On U.S. Indian Policy Essay

The debate over the legality of sovereignty and acquired lands from the native Americans, specifically the Cherokee, has long been debated. The issues involved have included treaties, land sold, and the right of the Government to physically enforce their rules on Indian land "sovereignty". This paper will examine the strategy used by the Federal Governments, the State Governments as well as those of the Cherokee Indians. The three-way relationship as well as the issues will examine how the interpretation of the Constitution changed society prior to the year of 1840.

The American Indian Movement is an organization in the United States that attempts to bring attention to the injustice and unfair treatment of American Indians. Aside from that, the AIM works for better protection and care for the American Indians and their families. They have been changing the American perception of Indians since the late 1960’s, as well as aiding our awareness of their existence.

The Indian Act was an attempt by the Canadian government to assimilate the aboriginals into the Canadian society through means such as Enfranchisement, the creation of elective band councils, the banning of aboriginals seeking legal help, and through the process of providing the Superintendent General of the Indian Affairs extreme control over the aboriginals, such as allowing the Superintendent to decide who receives certain benefits, during the earlier stages of the Canadian-Indigenous' political interaction. The failure of the Indian Act though only led to more confusion regarding the interaction of Canada and the aboriginals, giving birth to the failed White Paper and the unconstitutional Bill C-31,

America had standing treaties with Native tribes and regardless on the disagreement between the Americans way of life and the Native’s treaties cannot just be dissolved at whim (document A). The Cherokees have made many extreme efforts to assimilate to us culture. They even went so far to create a constitution that designed a government that resembled the US’s immensely. Which gives them the right to be dealt with like any other foreign nation (document E).in the simplest plea Natives are members of the human family who act by human nature just as Americans do (document C). The southern tribes are human being that did not get the basic right that they should have as Foreign nations should, making their removal

The government tried to make the Indians happy by signing treaties at Fort Laramie in 1851 and Fort Atkinson in 1853 with Chiefs of Tribes, so that they would retreat, and let the whites have their lands. The problem with this was the whites thought that the chiefs represented all the Indians in that tribe, but most of the Native Americans didn’t recognize authorities outside of their families. In the treaties, they promised Indians they wouldn’t be bothered if they moved into small reservations, such as Dakota Territory. They were also promised food, clothing, and other supplies, if they would surrender their lands. The problems Indians had after moving into the reservations, were some of the Indian agents were corrupt, and would only give them moth eaten blankets, spoiled beef, and other defective provisions. One of the acts of cruelty against Indians happened, “In 1864, at Sand Creek, Colorado, Colonial J. M. Chivington’s militia massacred in cold blood some four hundred Indians who apparently thought they had been promised unity” (576). In other words, J.M Chivington’s militia brutally murdered and tortured about four hundred peaceful Indians, just to make sure they wouldn’t cause any trouble. Another act of cruelty against Indians happened at the Battle of Little Bighorn. The Battle of Little Bighorn, began because Colonel George Custer, found gold in Black Hills of South

Despite the fact that the Intercourse Act was designed to keep settlers from occupying Indian land without a treaty, Americans did not heed this and began chasing off and even killing many Indians so as to take their land and no white jury would punish them for this. To add to the problem, settlers moved west ahead of the treaties and populated land that belonged to the Indians. The Indians were not willing to stand for this type of injustice and revolts broke out such as the battle between the Miamis, Little Turtle, and General St. Clair in 1791 which was the largest defeat of whites by Indians thus far (Faragher 206-207). Conflicts continued to escalate as the mood in the nation became one of Indian resentment of whites and American supremacy over the “savages”.

Originally Native American tribes were viewed as their own Nations. They owned their own land and could make up their own rules. Most importantly, the United States government did not have authority over them. However, by 1838 this had all changed. The Cherokee Indians had been forced to give up their ancestral land and walk to their new, United States government determined, land. not only did this go against policy, it resulted in the death of many Cherokees as they were forced to walk hundreds of miles. As shown through the Trail of Tears, Later federal policy towards Native Americans Became both more heartless and more harmful. especially when it's put in contrast with the earlier fairer

The military doctrine at the time of Western expansion and the Indian Wars is hard to isolate and condense into a succinct statement. This is due to the fact the United States government wanted to treat the Native Americans with decency while also herding them into smaller areas of land and confining them onto reservations. This “peace policy” was complicated by an excitable populace that was keen on seeking revenge against any suspected provocation from a Native American tribe. Altercations often resulted in the United States military intervening to restore what was being defined at that time as “peace”. Once the military became involved in the pursuit of any tribe, human decency was often pushed to the side in multiple demonstrative manners of ineffective, immoral, and otherwise negative leadership. For example, there were countless murders of innocent Native American noncombatants during the late 19th century; referencing to the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 in Colorado or the Wounded Knee Massacre of

In Letter from Governor Edmund Ross of New Mexico to President Grover Cleveland, Governor Edmund Ross wrote to President Grover Cleveland regarding the white residents’ reactions towards Geronimo’s escape from military custody and Ross’ attempt to further convince the government to rid and even potentially kill off some of the American Indian tribes surrounding their settlements. Despite their small number, which was a population of “less than five hundred”[ Kent McGaughy, American Perspectives: Readings in American History, Volume 2 (New York City: Pearson Education, Inc., 2015), Page 80] people, the white settlers felt uneasy about the fact that they lived in such close proximities to them. They believed that if some of the tribes (particularly, the Chiricahua and the Warm Springs bands of the Apaches group) were removed, they would feel safer. Moreover, they believed that the tribe’s removal would have a positive and tranquil impact on the settlers’ territories and industries as they believed the American Indians’ “constant war with the white race”[ McGaughy, Page 80] hindered their way of life.

The mid 1800’s bore witness to one of our nation’s greatest shames, an act nearly as terrible as that of slavery itself. There had always been tension between the native populations of the Americas and the Europeans since the very first settlers arrived, yet 1830 saw one of the worst acts perpetrated on the native populations by the newly formed United States. During the war of 1812, Andrew Jackson oversaw several defeats of Native American forces when he was General which seized hundreds of millions of acres of land, and ended the chance of a British-backed Native American confederacy in the Midwest. Later when he took the office of President, Jackson continued his mission of providing ‘national security’ to the States by pressuring congress to pass the “Indian Removal Act.”

PBS, n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2015. This article starts off by stating the problem for the early American settlers, which are the Native Americans, and then states how Andrew Jackson, the American President at the time, handled the Native Americans. The next couple of paragraphs talk about Jackson’s agreement treaties with the Native Americans and their movement westward. To try to avoid these movement plans, the Natives thought of non-violent rebellion strategies such as farming and creating a constitution. The next couple paragraphs explains President Jackson’s Indian Removal Act and explains the reactions of the American colonists. Many Indian tribes try to refuse to sign any treaties as long as possible, but eventually forced to by the American military; The Trail Of Tears among this forceful

1~ Even if the indias change in looks, in the hearts they are still savages

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

This essay will be examine the US government’s effort to “deal” with the Indians from 1877 through 1900 to include warfare, treaties, and the Reservation System. Indian Territory was a promising land with a lot of investing potential for railroad and mining, the perception of American’s ethnocentrism (white supremacy), and Americans think that Whites were more evolved than the Indians because they were more intellectual and educated than the Indians, so the US’s government put in their efforts to forcefully “deal” with the Indians to settle both parties’ interests.

Some of the policies that America made with Native Americans were broken promises and lies. Some of these would include the 1787 Northwest Ordinance, which stated that they should have been treated with the “utmost good faith” and their lands to not be taken from them, yet settlers had military protection that helped them take over territory,