St. Lucy's Trials

Jackson faced with a domestic affair called the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The Act established a process where the President could grant land west of the Mississippi River to Indian tribes that agreed to give up their homelands. The U.S. government tried to move the Indians from their ;lands. This failed because the government would be violating both treaties and Supreme Court to facilitate the spread of European Americans westward. In 1814, Major General Andrew Jackson led an expedition against the Creek Indians climaxing in the Battle of Horse Shoe Bend, where he defeated the Creeks and destroyed their military power. He forced the Indians upon a treaty to give up over twenty one million acres of their traditional land. Over the next decade, Mr. Jackson led the way in the Indian removal campaign, helping to negotiate nin of the eleven major treaties to remove Indians. Mr. Jackson encouraged the Congress to pass the Removal Act of 1830. By the end of his presidency, he had signed into law almost seventy removal treaties.

Robert V. Remini shows that Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act benefits the Native Americans. Andrew Jackson made notice of the issue with the Indians in his inaugural speech on March 4, 1829. He declared that he wanted to give humane and considerable attention to the Indian’s rights and wants in respect to the government and people. Jackson knew that meant to get rid of all remaining tribes beyond the Mississippi River. He (Jackson) believed that the Indians would be better off in the west; without the influence from the white man or local authority. Jackson hired two Tennessee generals to go visit the Creeks and Cherokees to see if the Indians would leave voluntarily. In that, those who did not leave would be protected by the

Throughout Jackson’s presidency, Jackson was prone to making questionable decisions. One of Jackson’s most monumental blunders was when he decided to relocate tens of thousands of innocent Native Americans. Jackson was a huge fan of the idea of Americans moving westward to unsettled areas. The Native Americans occupied the areas that Jackson wanted to transform into American cities. That did not halt Jackson from doing what he desired. Jackson displayed his egocentric behavior and called for the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Jackson wanted to move the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminole nations from their southeastern homes to Oklahoma. The Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminole nations all somewhat cooperatively deserted their homes at the request of the Americans with little fight. These nations forfeited their land, homes and possessions to walk the Trail of Tears, an 850-mile path from the southeastern states to Oklahoma. American soldiers forcefully kept the Natives moving without breaks. Throughout the trek, thousands of Natives died from sickness and starvation. One tribe, the Cherokees from Georgia,

In 1830, the Jackson administration instated the Indian Removal Act. This act removed the Native Americans from their ancestral lands to make way for an increase of additional American immigrants. This act forced many Native American tribes from their homes including five larger tribes, Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creek, and Seminole. These tribes had populations were estimated to be around 65,000 people strong that lived in North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi. (Foner, 2012) The American Indians fought for their rights and beliefs through the American court system. Their other objective other than fighting for their rights was but in the end, they were forced out of their homes to move

In the year of 1828, the president Andrew Jackson was appointed to the office of the American government with this the fact of the remaining Indians tribes were important which were named “The Five Civilized Tribes” including the Cherokee and with the pass of the “Treaty of Etocha” forced the Cherokee out of the land of Georgia also known as the “Trail of Tears” where thousands upon thousands of Cherokee were killed during the extraction of the Cherokee’s land.

John Burnett witnessed the helpless Cherokees pulled from their homes and driven at bayonet point. They were herded into wagons and headed westward. Most of the Cherokee people did not have sufficient cover to protect against the harsh climate. By the time the westward journey ended, four thousand Cherokees had died all because the whites wanted their land. The Cherokee sent an envoy to Jackson to which Jackson decreed that all of their land must be given to the white people [Doc 3].

