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Indian Removal: Manifest Destiny and the Removal Cherokee

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According to the article, “Cherokee Petition Protesting Removal, 1836”. Along time before, the idea of Indian removal has its origins rooted earlier in the eighteenth-century. A form of Indian removal was first proposed by Thomas Jefferson. However, Native Americans resisted the violent attack of American settlers. Other worker to adapt to American culture and defend themselves using particularly American weapon like lawsuits and petitions. the removal of Cherokee Indians happened during 1838, when the United States military required some 15,000 Cherokees from their homes in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee to relocate them into Indian territory in the Western. The Cherokee people were forced out of their land because of the settler’s greed for everything and anything the land had to offer. Many Cherokee even embraced the civilization program, abandoning their own beliefs so that they may be accepted by white settlers. Unfortunately for the Cherokee though, the settlers would never accept them as an equal citizen. The Cherokee Nation argued that U.S. Indian removal policies were illegal because they violated previous treaties and were not made with the official consent of the Cherokee Nation. In addition, the policies violated American ideals, such as respect for other people’s rights.

First of all, the reason of removal Cherokee is illegal that U.S. Indian did not following the treaty. After revolution, the United States government adopted a diplomatic policy toward many America Indian tribes. They formed several treaties that recognized the sovereignty of American Indian tribes. Indian land claims and treated Indian governments as separate nations within the territory of the United States. Manifest Destiny was the idea that America was destined to expand across the North American continent, from the Atlantic, to the Pacific Ocean. Throughout this time Native Americans were seen as obstacles because they occupied land that the United States needed to conquer to continue with their Manifest Destiny ideal. Many wars were fought between the American’s and the Indians. After the purchase, planters from the Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia entered Florida. However, the influx of settlers into the Florida territory was temporarily halted in the mid-1830s by the outbreak of Second Seminole War (1835-1842) (House Documents). Cherokee lived along the eastern part of the Tennessee River thriving in the bottomlands from Virginia southward, and built their houses in villages, which were separated by daylong walks. Their houses were made of wood and stone, fields planted, nuts and berries gathered, game cued, and tobacco was smoked. The Cherokees predominantly relied upon hunting as their sole source of food and lived peacefully. Their hunting grounds extended from the Mississippi River to the Blue Ridge Mountain and from Central Georgia all the way north to Ohio River. The act of removal was performed by Andrew Jackson who led the campaign to negotiate to remove Indian. Basically, he wants to reduce available land for runaway slaves. Nonetheless, the United States government began to make treaties with Cherokee and other tribes to allow them to remain on their land and guaranteed peace and the integrity of Indian territories, primarily to assure that the lucrative fur trade would continue without interruption know as the “Trail of Tears”. After the Revolutionary War the Cherokee nation placed itself under the protection of the United States and agreed to specified boundaries for its territory by the Treaty of Hopewell in 1785, which was written under the Articles of Confederation. Later the opponents of Indian Removal Act would try using the Treaty of Hopewell to nullify any acts of removal. The first treaty with the Cherokee under the Constitution of the United States was signed in 1793. However, the American government began to break the policies towards Indians. The basic problem was how to get the Indian territory. The American administration viewed four possibilities for the Indians. First, extermination was often favored but impractical. Second, isolation was equally impossible. Third, citizenship many believed the Indians should become citizens, but the Indians refused this. Fourth, removal was at first rejected by the Indians but became the only alternative. The Washington administration continually entertained the notion that once the Indians were proficient in agrarian sciences, they would be able to cede their lands in the east and move westward. Certain Cherokee refused to assimilate into “white” agrarian way of life and voluntarily immigrated to the western regions of the country. These Cherokee were a minority, for most Cherokee stayed in their homelands and worked toward a more civilized way of life.

