Hopewell Gum Research Paper

The law was passed that all Natives had to leave. Cherokees believed even if they stayed they would still have to deal with all the troublesome White neighbors, therefore their best option was to leave. There was nothing they could do because the whites were too powerful as said in doc 5. “It is argued that they can never remain quiet where they are;n that they will always be infested by troublesome whites; and that the states, which lay claim their territory, will always preserve in measures to vex and annoy them.” The Natives didn’t understand why the white people wanted them gone so bad, because the white people tried so hard to change the Natives culture to make them act like the white people. The Natives changed they way they acted, worked, and how they looked. In doc 7 it says “ The Cherokees have been reclaimed from their wild habits. Instead of hunters, they have become the cultivators of the soil instead of wild and ferocious savages, thirsting for blood, they become the mild “citizens.” The Cherokees were really upset, because not only were they leaving what had now become their norm they were also leaving their land which had been passed down through their family. The Cherokees started a petition to the United States asking for them to fulfill their treaty they had made. In doc 9. It says “ Cherokee people used no violence but humbly petitioned the Government of the United States for a fulfillment of treaty

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. A quote from historian Richard White says it very well, “The Cherokee are probably the most tragic instance of what could have succeeded in American Indian policy and didn’t. All these things that Americans would proudly see as the hallmarks of civilization are going to the West by Indian people. They do everything they were asked except one thing. What the Cherokees ultimately

The Treaty of Hopewell in 1785 established borders between the United States and the Cherokee Nation offered the Cherokees the right to send a “deputy” to Congress, and made American settlers in Cherokee territory subject to Cherokee law. With help from John Ross they helped protect the national territory. In 1825 the Cherokees capital was established, near present day Calhoun Georgia. The Cherokee National Council advised the United States that it would refuse future cession request and enacted a law prohibiting the sale of national land upon penalty of death. In 1827 the Cherokees adopted a written constitution, an act further removed by Georgia. But between the years of 1827 and 1831 the Georgia legislature extended the state’s jurisdiction over the Cherokee territory, passed laws purporting to abolish the Cherokees’ laws and government, and set in motion a process to seize the Cherokees’ lands, divide it into parcels, and other offer some to the lottery to the white Georgians.

up Cherokee lands for very few dollars. This proposal had not been approved by the

The U.S. Government had many reasons or why the Cherokee removal was a good idea. One reason was even though Major Ridge, the Cherokee who signed the Treaty of New Echota, had no legal right to sign it, they still had a Cherokee signature (Exhibit J). They said Major Ridge claimed he represented all Cherokee when he only represented about 2000 Cherokee. Another good reason for the removal was that moving would likely save the Cherokee’s culture. If they stayed, they

Paper has to be followed. One treaty the cherokee signed is the echota treaty . this treaty costed 3 lives of men this treaty consisted of the forcible removal of cherokee’s from georgia. The treaty of new echota was signed

In Chapter 6, Wilkins discusses how the disclaimer clauses. These clauses keep states from exercising authority on Indian land (180). They are an “important but often overlooked tool in the arsenal available to tribes to assert their own sovereignty against state threats” (177). A specific example of a disclaimer clause is Wisconsin’s territorial disclaimer of 1836 which prohibited territories or states from having any authority on Indian land (180). In Native American Church v. Navajo Tribal Council (1959) it was declared that Indian tribes actually have a higher status than states (179). This was a major victory for Indians in their fight for sovereignty. United States v. Rickert (1903) was also a win for sovereignty in that the Court prohibited South Dakota from taxing Indian land (185).After the verdict in Seminole Tribe v. Florida (1996), the balance of power between state and federal government leaned towards the states. Before this, negotiations with tribes had been conducted at the federal level and not with states (187). This was against the idea of sovereignty because now the states had more power over the tribes and could abuse that power for personal gain.

The reason the Ojibwe Indians were entitled to the treaty rights because they never sold or bargained those privileges away. The Ojibwe Indians reserved rights such as fishing, hunting and gathering of plant resources when the land was sold to the United States.

Until 1828, the federal government agreed that Cherokee had rights to their land, but when Andrew Jackson was elected President, that all ended. Jackson refused to believe that the tribes were sovereign and thus viewed Indian treaties, as an absurdity

Since international law said that England had discovered the American colonies, they therefore owned all of the land. That meant that the natives or "uncivilized" people no longer owned the land. This group of the "uncivilized" consisted of many Indian tribes which were forced out of their homeland, including the Cherokee.

The Cherokee tribe had lost a vast amount of land by siding with the British during the

In 1831, the Cherokee nation went to court against the state of Georgia. They were disputing the state’s attempt to hold jurisdiction over their territory. Unfortunately, because they are not under the laws of the constitution, the Indian’s right to court was denied. It was not until 1835 that the Cherokee finally agreed to sign the treaty, giving up their Georgia land for that of Oklahoma.

In 1835, the Treaty of Echota was negotiated by President Jackson and Major Ridge along with self-appointed representatives of the Cherokee Nation (History). These representatives of the Cherokee Nation were known as the Treaty Party and totaled about 100 people. The council of the Cherokee Nation had previously passed a law that stated that anyone who gave up their ancestral land would be put to death. So by signing this treaty, most of the Treaty Party would be put to death upon arrival to their new land (“A Brief History”).

The whole point of the meeting was to come to an agreement over disputes of land claims between colonies and Indian nations including the Iroquois. Though, through trickery, the Iroquois had ceded to the colonies land “from sea to sea”.2(p. 187) This meant land from the Ohio Valley all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Needless to say the Indians involved were disappointed and angered.

The Cherokee tribe have lived what is now Northern Georgia for more than one hundred years. So it is claimed to be there land and therefore they have the right to stay and turn down the offer. Another argument is that the Cherokee had against the Americans is that there family, homes, and everything they know would have been taken away from them. Although the Americans have gave them fortune such as 70,000 square miles of land and millions of dollars if they leave. The Cherokee wasn’t aware of what awaits them if they did move to the new land.