Cherokee Removal Essay Example

As America began to expand and become a global superpower from a newborn country, American delegates were faced with domestic challenges, on their home turf. During colonial times, Americans were respectful towards Native Americans, and created reservations for them, occupying parts of what is now Georgia, Florida, and Mississippi (Purdue 22).  Their land contained fertile lands and resources that Southern Americans desired, as a rise in slavery had begun due to the invention of the cottongin in 1793, increasing the value of cotton (Perdue 187). This led to the decision to remove all Native Americans from their territories and dedicate land for them in what is known as Oklahoma today. This tragedy is known today as the Cherokee Removal and has lasted several generations. There is a very long and detailed history between Americans and Native Americans, originating from the first British people to meet Native Americans. During those times, it was Native Americans providing shelter and assisting early colonists in developing these settlements, which turned into the country that forced them out of their lands.

The relationship between the Cherokees and Americans was not always in turmoil. Before this conflict between the two, they were sometimes allies in wars, such as the Seven Years War, or often traded with each other. This relationship has been composed and treated one another as sovereign nations, but as the United States began to expand westward and revolutionized their industries, the value of land was increasing. 

This relationship was challenged and became estranged due to the different cultures and powers of both nations. Cherokee culture differed from American culture in many ways. One of the major differences was that Cherokee clans were matrilineal, and women were the dominating gender in this culture. This differs from the patrilineal culture that Americans and most of the world followed. Another difference is that Cherokees also believed in environmental harmony, and did not separate their religious beliefs from their daily activities (Purdue 3-5). This part of their culture was similar to western and European cultures during colonial periods, but as nations underwent the Industrial Revolution, the integration of religions in daily life began to disappear due to scientific inventions and discoveries. These are examples of a couple differences between Americans and Cherokees, which is important as their relationship leads them to become enemies.

American leaders did not view Native Americans in the same way that they saw African Americans. Americans in general believed that the reason why Natives were “uncivilized” was because of their culture, not their race. Americans thought that the Cherokees and other American Indians had the ability to assimilate into American culture, which became the U.S. “Civilization” Program. This idea was discussed at the Peace of Paris, in 1783, after the conclusion of the American Revolution. During the Revolution, the Cherokees sided with Britain as they were already fearful of Americans taking their land away from them, as they had seen them expanding into a large nation. During the ratification of the treaty, the United States won the right of all of the colonial lands from England, and “the lands of non-Christian and ‘uncivilized’ peoples” (Purdue 7). 

However, the United States did not assert that they had a right to all of the land that they had won from England, including the lands that belonged to Native Americans. This is because the United States understood that the Native military forces could not be ignored and the United States wanted to find a more civil, peaceful way to conduct negotiations, as they had just come out of a major war. This decision was ratified by the Treaty of Hopewell in 1785, which simply was an ensurement of friendly relations between the U.S. and the Cherokees, the Choctaws, and the Chicasaws. This was the first official relation between Indiginous nations and the U.S., and established these Native nations as sovereign, independent nations, believed by Henry Knox, Washington’s first secretary of war. This became the prominent viewpoint for Native American relations in the early American government. This affected mostly the southern states, as they were desperately trying to expand and remove these nations that had land inside of their state. 

Georgia was especially troubled with this treaty as they had domestic nations in their state and as stated earlier, Cherokee land had fertile land and resources that Georgia and plantation owners desired. Inevitably, Georgia and North Carolina ignored this treaty, and began to place restrictions and legislation to pressure Native Americans to give up their lands. They established Christian missions for Indian nations to not only spread Christianity, but what was the real goal was to assimilate and “civilize” Native people to learn about western culture. Initially, it was challenging to convince adult Cherokees to receive education from the missions, but the children gladly attended and were taught American cultures and values (Purdue 42-43). This process led to the beginning of not only the Cherokee nation, but other regional Native nations began to industrialize and adapt parts of American culture into their own cultures. Matrilineal clans and this aspect of their culture was fading, as interracial marriges and American culture was influencing Cherokee culture. 

American culture influenced the Cherokee nation and cultures significantly. Cherokee leaders came together and ratified their own Constitution; the Cherokee government was officially established and ratified in 1827, containing a legislative, judicial, and executive branch, resembling the U.S. Constitution. This led to a more legal debate over the Cherokees keeping their land from Georgia and other Southern states. The Cherokees were not uncivilized people. Cherokee leaders decided to go through the American judicial system, suing Georgia for disrespecting the Treaty of Hopewell and not respecting that the Cherokees are a sovereign nation. This led to the trial, Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, to reach the U.S. Supreme Court where the Supreme Court determined that the Cherokee nation is a domestic dependent nation. Another Supreme Court trial, Worcester v. Georgia, which upheld Cherokee sovereignty in Georgia (Purdue 189). During this time, the decisions of the Supreme Court were not upheld by the U.S. government, and this led to further actions to remove Native Americans from U.S. territories. 

These actions which led to the removal of Native peoples from their territories were two significant legislations, the Treaty of New Echota and the Indian Removal Act. The Treaty of New Echota was the catalyst for removal of Cherokees from their lands, where the Treaty of New Echota, signed in 1835, was an agreement between Georgia and a minority Cherokee faction, the Treaty Party. This treaty stated that the U.S. would give the Cherokee nation five million dollars and land from the Oklahoma territory, and in return the Cherokees would need to give up their land in Georgia within 2 years. (This was disapproved and rejected by the majority of Cherokees, and they attempted to protest and have Congress void the treaty until their removal in 1838. The Indian Removal Act was ratified in 1830 which granted President Jackson to exchange western lands with Native Americans for their land. These two articles acted as the catalyst to the removal of the Cherokees, which became known as the Trail of Tears. 

The Trail of Tears was the removal of Native Americans from Southern America to what is known as Oklahoma today. Native Americans were led by the U.S. military to their new lands, and the death toll is estimated to be anywhere from over four thousand deaths to over eight thousand deaths. (Purdue 156). Cherokees were organized into detachments, around three thousand people in size, to migrate to Oklahoma, the first detachments leaving in late August 1838 and the last detachments arriving in late March 1839. This removal was not a peaceful matter. Cherokee people protested and broke out in riots against the American military, knowing that they were being stripped of their homes and their lands. 

The actions on the Cherokee and other Indiginous nations by the U.S. could be seen as a tragic, oppressive calamity. The aftermath of the removal of Native Americans led to multiple civil wars, including the Cherokee nation and the U.S. shortly after. This also displayed the flaws in the checks and balances in the American government, as the Supreme Court had determined the Cherokee nation to retain their land, but the president, Congress, and Southern states ignored the Supreme Court's decision. There wasn’t any consistency between the decisions of the U.S. government, and this hindered their ability to enforce Georgia, who was unconstitutionally enforcing laws and programs onto the Cherokees. These actions and the unbalanced powers in the U.S. led to the removal of the Natives from their lands, and this tragedy will be a significant scar in American history.