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United States was a failure to meet obligations to the Indians. Morgan is a professional freelance writer who has written various articles and blog posts that appear on a range of websites. After several years of writing fantasy fiction, she decided to write about the real world she faces every day. During her years of writing professionally, however, she has covered a wide range of topics. The purpose of America’s Westward Expansion is to provide a very ‘native American friendly’ view of the manifest destiny ideal. This article, though very one-sided, had great value to me. In it the author stated that the famous phrase “manifest destiny” was coined by a journalist in 1844. This information enlightened me about the fact that the idea of manifest destiny existed and was being executed for many years before it was actually given a name. This was not something I had ever given thought to, however, I had the misconceived notion that the word came before the definition, which is a false statement when pertaining to any topic. Though it presented some very interesting information, this website was limiting in the fact that it only presented information that was very biased and was very opinion based.

The Indian Removal Act (1830) is an excerpt from The Cherokee Removal: A Brief History which was written and edited by Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green. Theda Perdue is a professor of Southern Culture whose research focuses on the Native peoples of the south-eastern United States. She is the author or co-author of seven books including Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change, 1700-1835 (1998), which won the Julia Cherry Spruill Award for the best book in southern women’s history and the James Mooney Prize for the best book in the anthropology of the South. More recently, she has published ‘Mixed Blood’ Indians: Racial Construction in the Early South (2003) and, with co-author Michael D. Green, The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Southeast (2001) and The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears (2007). The excerpt Indian Removal Act (1830) is used to get the exact facts that were used against the Native Americans by the Americans. This was very valuable because instead of being an article that was biased either towards the Americans or the Native Americans, this article provides basic facts that are not skewed either way. It simply states the facts of the Indian Removal Act that was put in place by the United States congress. This unbiased form, however, does provide a limitation. It does not show or tell how this act affected the Native Americans or the Americans.

In the 1800’s the Native American’s land was invaded and they were forced to evacuate and live on reservations. Due to the fact that Native American were labeled as “hostile” during the Indian Wars, many of them were massacred by the Union Army. The reservations that the Native Americans were put on were not a solution for the problem because the Americans were not satisfied with having the Native Americans there either. White men took over Indian Territory and reservations and settled on it. Events such as the Indian Wars, the Trail of Tears and others show the many obstacles that the Native Americans had to overcome and how indiscriminately they were killed by white men. In the 1830’s, because white men considered them to be a threat to peace, the Federal government had the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole tribes removed from their native land. The land they were moved to was called “Indian Territory,” which is modern day Oklahoma. The Indian Wars, a series of bloody battles, began many years after the end of the Civil War. It ended in 1890 with the massacre at Wounded Knee. In various battles the Native Americans were lead by Chief Joseph, Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull while the Americans were led by Generals Sherman, Custer, and Gabon. The Native American tribes, which were wrongfully labeled as “hostile”, were moved under cruel conditions to their new locations. Even after they were relocated, the Americans were still not appeased. More land was still being taken from the Native American tribes just because the Americans wanted to fulfill a “destiny” they had.

The idea of Manifest Destiny almost caused the eradication of an entire group of people. Though Manifest Destiny was supposed to be for the betterment of the United States, it hurt another civilization in the process. In my opinion, this was completely unnecessary and was incredibly selfish. If one country rises above the others and everything else is in shambles below it, nothing is really gained. It makes more sense for everything to be even and for everyone to be able to contribute to making the world a better place. The fact that the American’s were not appeased even after the Native American’s were relocated makes no sense. This entire situation was also handled very poorly. Firstly, the United States should have implemented the Manifest Destiny ideal only on land was not previously occupied. This land that the United States attempted to take over was not just land to the Native Americans. It was extremely sacred to them and they believed that they had a special connection with it. The next big problem that was made was that when the American’s were not getting their way, they decided to take force and manipulate the Native Americans until they got what they wanted. This is not the way to get what one wants without conflict. If the Americans had used a little more compassion when dealing with the land issue with the Native Americans, maybe a few wars could have been avoided and many lives could have been saved. Though Manifest Destiny aided America in its quest for land gain, it greatly hurt the population of Native Americans and the resources they used to remain alive. I firmly believe that the betterment of one group of people is not worth the destruction of another.




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