Sparknotes Citizens Of A Stolen Land

The Lakota, an Indian group of the Great Plains, established their community in the Black Hills in the late eighteenth century (9). This group is an example of an Indian community that got severely oppressed through imperialistic American actions and policy, as the Americans failed to recognize the Lakota’s sovereignty and ownership of the Black Hills. Jeffrey Ostler, author of The Lakotas and the Black Hills: The Struggle for Sacred Ground, shows that the Lakota exemplified the trends and subsequent challenges that Indians faced in America. These challenges included the plurality of groups, a shared colonial experience, dynamic change, external structural forces, and historical agency.

Even though the U.S. got more land from the Indian Removal Act and gave the Indians a new home with covered expenses it was a downcast for many Native tribes and a miserable event throughout history. In the writing of John G. Burnett’s Story of the Cherokees, he discusses how terrible and sad the removal of the Indians were and how it negatively affected the Indians. Specifically, “Woman were dragged from their homes”(2),”Children were often separated from parents, with the sky for a blanket and the earth as a pillow.”(2) In general, all of the Indians and even the women and kids were treated horrible as if they were seen as savages, and as if they were animals. Although, when being treated like savages, were the Indians the true savages or

With the new American ideals of expansion and obsession over land, the Natives believed that Congress wasn’t respecting their Constitutional rights as domestic dependent nation. This belief led to hostility towards Congress which took many different forms. For example, John Ross the principal chief of the Cherokee tribe took a more diplomatic form of protest as he tried to bargaining with Congress. In an attempt to eradicate the removal act, Ross tried to “appeal to Jackson to enforce what they understood to be the protective guarantees embodied in previous treaties.” (Trail of tears pg 89) By using America’s word against itself, John Ross put up a formidable defense

Having little knowledge of the Cherokee removal and the history that took place in this moment in America’s past, the book Trail of Tears: Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation by John Ehle, offers an insight to the politics, social dynamics and class struggles the Cherokee Nation faced in the late 1830s. The book was very comprehensive and the scope of the book covers nearly 100 years of Native American History. Ehle captures the history of the Native American people by showing the readers what led to the events infamously known as the Trail of Tears. The author uses real military orders, journals, and letters which aid in creating a book that keeps

This book is about the removal of Native American’s in the 1830’s by the government. The Indian Removal Act was approved by Andrew Jackson, and was brutally forced onto all eastern native American tribes. The Indians were forced to move out west and away from the land where they were raised. Horrific times in U.S. but beautiful observations of nature and the Indians interesting rituals were made by Jahoda. Influential, disheartening, and terrible tale of the American Indian removal from east to west. Jahoda points out the senselessness of removing the Indians from their native land and portrays Jackson as being ruthless and greedy. Specifically, this book goes into detail of everything they were put through by the white men. Many Indians died due to the harsh conditions, starvation, diseases contracted from the white men, and the violence from fighting. The Red Eagle incident was bringing in the gradual manipulation and removal of the native tribes because the Indians weren't united: the removal and relocation was made easier because of this. The exile to their new lands were brought on with fighting and death with little remorse by the military. The false promises and deception; the fighting among tribes contributed to the extermination. There were so few American’s that were white that truly wanted to help

The early 1800s was an era of progressive action in regards to the Native populations of the United States - growing populations of western-bound individuals required that the already-present Natives be formally addressed. As Meriwether Lewis among others documented what the far-west was really like, Thomas Jefferson spoke of the ideals he held concerning the junction between Indians and Americans. Upon comparing Lewis’s discoveries and Jefferson’s wishes, we are able to discuss several things: the inconsistencies in Jefferson’s expectations versus reality, the two men’s thoughts on the potential for Native assimilation into American society, and the success (or lack thereof) of such assimilation.

To shed light on a difficult and brutal moment in American history, authors James W. Parins and Daniel F. Littlefield compiled a two-volume book about the horrors of the Indian removal act. In it were bear witness to the atrocities committed against the “Five Civilized Tribes” as they are forcibly removed from their ancestral homeland. Parins and Littlefield give clear clinical accounts of the Cherokee Nation’s struggle in arguing for its national sovereignty as well as its failure to prevent the impediment by the state of Georgia into its territories. Disillusioned at any hope of repealing the influx of removal by Georgia, some Cherokees abandon their homes while others were forcibly removed. Those that did leave peacefully enough left with what they could take with them including those who were kept in bondage. Though bounded to the land in the Cherokee Nation, these slaves faced a precarious disposition much the same as their masters magnified only by their servitude which traveled with them. They suffered the same hardships and underwent the same ordeals on the great trek to new Indian Territory. Yet despite this knowledge, not much of what happened is widely presented to

