Cultures in Contact
ANT 326L (30410) Spring, 2008
Samuel M. Wilson
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
Political flaws in Jefferson's ideal
• land hunger among Euroamericans
• the costs of assimilation
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.
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"
Cherokee s
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
removal, relocation, and containment
• to keep a tight control on the fur trade
• to ensure that there wasn't a lot of British or French influence on the
Indians of the frontier
• to make sure settlement wasn't hindered,
• to continue the policy of assimilation...
Civilization Fund, 1819
•
The President was to employ "capable persons of good moral character,
to instruct them in the mode of agriculture suited to their situation;
and for teaching their children in reading, writing, and arithmetic.”
• $10,000 yr
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"