
Francis Paul Prucha
Francis Paul Prucha (January 4, 1921 – July 30, 2015) was an American historian, professor ''emeritus'' of history at Marquette University, and specialist in the relationship between the United States and Native Americans. His work, ''The Great ...
defended Jackson's Indian policy and wrote that Jackson's removal of the Five Civilized Tribes from the hostile political environment of the
Old South to
Oklahoma probably saved them.
Jackson was sharply attacked by political scientist
Michael Rogin and historian
Howard Zinn during the 1970s, primarily on this issue; Zinn called him an "exterminator of Indians".
According to historians
Paul R. Bartrop
Paul R. Bartrop (born November 3, 1955) is an Australian historian of the Holocaust and genocide. From August 2012 until December 2020 he was Professor of History and Director of the Center for Judaic, Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Florida ...
and
Steven L. Jacobs, however, Jackson's policies do not meet the criteria for physical or
cultural genocide.
Historian
Sean Wilentz describes the view of Jacksonian "infantilization" and "genocide" of the Indians, as a historical caricature, which "turns tragedy into melodrama, exaggerates parts at the expense of the whole, and sacrifices nuance for sharpness".
See also
*
Act for the Protection of the People of Indian Territory (Curtis Act), 1898
*
Forced Fee Patenting Act (Burke Act), 1906
*
Wheeler–Howard Act
*
Nelson Act of 1889, Minnesota's version of the Dawes Act
*
Cultural assimilation of Native Americans
The cultural assimilation of Native Americans refers to a series of efforts by the United States to assimilate Native Americans into mainstream European–American culture between the years of 1790 and 1920.
George Washington and Henry Knox w ...
*
Aboriginal title in the United States
The United States was the first jurisdiction to acknowledge the common law doctrine of aboriginal title (also known as "original Indian title" or "Indian right of occupancy"). Native American tribes and nations establish aboriginal title by act ...
*
Competency Commission
Competency Commissions were established by the United States Government in the early 20th century to determine whether individual Indians were competent to utilize their lands allotted to them during the General Allotment Act of 1887. Individuals ...
*
Land run
*
Diminishment Diminishment is the legal process by which the United States Congress can reduce the size of an Indian reservation.
History
In 1984, the Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court held in ''Solem v. Bartlett'', 465 U.S. 463 (19 ...
*
Great Māhele
The Great Māhele ("to divide or portion") or just the Māhele was the Hawaiian land redistribution proposed by King Kamehameha III. The Māhele was one of the most important episodes of Hawaiian history, second only to the overthrow of the Haw ...
*
Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations
*
Checkerboarding (land)
*
Dawes Act
Citations and notes
Further reading
* Black, Jason Edward (2006)
''US Governmental and Native Voices in the Nineteenth Century: Rhetoric in the Removal and Allotment of American Indians''.(PhD dissertation), College Park, MD: University of Maryland. See, for instance, the bibliography on pp. 571–615.
*
Ehle, John (1988). ''Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation''. New York:
Doubleday. .
*
Jahoda, Gloria (1975). ''The Trail of Tears: The Story of the American Indian Removals 1813–1855''. New York:
Holt, Rinehart and Winston. .
*
* Strickland, William M. "The rhetoric of removal and the trail of tears: Cherokee speaking against Jackson's Indian removal policy, 1828–1832" ''Southern Speech Communication Journal'' (1982). 47#3: 292–309
* Young, Mary E. "Indian removal and land allotment: The civilized tribes and Jacksonian justice." ''American Historical Review'' 64.1 (1958): 31–45
online
Primary sources
* Martinez, Donna, ed. ''Documents of American Indian Removal'' (2018
excerpt
External links
*
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20120413104654/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=638 Indian Removal from ''Digital History'' by S. Mintz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Indian Removal
19th-century colonization of the Americas
Aboriginal title in the United States
Andrew Jackson
Cherokee Nation (1794–1907)
Ethnic cleansing in the United States
Forced migrations of Native Americans in the United States
Historical migrations
History of United States expansionism
Indian Territory
Legal history of the United States
Native American genocide
United States federal Indian policy