In this chapter Howard Zinn explores the reasons why and how the Native populations in existence in America, during this time, were pushed onto reservations located on lands undesirable to white settlers. In the beginning Zinn reveals most Natives fought alongside the British in the Revolutionary War, which gives reason for the two groups to harbor harsh feelings towards each other. However, he then goes on to present the overall message of the George Washington administration, which was to leave the Natives alone as they were entitled to their lands. Yet, this idea was obviously shattered as soon as the country wanted to further advance its territory and its bank accounts, according the Zinn. In fact, the lands were being used up by so many white settlers the Natives, specifically the Creeks, had to continually move to give the plantations room to settle. As a result, this constant manipulation and movement caused uproar within the Native communities and inspired revolutions and revolts, such as the rebellion organized by Tecumseh. Eventually, as the US government was able to defend itself and recruit other Native peoples, it was able to defeat and usurp essentially all of the uprisings, especially under Andrew Jackson’s command. In fact, after Jackson’s reelection, his anti-Indian raids and wars increased in frequency and ruthlessness. Eventually, in December of 1838, almost all of the Natives, specifically the Cherokee Nation of Indians, had been forced out of the

Native Americans have been oppressed, discriminated against, and mistreated since the Europeans first came to America. Countless Native Americans have died at the hands of white settlers. One of the worst accounts of their mistreatment, however, was the Trail of Tears. The “Nunna dual Tsuny,” as the Cherokee call it, refers to the forced mass movement of Cherokee people to Indian Territory in Arkansas and Oklahoma. (Hook, 6-8) It was a tragic event in the history of the United States.

The day the colonists first set foot on American soil marked the beginning of an arduous struggle for Native Americans. When the colonists first arrived, there were ten million Native Americans; over the next three centuries, over 90% of the entire population was wiped out due to the white man. The removal of Native Americans marks a humiliating period of United States history. President Andrew Jackson attempted to consolidate the Native Americans when he told them “‘circumstances render it impossible that [they could] flourish in the midst of a civilized community. [They] have but one remedy within [their] reach, and that is to remove to the west. And the sooner [they] do this, the sooner [they] will commence your career of improvement and prosperity.’” In contrast to Jackson’s justification for removal, historians such as Charles Hudson describe removal as a “‘gentle, almost antiseptic word for one of the harshest, most crudely opportunistic acts in American history.’” A number of American people were opposed to removal, the most notorious of which included newspaper editor Noh-Noh-He-Tsu-Nageh. Author Walter T. Durham seeks to illustrate the abdominal nature of Cherokee Removal in his article "Noh-Noh-He-Tsu-Nageh and the Cherokee Removal” through Noh-Noh-He-Tsu’s personal accounts and through the flaws of the various treaties signed with the Native Americans.

Most Americans have at least some vague image of the Trail of Tears, but not very many know of the events that led to that tragic removal of several thousand Indians from their homeland. Indian lands were held hostage by the states and the federal government, and Indians had to agree to removal to preserve their identity as tribes. Trail of Tears is an excellent snapshot of a particular situation and will be eye opening to those who are not familiar with the story of the southern tribes and their interactions with the burgeoning American population. The Trail of Tears has become the symbol in American history that signifies the callousness of American policy makers toward American Indians in 1839 and 1839.

America’s greatest flaw throughout history is how it treats its minorities, especially the Native Americans. From the beginning of European involvement in America, Native Americans have been cheated and mistreated. Even before the United States became a country, European traders would do whatever they could to make a profit, even use the diseases that they carried to begin an epidemic. As shown in the early Franciscan missions, Native Americans were considered heathens that were, at best, simply objects of conversion and at worst subhuman converts that could be used to till fields until they died of disease or maltreatment. Treaties with Native Americans were rarely honored, and they were used as mere pawns in struggles such as the French and Indian War. In “the land of the free”, Native Americans were systematically denied their “inalienable rights,” and the period that most clearly shows this are the 19th and early 20th century. Government policy regarding Native Americans changed from the 1830s to the 1930s, often reflecting the way Native Americans were viewed in that time period.

In 1836, the United States and the state of Georgia forced the Cherokee Indian tribe to leave their home in Georgia and move on to the West. Long story short, the tribe did not want to move, and they also trusted that they had the legal right to stay. In the early 1830’s this disagreement brought two movements at law in the Supreme Court

The Trail of Tears was a testament to the cruelty and disrespect we showed toward the Native Americans. This paper will show how the United States used its legislative power and brute force to remove the Indian tribes. From the election of Andrew Jackson, and the implementation of the Indian Removal Act. The Creeks, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole and their actions against the removal process. Finally, how the Cherokee used the legal process to fight evacuation of their nation.

Debate has reopened on a subject surrounded by controversy and a shameful history. Dating back to the 1800’s, American Indian Reservations and treaty agreements are little-understood by today’s mainstream society. A recent article on Native American Policy addresses some important questions about whether Native Americans should be integrated into mainstream life in the United States, and if sovereignty and segregation are the best policy for American Indian welfare (“Native American Policy”).