DO NOT EDIT--Changes must be made through “File info” CorrectionKey=TX-A SECTION 3 Indian Removal TEKS 5G, 10A, 10B, 18B, 22B, 23C If YOU were there... You belong to the Cherokee nation. Your family has farmed rich What You Will Learn… lands in Georgia for as long as anyone can remember. You’ve learned some new ways from white settlers, too. At school you’ve Main Ideas 1. The Indian Removal Act learned to read both English and Cherokee. But now that doesn’t authorized the relocation of seem important. The U.S. government is sending you and your Native Americans to the West. 2. Cherokee resistance to people far away to unknown places in the West. removal led to disagreement between Jackson and the How would you feel about being Supreme Court. taken away from your home? 3. Other Native Americans resisted removal with force. The Big Idea BUILDING BACKGROUND President Andrew Jackson had become President Jackson supported a policy of Indian removal. famous as an American Indian fighter. He had no sympathy with Native Americans’ claim to the lands where they had always lived. With public support, he reversed the government’s pledge to respect Indian land Key Terms and People claims. The result was the brutal removal of the southeastern peoples to Indian Removal Act, p. 332 empty lands in the West. Indian Territory, p. 332 Bureau of Indian Affairs, p. 332 Sequoya, p. 333 Worcester v. Georgia, p. 334 Indian Removal Act Trail of Tears, p. 334 Native Americans had long lived in settlements stretching from Black Hawk, p. 335 Georgia to Mississippi. However, President Jackson and other politi- Osceola, p. 335 cal leaders wanted to open this land to settlement by American farmers. Under pressure from Jackson, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, authorizing the removal of Native Americans who lived east of the Mississippi River to lands in the West. Use the graphic organizer online Congress then established Indian Territory — U.S. land in what to take notes on the steps Andrew Jackson and the U.S. government is now Oklahoma—and planned to move Native Americans there. took toward Indian removal. Some supporters of this plan, like John C. Calhoun, argued that removal to Indian Territory would protect Indians from further conflicts with American settlers. “One of the greatest evils to which they are subject is that incessant [constant] pressure of our popula- tion,” he noted. “To guard against this evil . there ought to be the strongest . assurance that the country given [to] them should be theirs.” To manage Indian removal to western lands, Congress approved the creation of a new government agency, the Bureau of Indian Affairs. 332 CHAPTER 10 DO NOT EDIT--Changes must be made through “File info” CorrectionKey=TX-A Indian Removal During the Trail of Tears, thousands of Cherokee died from disease, starvation, and harsh weather. They were forced to walk hundreds of miles to their new land in the West. Other Native Americans were also moved, with similar results. What can you see in this painting that indi- cates this was a difficult journey? VIDEO Jackson: The Choctaw were the first Indians sent READING CHECK Finding Main Ideas What Cherokees, Tariffs to Indian Territory. The Mississippi legislature major changes did President Jackson make to U.S. and Nullification abolished the Choctaw government and then policy regarding Native Americans? forced the Choctaw leaders to sign the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. This treaty gave more than 7.5 million acres of their land to the state. Cherokee Resistance The Choctaw moved to Indian Territory dur- Many Cherokee had believed that they could ing a disastrous winter trip. Federal officials in prevent conflicts and avoid removal by AC ADEMIC charge of the move did not provide enough adopting the contemporary culture of white VOCY ABULAR food or supplies to the Choctaw, most of people. In the early 1800s they invited mis- contemporary whom were on foot. About one-fourth of the sionaries to set up schools where Cherokee existing at the same time Choctaw died of cold, disease, or starvation. children learned how to read and write in News of the Choctaw’s hardships caused English. The Cherokee developed their own other Indians to resist removal. When the government modeled after the U.S. Consti- Creek resisted in 1836, federal troops moved tution with an election system, a bicameral in and captured some 14,500 of them. They council, and a court system. All of these were led the Creek, many in chains, to Indian Ter- headed by a principal chief. ritory. One Creek woman remembered the A Cherokee named Sequoya used 86 trip being filled with “the awful silence that characters to represent Cherokee syllables