What had happened previously to the Native Americans was going to continue in the start of the 1800’s. Thomas Jefferson was inaugurated and believed that the Natives and the Americans would coexist. However, this would entail that Natives drop their tradition of hunting and gathering and convert it to farming. Land was being signed away at ease for blankets, guns, and liquor. At this point they no longer wanted the trouble with the US government.
James Madison became president, and in September of 1809 the Treaty of Fort Wayne was signed. William Henry Harrison rounded up natives along the Wabash River in Ohio, and had the natives sign the treaty. The natives gave up millions of acres along the Wabash River for a measly one or two cents an acre. This resulted in Tenskwatawa leading natives to fight for their land in the Battle of Tippecanoe, and inevitably lose. Now, not only had land been lost, but also a significant amount of native life as well. This was nothing to what was about to happen to the natives as Andrew Jackson would be the new president of the US. Native Americans could not collect money owed by whites because natives weren’t allowed to be court witnesses. Indians were threatened with death unless they packed their bags and moved west. In 1830, president Jackson put into action the Indian Removal Act. Natives were forced out of their homes, sometimes even in chains. The nations tried to fight back legally in the case of Cherokee Nation v. Georgia. Cherokee Nation v. Georgia ruled that dependent nations and not sovereign nations. Although the natives had settled on the land first, they were now considered to be part of the US, whether they wanted to or not. However, neither of these cases made Jackson any less ruthless. He continued on and in 1835, he forced the Treaty of New Echota. This made it so all the Cherokee lands were to now be owned by the US government for a measly 5,600,000 dollars. This responded with the murder of the three main signers, but this didn’t give justice to what the treaty had done. In the end, Jackson realized that they needed to be removed as soon as possible and did so on Trail of Tears. In 1838, 16 thousand Cherokee traveled this path west, and more one third of them didn’t survive to see the end of the path. Between the indian Removal Act and the Trail of Tears, about 190 million acres of Indian land was taken by the US government. The payback for this was about 70 million dollars in gifts. The mistreatment of Native Americans was going to continue. On November 29, 1864, Colonel John Chivington led US cavalry to in the Sand Creek Massacre. Around 150 Cheyenne were murdered in the Colorado Territory. This caused even more blood to be spilled because the natives retaliated when they burned down a town in Julesburg, Colorado. Ten years later the natives show their resilience again and strike back at miners stepping into their territory in the Black Hills. General George Custer leads an attack in retaliation at the Battle of Little Big Horn. However, his impatience leads to him and his 210 troops to their death. Since Europeans landed they’ve had an extreme negative effect on the natives. The natives took beating after beating and did sometimes retaliate. However, these retaliations were usually crushed. The final blow from the whites was the Wounded Knee Massacre. Over 300 natives were killed in Wounded Knee Creek. More horrifically, the majority of them were women and children. This is just a fraction in comparison to all the number of natives who have died. Since Columbus landed, the native population is about one-fifth what it used to be. This is a tragic number considering that the Native Americans are considered native because this was their land and their home. |
Cherokee People