Removals and Sovereignty of Indian Nations in the United States

1. Unit 2 Removals

2. Sovereignty of Indian Nations • The United States claims never to have conquered the native Americans. • Each tribe was recognized as a separate and sovereign nation living within the boundaries of the United States. • Indian nations elected their own officials and made their own laws within the borders of their own lands- but the US made the final decisions concerning what to do with Indian land. • Christian ethics discourages making war against another nations simply for the purpose of securing land, so the Doctrine of Discovery was formulated

3. Doctrine of Discovery • The Doctrine of Discovery gave ownership of land in the New World to the government of the explorer who made the discovery. • The doctrine made the Indians the “rightful occupant” of the land, while giving legal ownership to the European governments. Therefore, the rights of the Indians to the use of the land had to be purchased or otherwise legally obtained. These rights could not simply be violated.

4. Doctrine cont. • The most common legal document dealing with tribal lands was the treaty. • Between 1778 and 1871 the U.S. government negotiated more than 400 treaties with Indian tribes, called nations in those documents. • Because of the Americans’ belief in the Doctrine of Discovery, all the agreements made between the government and the Indian tribes contained four specific policies • The government acknowledged Indian rights to occupy and use tribal lands. • The government offered to protect the Indians and their rights. • The government agreed to provide services in exchange for tribal lands • The government precluded anyone other than itself form disposing of or otherwise altering the status of tribal lands.

5. Discovery cont. • The Doctrine of Discovery had two main effects on Indian-U.S. Government relations • It prevented the United States from trying to conquer Indians • Indian tribes were recognized as sovereign nations

6. Property ownership • The earliest land transactions between the colonists and the Indians led to misgivings and mistrust on both sides. That was because their ideas concerning land ownership were so different. • The Europeans, particularly from England, regarded individual land ownership as the ultimate goal, a sign of success. In England, a persons importance in the community was based on how much property he owned. • The Indians regarded individual land ownership as impossible. The Great Spirit had made the land and provided it for use. In their philosophy, land was as necessary to survival as food and shelter. They used it collectively and no individual could own land. • When colonist bought tribal lands, they meant to buy it on a permanent basis. When Indians sold land, they were only selling the rights to use it for a limited period of time, as in renting

7. Conflict of Interest • As the white population grew, the need for land grew. As the need for land grew, hostility grew on both sides. • The Indians regarded the colonists as poachers encroaching on tribal ground and they began to attack frontier settlements to protect their lands. • The colonist, who considered the Indian inferior because of his lack of Christian beliefs, became more solidly convinced of Indian inferiority.

8. In 1675, a Wampanoag chief, King Phillip, led his people against the Massachusetts settlers. IN 1676, King Phillip was killed, and his wife and children were sold into slavery. “King Phillips War” was ended It had cemented white belief that Indians were bloodthirsty savages. King Phillip’s War

9. Rights of Conquest • The American Revolution and the decision of many Indian tribes to ally with the British provided additional reasons for taking Indian lands. Referring to “reparations of war” American militia groups rode west, rounding up Indian groups and confiscating their lands. • For a short time, Americans claimed the ”rights of conquest” because the Indians had been defeated along with the British. • The U.S. government returned to the policy previously held by the British government – that Indians were entitled to occupy their land, but the government actually owned it.

10. Solutions to the Indian problem • Thomas Jefferson who did not believe the Indians were Inferior people, favored acculturation and assimilation. • Jefferson believed strongly in the agrarian society, and he encouraged programs through which the Indians could be convinced to cease being hunters and start being farmers. • Education appeared to be the best tool with which to accomplish that goal, and systems were established for education Indian children. • After 1803 and the Louisiana Purchase Jefferson saw new possibilities for solving the Indian problem. He proposed to exchange land in the west for land in the east and move Indian tribes to new ground’s far away from white encroachment • Jefferson believed that assimilation of Indians into the Anglo-American world was the ideal solution. Removal was the answer for those Indians who were unable to handle living the white mans way.