to showed the heartaches and sorrow at being create a writing system for their own com- taken from the homes and even separation plex language. In 1828 the Cherokee began from loved ones.” The Chickasaw, who lived publishing a newspaper printed in both Eng- in upper Mississippi, negotiated a treaty for lish and Cherokee. better supplies on their trip to Indian Ter- The adoption of white culture did not pro- ritory. Nevertheless, many Chickasaw lives tect the Cherokee. After gold was discovered were also lost during removal. on their land in Georgia, their treaty rights THE AGE OF JACKSON 333 DO NOT EDIT--Changes must be made through “File info” CorrectionKey=TX-A THE IMPACT were ignored. Georgia leaders began prepar- enforcing the Court’s decision, Jackson vio- TODAY ing for the Cherokee’s removal. When they lated his presidential oath to uphold the laws Members of the refused to move, the Georgia militia began of the land. However, most members of Con- Cherokee Nation attacking Cherokee towns. In response, the gress and American citizens did not protest of northeastern Oklahoma are Cherokee sued the state. They said that they the ways Jackson removed Native Americans. descendants of were an independent nation and claimed In the spring of 1838, U.S. troops began the Cherokee who that the government of Georgia had no legal to remove all Cherokee to Indian Territory. were removed to Indian Territory. power over their lands. A few were able to escape and hide in the The group’s In 1832 the Supreme Court, under the mountains of North Carolina. After the population is leadership of Chief Justice John Marshall, Cherokee were removed, Georgia took their almost 300,000 and is the largest agreed. In Worcester v. Georgia the Court businesses, farms, and property. tribal nation in ruled that the Cherokee nation was a distinct The Cherokee’s 800-mile forced march the United States. community in which the laws of Georgia became known as the Trail of Tears. During Members of the Eastern Band of had no force. The Court also stated that only the march, the Cherokee suffered from dis- Cherokee Indians the federal government, not the states, had ease, hunger, and harsh weather. Almost one- are descendants authority over Native Americans. fourth of the 18,000 Cherokee died on the of the Cherokee who escaped Georgia, however, ignored the Court’s march. removal. The ruling, and President Jackson took no action 12,500 members to make Georgia follow the ruling. “John READING CHECK Finding Main Ideas of this group live Marshall has made his decision; now let him What was the Worcester v. Georgia ruling, and mostly in western North Carolina. enforce it,” Jackson supposedly said. By not what was Jackson’s response? Primary Source PERSONAL ACCOUNTS March 10, 1838 Trail of Tears Beloved Martha, I have delayed writing to The Cherokee knew that they you so long . If we Cherokees are to be driv- would be forced to march West, en to the west by the cruel hand of oppres- but they did not know that so many of their people would sion to seek a new home in the west, it will die on the way. Here are two be impossible . It is thus all our rights are accounts of the Trail of Tears, one invaded.” written before it started and one written after, both by —Letter from Jenny, a Cherokee girl, just before her removal Cherokee who made the trip. “Long time we travel on way to new land. People feel bad when they leave Old Nation. Women cry and make sad wails, Children cry and many ANALYSIS men cry . but they say nothing and just put SKILL ANALYZING POINTS OF VIEW heads down and keep on go towards West. Many 1. What is different about the concerns of the Cherokee before and after the Trail of Tears? days pass and people die very much.” 2. How do you think the survivors of the Trail —Recollections of a survivor of the Trail of Tears of Tears felt when they reached Indian Territory? 334 CHAPTER 10 DO NOT EDIT--Changes must be made through “File info” CorrectionKey=TX-A Other Native Second Seminole War 30N Americans Resist FLORIDA N TERRITORY Fort Mellon 1837 Other Native Americans decided to fight W E Clinch's Battle ATLANTIC 1835 OCEAN U.S. troops to avoid removal. Chief Black S Dade's Massacre Fort Armstrong Hawk, a leader of Fox and Sauk Indians, led 1835 1836 Gulf of Mexico Okeechobee his people in a struggle to protect their lands 1837 in Illinois. By 1832, however, the Sauk forc- Fort Jupiter Indian lands 1838 es were running out of food and supplies, given up by treaty Lake Okeechobee Battles Fort Lauderdale and by 1850 they had been forced to leave. 1842 0 50 100 Miles In Florida, Seminole leaders were forced 0 50 100 Kilometers to sign a removal treaty that their followers 80W GEOGRAPHY decided to ignore.