Native American’s and the girls in St. Lucy’s lost loved ones during the change in culture. Native Americans were beaten, tortured and even killed so other Native Americans would change cultures. According to Carolyn J. Marr “At Chemawa, a cemetery contains headstones of 189 students who died at the school, and these represent only the ones whose bodies were not returned home for burial” that the school was harsh and treated the kids poorly which resulted in deaths of kids. The girls in St Lucy’s experienced the same hash punishments but they were not severe, as the Native Americans punishments were. The nuns were serious about changing the girls from wolves to humans, if one girl could not adapt to the culture then they would be kicked out

Most Indians were taken or killed on the trail, but not all; the ones that stayed join the society to escape moving to the west. Around 100,000 Native Americans were removed, not killed. The main tribes that were removed were the Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole (“Trail of Tears”). In 1838 the first group was 3,000, but there was 12,000 remained in military camps (McGill). In 1837 the first tribe to be removed was the Choctaw, follow by the Chickasaw (Blackbarn). After the Chickasaw, the Cherokee were forced in 1838 to 1839, and the Cherokee were the last tribe (McGill).

The Indian Removal Act, inspired by Andrew Jackson; the 7th president of the US and the enhanced ambition for American settlers to find more land in the southwestern regions of North America. The Indian Removal Act enabled Jackson the power of negotiating removal treaties with Indian tribes east of the Mississippi. Among these tribes were: Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaws and Seminoles. Very few authenticated traits were signed. The Choctaws were the only tribe to agree without any issues. All other attempts resulted in War and blood shed for both white settlers and Indians. The conflict with the U.S. and Indians lasted up until 1837. In 1838 & 1839 Jackson forced the relocation of the remaining Cherokee Indians;

In the 1830’s America was expanding its border and completing manifest destiny. The one thing standing in the way of Americans moving west was the Native Americans. President Andrew Jackson had a dilemma on his hands. Jackson wanted to create a plan that would make everyone happy. But in the end, Jackson had the Native American removed from their land and led to the “Trail of Tears” where many Native Americans would lose their lives. Looking at the articles by F.P Prucha, Mary E. Young and Alfred A. Cave each one says that the Indians needed to be removed from their land for a different reason.

Soon children were removed from their homes and placed in Indian Boarding Schools some of which were off the reservations. The goals of the boarding schools, which were run by the religious orders that were being paid by the government for the purpose of assimilating the young Indian population and desecrating their culture, were to Christianize Native Americans in hopes that they would accept our capitalistic system. “Kill the Indian…Save the Man”.

One and the other “St. Lucy’s” and The Native Americans had to learn and memorize a new way of life. “There was repression on tribal languages” states Brenda J. Child author of “Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900-1940”, this happened to the Native Americans by surprise they did not think the early Americans repress their language, leaving the Indians unhappy(boarding schools). The nuns in “St. Lucy’s” taught the girls how to speak and write english, the girls did not enjoy learning this but in the end they learned it (“St. Lucy’s”). “Europeans enforced there own rules and regulations among the American Indians culture” says Dr. C. Blue Clark of Oklahoma City University School of Law(assimilation). Much like this the girls in “St.

In this bloody encounter, Jackson’s forces slaughtered nearly eight hundred Indians, including many women and children. “His soldiers made bridle reins from strips of skin taken from the corpses; they also cut off the tip of each dead Indian’s nose for body count.“(Brinkley, 85) The Creeks were forced westward, off their homelands, and Jackson won a commission as major general in the United States Army.(Brinkley, 212)

One of the defining moments of President Andrew Jackson’s career, if not the most significant, was the Indian Removal Act of 1830. This was a controversial bill at the time and the impact from it is still felt today. The Indian Removal Act directly led to the displacement of thousands of Native Americans; including four thousand deaths during the Trail of Tears, the forced march from Georgia to Oklahoma. While overt racism played a clear role in relocating Native Americans past the Mississippi, it is possible that other factors were at play. The living conditions in many of the states were poor for Natives and Jackson hoped that giving them a new location to live could remedy these problems while opening the land up for white settlers.

In 1830, congress passed The Indian Removal Act, which became a law 2 days later by President Andrew Jackson. The law was to reach a fairly, voluntarily, and peacefully agreement for the Indians to move. It didn’t permit the president to persuade them unwillingly to give up their land by using force. But, “President Jackson and his government