11. Public Demands • The War of 1812 had played a big part in creating pioneer attitudes. Some Indian tribes again allied with the British, had committed treason in the eyes of many Americans. • They demanded that the government punish all Indians and they considered tribal removal and government confiscation of tribal lands a just punishment. • This was despite the fact that Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws and many creeks remained loyal to the U.S. government. • Whites had the power to vote and Indians did not. Whites began to elect public officials who were willing to concentrate their efforts on removing the Indian from Eastern soil. • The election of Andrew Jackson as President in 1828 had a profound effect on Indian removal. Jackson was dedicated to Indian removal

12. Indian Removals • John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, was the primary creator of Indian Removal as the answer to the Indian problem. He advocated education before removal. • He believed that if Indians were educated according to white ways, they would realize that removal was the best thing for them, especially as they became more civilized.

13. Treaty of Doak’s Last Stand • Beginning in 1818, for three consecutive years , Indian commissioners met annually with Choctaw leaders to discuss removal. In 1820, they met at Doak’s Stand, Mississippi, to discuss a treaty in which Choctaws would cede five million acres, about one third of the land in the east in exchange for thirteen million acres in the west, financial and technical assistance with moving, and annual payments to the tribe. • October 18 1820 the Choctaw leaders and Indian commissioners signed the Treaty of Doak’s Stand. • The government had promised land to the Choctaws which was settled by whites- the Choctaws refused to keep the agreement.

14. Indian Removal Act • When Andrew Jackson was elected President removal efforts intensified. • In May 1830 Congress passed the Indian removal act. This act, although calling for land exchanges with the Indians, did not authorize a forced removal. It did however give Jackson the power to push for removal and many Indians saw the inevitability of it.

15. September 1830 negotiations reopened between the government and Choctaws. Choctaws expressed dissatisfaction with the land they were offered in the West. Further they asked for other concessions. The commissioners threatened to close negotiations and reminded the Choctaws that they could remain in the East and be subject to the oppressive state laws. The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was signed on December 27, 1830. Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek

16. Removal begins • The governments counted 18,635 Indians, whites married to Indians, and slaves belonging to the Indians to be removed. • The first party of 4,000 finally left for Indian territory in October 1831. Divided into three groups, the last of the party arrived at their destination in March 1832. • 250 died on the trip

17. Second Removal • John Robb, acting Secretary of War, declared that the cost of the first removal handled by civilian contractors had been too high. He ordered the army to carry out the second removal, which again was not ready until October because of the many governmental changes and delays. • Travel was slow because the government decided that everyone who was not sick or elderly would have to walk. • Hope disappeared when a cholera epidemic struck the group. • This removal was more successful than the first removal. More Indians were removed for less money but human suffering had been worse and the death toll higher.

18. Third Removal • Preparations were made for the third removal, but news of the suffering of the first two parties had reached the Choctaws in Mississippi. Many refused to go fearing for their lives. • In October 1833, only about 900 Choctaws reported for removal, and their trip was no better than the first two. • A boiler explosion aboard a river boat killed several so that some two thirds of the group refused to board another boat. Instead they walked overland through heavy rains without adequate supplies

19. Protests of Inhuman treatment • Many whites who witnessed the suffering experienced by the Choctaws on them Trail of Tears wrote to officials in Washington protesting the inhumane conditions.

20. The Creeks were divided into two distinct factions. The Lower Creeks, and The Upper Creeks. In 1811 the Creek council passed a measure imposing the death penalty on anyone who signed agreements ceding Creek lands without approval of the council. When John Quincy Adams learned of the Creeks hostility he invited tribal chiefs to Washington to draft an agreement. This agreement called for ceding Creek lands in Georgia and the Creeks to be removed to new lands. March 1832 Opothleyahola and six other chiefs signed an agreement ceding all tribal lands east of the Mississippi. The Creeks

