Thursday, November 8, 2007
Cherokee Struggle.
In the 1820s the majority of white people wanted the Native Americans moved west of the Mississippi River. Some wanted them removed so they could have their lands, but others where sympathetic to the Native Americans because they feared Natives would be subject to alcoholism, economic struggles, and would eventually lose all their cultural traits. After the war of 1812, Andrew Jackson took massive amounts of land from the Creeks. Although much of the land was being taken from them, the Natives used the political knowledge they possessed from whites and some of them even lived like whites. James Vann for example, was a Cherokee, who owned slaves and trading posts. Sequoya even invented a way to write the Cherokee language and eventually it led to the Cherokee constitution which was very similar to the United States Constitution. Even with all this effort on the mixed bloods' part, the pure blooded Cherokees were resistant to all the efforts of the mixed bloods, however, they seemed to agree that they didn't want to lose their lands. Sadly, in 1830, President Jackson pushed the Indian Removal Act through Congress and granted land and money in Oklahoma and Kansas. The government would grant them the right to ve in this new land without the threat of whites moving in on their new homes. Tis act would lead to much violence between natives and whites. Eventually removal treaties would force the Cherokee to move with the use of the US military. Perhaps one of the most infamous acts of the US government was the Trail of Tears, in which 14,000 Cherokees were force to march 1,200 miles. It seems that the Cherokee removal was permissible ultimately because the US government said so. At the time, with little to no tolerance on the part of the government, do you think there was any other way for this to be handled? Or considering the state of mind of people like Andrew Jackson, was Indian removal and eventual bloodshed inevitable?
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8 comments:
I believe that the struggle with the Cherokees could have been handled more civilized, but I do think that it was inevitable. Andrew Jackson was going to take that land no matter what anyone else thought.
I agree with the above comment that the situation could have been handled more civilized but it was inevitable. The American population was expanding at a huge rate with little space to go, the natives would eventually had to give up their land no matter what.
I think that with the mind set of the time it was inevitable but if they had been more open minded and tolerant they could have figured out ways to establish a better relationship with the Indians and work around them. There could have been ways to expand and let the Indians have their own space too.
I think that Jackson could have handled things a lot differently. I think that he could have used Native American knowledge of the land and hunting techniques to make things easier for people that were settling on their land. I also think that the settlers could have made some trading agreements so that Native Americans could have stayed on their own land. I believe it's important to remember that Native americans, for the most part, are peaceful people. after all, who provided the turkey to celebrate our first year of survival in the New World?
The struggle between the Cherokees and the Americans need not have happened at all. Though it had taken time, one can see through the example of the Cherokees who were trying to americanize themselves that slowly but surely the Cherokees would eventually all become americanized more than likely, if for no other reason than that it would become a necessity for survival.
It definitely did not HAVE to happen. Andrew Jackson was a hot head who had no sympathy for the indians. It should have been handled in more civilized way.
The Cherokee removal was not necessary but it could have not been avoided with Andrew Jackson in the white house. Andrew Jackson's whole ideology was for the common man, and to give to the common man, he had to take the Natives land away. If the Cherokees where willing to sell their land, then maybe Jackson would have not removed them.
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