The On Native American Tribes

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.

Cherokee Indians have been around for many years, but when the topic of Native Americans is discussed it is only about the struggles and hardships they went through but never their actual culture of how and where they originated or how they came to be. There are many interesting things to learn about Cherokee Indians such as their heritage, religion, language, and their traditional songs, dances, and food.

By 1940, Native Americans had experienced many changes and counter-changes in their legal status in the United States. Over the course of the nineteenth century, most tribes lost part or all of their ancestral lands and were forced to live on reservations. Following the American Civil War, the federal government abrogated most of the tribes’ remaining sovereignty and required communal lands to be allotted to individuals. The twentieth century also saw great changes for Native Americans, such as the Citizenship Act and the Indian New Deal. Alison R. Bernstein examines how the Second World War affected the status and lives of Native Americans in American Indians and World War II: Toward a New Era in Indian Affairs. Bernstein argues

The Cherokee tribe is known as one of the earliest and largest Indian tribe in North America. They are federally recognized even today among several states(museum). While they slowly became Americanized by the Europeans who came over to America, some still practice their typical Indian rituals publicly today. Most converted to Christianity and their government in Oklahoma is based off the American government with three branches. One would believe that the Trail of Tears could have completely vanquished these Indians but many made it through the horrendous trial and kept the Indian bloodline going even present day (Conley).

The northern tribes used bones and deer antlers to make knives, scrapers, awls, fishing tools, whistles, and pendants. The first tribes denpended on agriculture were those that lived on the Atlantic Costal Plain. They learned how to make pottery and cloth. The cloth was woven with thread made from soft layers of splint baskets. They made musical instruments like pipers, rattles, drums, nd they were played during ruitals and ceremonies dances. They built two types of houses, long houses, and wigwams. The first type was formed by bending poles into a cone or dome shape and by tying the poles together with vines. The frame was covered with woven mats, bark, or hide . These people grew corn, squash, beans, pumpkins, and tobacco.

In the years leading up to the Indian Removal Act, which was the initial cause of the Trail of Tears, the United States was in a shift. The country was seeing an unrivaled influx of European settlers looking for careers and land. This caused population to skyrocket, in fact in the years 1790-1840, the United States saw a 350% increase in population. In other words, the need for fertile land and viable property was high. At the same time, attempts at assimilation of Indians into American society were proving to be futile. Americans saw the Indians as “noble savages”, who were uncivilized but able to be fit for society if they were converted to Christianity and adopted Anglo-European culture and behavior. With the growing need for land and the rise in tension between Natives and fearful white settlers, something needed to be done in the eyes of the American people. These two things combined is what really set up the foreground for what would become the Indian Removal Act. President Andrew Jackson, in

Historically, the people of the United States and the Native tribes couldn’t live together, they fought because the two sides competed for superiority. The United States Government sought to put an end to the violent clashes with the American people and the Natives tribes. A resolution was the Indian Removal Act, with this, the United States became safer, wealthier, and stronger; And the Natives, which they saw as inferior, would leave. This Act wasn’t easy for the Native tribes, they left the land their ancestors had built them, and experienced a long road ahead of them to rebuild again.

Historically, the white man and the Native tribes couldn’t live together, they fought because the two sides competed for superiority. The United States Government sought to put an end to the violent clashes with the white man and Natives tribes. During 1830, the Indian Removal Act allowed the president of the United States to negotiate terms of relocation for Native tribes, causing mass migration to the west, and helping the United States became safer, wealthier, and stronger. This Act wasn’t easy for the Native tribes, the land their ancestors had built them was no longer home, forced to leave and make a sacrifice for another civilization they felt had no respect for them. President Andrew Jackson saw this Act as a win- win for both the white man and the Natives. On the Contrary, George W Harkins, a leader of the Native tribe Choctaw didn’t see the same benefits, as he expressed when he addressed the American people in 1832.

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

Therefore, these tribes were standing in the way of their expansion. The settlers looked to the federal government for a resolution. In response the Indian Tribes put restriction on any American purchasing of their land. However, in 1823, the Supreme Court decided that Indians could -occupy land within the United States but not own the land. This allowed the white settlers into the land they coveted.

The faulty reasoning behind the Indian Removal Act began almost forty years prior to President Jackson signature and ended with racism and a thirst for gold and land. The Indian Removal Act was not the first policy in place claiming to remove the Native Americans for their own benefit. It was first stated by Henry Knox on July 2, 1791, in the Treaty of Holston. Later when Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801 he began using more aggressive tactics for negotiating with the Native Americans such as threats, intimidation, and bribery. Jefferson’s

As American settlers had continued to populate the expansive land the United States of America which had lay before them, the Native Americans, who had resided there for hundreds of years prior to the Revolutionary War, had become increasingly troubled with every passing moment. Soon, they realized, they would be overtaken entirely by the settlers of the newfound nation. As such, in 1830, the Congress of the United States had passed the Indian Removal Act, which had forced all Native American tribes into specially-designated reservations, where their underlying spiritual bonds had effectively been permanently separated. Indeed, the Indian Removal Act had been extremely powerful, but not in ways that had been beneficial to either party. Hence, its passing and subsequent institution, manifested as the infamous Trail of Tears, had been an error on the part of the United States Congress, in all basic aspects of morality, politics, the Constitution, and practicality of survival and thriving. Specifically, moral aspects included concerns relating to driving Native Americans from their long-time homeland without their consent, alongside the breaking of their spiritual statuses. Political perspectives against the Indian Removal Act had revolved around the notions of value, progress, and improvement, paired with the ramifications and intentions of treaties passed by Congress. Constitutional viewpoints had protested against the Act in that they had insisted the lack of reasoned

The people dwelt in "towns" located in scattered autonomous tribal areas related by kinship throughout the southern Appalachian region.

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

As many people already know Indian land reservations for AI/AN people were established through years of court cases, treaties, unconstitutional forced migrations and oppression. Those in power in the United States during these times began to create treaties with tribal nations to secure land. Fortunately, American Indian self-determination has in