21. Reduction of Chickasaw Lands • Most Chickasaws had turned to farming only after reduction of tribal lands had made hunting unprofitable. • The government had used various tactics to gain the lands. • In 1802 the federal government had set up “factories” or trading posts through which tribesmen could buy their goods on credit. The Chickasaws were encouraged to use the credit method to build up debts, so that pressure could be put exerted against them to cede their lands in payment. • In 1805 the Chickasaws ceded all their lands north of the Tennessee River in payment of their $12,000 debt to the government

22. Signed in 1832 the Treaty of Pontotoc ceded all Chickasaw land east of the Mississippi in exchange for lands in the west. More than six million acres of Chickasaw land was to be sold. Treaty of Pontotoc

23. Treaty of Doaksville • January 17, 1837 Chickasaw leaders signed an agreement with Choctaw leaders in the west. At Doaksville, Choctaw Nation, the Choctaws agreed to sell a portion of central and western areas of their nation in southern Indian Territory to the Chickasaws for 530,000 • Within a month of signing the Treaty of Doaksville, preparations were being made for the first emigration.

24. First Removal • June 1837 the first group of 450 Chickasaws moved out of Chief Sealy’s district behind conductor John Millard. They crossed the Mississippi from Memphis in to Arkansas. Almost immediately encountered drenching rains so furious that roads were completely washed out. Camps were wet and fired impossible. Dysentery and fever began to take their toll.

25. Second Removal • Some 4,000 Chickasaws were moved to emigration camps and marched from there to Memphis where they were to be moved to Fort Coffee by riverboats. • Thousands refused after hearing of the boiler explosion but were finally convinced to go.

26. In Indian Territory • Although the Chickasaws did not suffer as greatly on their removal journey as did the other tribes, their suffering did not stop when they reached Indian Territory . • Harassed by bands of Kiowa's, Comanche's and other Western tribes who resented the newcomers that they considered poachers • Smallpox and other diseases killed more than 500 Chickasaws and the Choctaws who had come into contact with them. • The Cherokees were the first to give the western journey a name – “The Trail Where They Cried” later shortened to the Trail of Tears.

27. The Old Settlers • Traveling West of the Mississippi to hunt some Cherokees had decided to stay there, away from the influence of white people. • They sent for their families or returned home and accompanied them west to establish their new homes in the 1790’s • The Treaty of 1817 was the first treaty with any of the southeastern Indians that referred to removal. Hoping for a peaceful move they found different in the west when their tribesmen were at war with the Osages. • The rest of the Cherokees were removed in several parties during winter of 1838-1839. They had only the clothes they were wearing when driven out of their homes. • With insufficient supplies no one knows the exact number of lives lost, but it is estimated that one-fourth of those removed died either in the stockades or on the trail west.

28. Seminoles • By April 1835 the Seminoles were still staunchly refusing to prepare for removal. They vowed they would stay in Florida • After being forcibly removed more than 40 percent of their number died and 1,500 soldiers were killed during the removal • The Seminoles were given a portion of the Creek lands and they were at first under Creek rule.

29. http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/andrew-jackson/videos/jackson-cherokees-tariffs-and-nullificationhttp://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/andrew-jackson/videos/jackson-cherokees-tariffs-and-nullification

32. Western Movement • The Five Civilized tribes were not the only Indians to be removed to Indian Territory. Many Western tribes were given land there in exchange or the land they had previously called home. • As they tired of fighting , small groups of Kiowa’s, southern Cheyenne's, and Comanche's signed peace treaties and moved into land designated for them • Two events escalated the Western movement of whites • The Mexican War of 1846-1848 • The discovery of gold in California in 1848

33. The most lawless area of the region was attached neither to the U.S. nor to Indian Territory. It was No Mans Land, which is now the panhandle of Oklahoma Left over after the Texas borders were set no one noticed this orphaned area. For many years the only people in No Mans Land were travelers- traders going to and from Santa Fe, Indians following Buffalo herds, gold-seekers on their way to the west coast, or settlers on their way to Oregon. There was little law in No Mans Land for no state law reigned over it and there was not immediate cause to exercise federal law It became a haven for outlaws. No Man’s Land