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The Bad Start of U.S. Indian Policy

"The Indian tribes by joining the British in the Revolution had forfeited their rights to possession of lands within the United States; the new country would be justified in compelling the Indians to retire to Canada or to the unknown areas beyond the Mississippi river." -- U.S. Congress 1783-4

U.S. couldn't back it up

• no money
• small army
• Little cooperation among states
• Indians supported by British agents

Contradictory policy and the electorate

• policy had to please expansionist electorate
• had to pacify Indians, who distrusted the US

U.S. Expansion

• a demographic conquest
• Native American mortality
• U.S. population growth

Rapid change, 1775-1850

• Old Northwest
• 1805-1819

Northwest Ordinance of 1787

Henry Knox (Sec. of War) and George Washington's objectives

• Knox in public: The Indians being the prior occupants, possess the right of soil. It cannot be taken from them unless by their free consent, or by the right of conquest in case of a just war. To dispossess them on any other principle, would be a gross violation of the fundamental laws of nature, and of that distributive justice which is the glory of a nation"

Washington and Knox's other aim...

Knox in private: wanted to find a policy that "would gradually obtain Indian land, would be as cheap as possible, would avoid war, would redound to the honor of the United states, and would benefit the Indians as well as the advancing frontiersmen"

Thomas Jefferson, Assimilation, and Removal

Themes in U.S. Policy

• Forced Assimilation
• Tolerance of "Cultural Pluralism"

Thomas Jefferson and the Indigenous People of North America

• ...the proofs of genius given by the Indians of North America, places them on a level with Whites in the same uncultivated state."

Monticello

Optimism about assimilation

• "You will unite yourselves with us, and join in our great councils and form one people with us and we shall all be Americans. You will mix with us by marriage. Your blood will run in our veins and will spread with us over this great land."
• T. Jefferson, 1808

Jefferson and slavery

Isaac Jefferson

• Isaac Jefferson, born in 1775 at Monticello. Photo taken in 1847 when he was free man working as a blacksmith in Petersburg, Virginia.

Political flaws in Jefferson's ideal

• land hunger among Euroamericans
• the costs of assimilation

The Cherokee under pressure from Anglo settlers

• 1802 agreement that Georgia would give up its western lands if the U.S. would "extinguish the Indian title to lands within Georgia as soon as it could be done peaceably and on reasonable terms."

The Cherokees

• filed land claims
• built houses
• elected local governments
• became Jeffersonian "yeoman farmers"

James Madison's administration (1809-1817)

• The political tide turns against assimilation
• Growing tension with England, leading to the War of 1812
• Indian Wars in the Old Northwest
• British - Indian alliances

Andrew Jackson

• populist, reformed Democratic party, old Indian fighter
• His election in 1828 was a referendum on Indian Policy
• defeated the Creeks in 1814
• defeated the British at New Orleans, 1815
• and the Seminoles in 1818

The Idea of the Indian Territories

• 1. That it was an opportunity for an independent nation
• 2. That it was an expedient solution to competition for lands
• 3. The issue in the political arena - votes

The Removal Act of 1830

• set up areas west of the Mississippi
• would pay for improvements of land
• costs of removal
• 1 year's subsistence

Removal Chronology-1

• 1828 - Cherokee Phoenix published; Andrew Jackson elected President. Gold discovered in Georgia.
• 1828-1830 - Georgia Legislature abolishes tribal government and expands authority over Cherokee country.
• 1832 - US Supreme Court decision Worcester vs Georgia establishes tribal sovereignty, protects Cherokees from Georgia laws. Jackson won't enforce decision and Georgia holds lottery for Cherokee lands.

Removal Chronology-2

• 1835 - Treaty Party signs Treaty of New Echota, giving up Cherokee lands in SE for land in Indian Territory
• 1838-1839 - Trails of Tears. Forced removal of 17,000 Cherokees. More than 4,000 die along the way.
• 1839 - Assassination of Treaty Party leaders for breaking pact not to sign Treaty of New Echota.
• 1844 Cherokee Supreme Court building opens; Cherokee Advocate becomes the first newspaper in Indian territory.

Cherokee lands

Removing the "5 Civilized Tribes"

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comments to Wilson or Lovata
Created 10/21/98, modified by SMW 10/21/98