Thesis Of Chief Joseph's Speech

At first, it came as a surprise to me that there are still many tribes who are trying to become federally recognized and colonize land again just like before to continue their culture and identity. By now, I would had imagined that the Native Americans are at peace and can continue their traditions. However, I have come to discover that Natives Americans are still fighting for social justice when they have existed here way before Christopher Columbus discovered their land and called them, Indians. The impact that these social justice issues has on me is that the issues in which Native Americans face cannot be entirely solved. It is an impossible action to fix.

Chief Joseph is the leader of the Nez Perce tribe. He led his tribe through many great accomplishments, although he had to end his success in a surrender. On October 5, 1877, Chief Joseph and to announce his surrender speech in the midst of a battle. In his famous speech, I Will fight No More Forever, Chief Joseph effectively uses appeals like ethos, logos, and pathos.

Can you imagine leading 800 people on a 1,100 mile journey? Chief Joseph was a leader of the Nez Perce, a Native American tribe. The Nez Perce were ordered to a reservation specifically for Native Americans. Chief Joseph did not like this idea and attempted to lead his tribe to Canada. During this trip, the U.S. Army was simultaneously fighting them, making the trip even harder than expected. Rather than making it to Canada, they got trapped about forty miles from Canada and after a five day fight the Nez Perce were defeated. These events ultimately led up to Chief Joseph writing this somber, grim surrender. Chief Joseph uses Pathos, Logos, and Ethos to provide emotion, logic and ethics throughout his speech.

“Silence is a Ocean , Speech is a river “.Chief Joseph and Elie Weisel decided to throw there words in the river .Chief Joseph was a leader of a tribe , Nez Perce that wanted justice and freedom for his people .In addition Elie wiesel was a holocaust survivor that gave his speech at a concentration camp with the Ex President obama .

Chief Joseph, Helen Hunt Jackson, and Frederick Jackson Turner all wrote about how they felt that the government treated them differently from others. They described how their families, land, and tribes were affected by the limitations placed on them at the time. Each of the authors gave reasonable explanations to support their feelings towards this unequal treatment.

Andrew Jackson, The United States seventh president, was possibly one of the worst human beings to be president and treated the Native Indians horribly. He, was a bully and used his position to get acts and petitions like the Indian Removal Act passed, to help push Native Indians around so he could get his own way. The Indian Removal Act in and of itself seemingly doesn’t contain that much power, however it was all the power Jackson needed. The circumstances of Jackson’s character and the debates surrounding the Act also lend and interesting lens to examine what Jackson intentions were. When looking at Jackson and how he managed to relocate the Native it becomes substantially more integral to examine all the documents with a wide scope to see how he even managed the relocation of Natives.

1.The Native Americans may have felt that the white settlers new to America exhibited hypocrisy toward them because, the settlers wanted freedom from persecution experienced from the church of England, but instead enforced the same things they were fleeing from on to the Native Americans. In “ Reply to the missionary Jacob Cram”, Red Jacket talks about how the white men deceived them. “ Indians were hired to fight against Indians, and many of our people destroyed. They also brought strong liquor amongst us. It was strong and powerful and has slain thousands” (Bayum 452). In this part Red Jacket is talking about how the settlers used deceit, war, and liquor to enforce their beliefs or Christian religion. In Benjamin Franklin’s “Remarks

In Letter from Governor Edmund Ross of New Mexico to President Grover Cleveland, Governor Edmund Ross wrote to President Grover Cleveland regarding the white resident’s 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 had 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 the tribes and that if some of the tribes (particularly, the Chiricahua and the Warm Springs bands of the Apaches group) were removed, they would feel safer and that the removal of the tribes would have a positive and tranquil impact on their territories and industries as they believed the American Indians were “at constant war with the white race”[ McGaughy, Page 80] and that those wars and raids hindered the settler’s way of life.

In the early 19th Century, the Manifest Destiny led many White Americans to conquer new territories and force Native Americans out of their homeland. The growing population caused the need for people to move to have more space for farms and crops. The religious groups were also wanting to sweep God’s word across the nation by going west. The Native Americans were unwilling to give up their land and fought to keep it. Outmatched by the U.S. Military, the Indians were forced to leave and settle in a territory that was not claimed by Whites. Andrew Jackson, the 8th President of the United States, participated in some of the battles with the Natives Americans and the removal of 5 different tribes from their homeland into what is now Oklahoma.1 This research paper is to study about Andrew Jackson, his battles with the Natives, and what led to the Trail of Tears.

Nonetheless, Jackson did not follow up with this promise. Instead, he had decided to deprive the Natives of their promised and secured land. Hence, Jackson was not justified in his Indian Removal Act because the Natives had a clear right to their land that was established with the forefathers of the nation. To add on, the Natives were civilized; however, Jackson had interpreted them as uncivilized which is stated in Document A, also known as “Andrew Jackson-First Annual Message,” dated December 8, 1829. In Jackson’s message, he states, “By this means they have not only been kept in a wandering state, but been led to look upon us as unjust and indifferent to their fate.” This quote conveys the idea that the Natives were “wanderers” and did not have an established community or place to live. Nonetheless, the Natives were farmers which opposes Jackson’s statement, thus proving that it is false. In addition, Jackson states, “It has long been the policy of Government to introduce among them the arts of civilization, in hope of gradually reclaiming them from a wandering life. This policy has, however, been coupled with another wholly [completely] incompatible with its success.” In this quote Jackson states how the government tried to civilize the tribes, but it ended in a failure to do so. However, Jackson also states, “…that their attempts to establish an independent government would to be countenanced [approved] by…” This quote reveals how

Chief Joseph's speech "An Indian view of Indian affairs" is a transcription of the speech of the great Indian warrior, based upon his alleged statements about the state of Indian-white relations. It is thus a second-hand source to some degree, because Chief Joseph never learned to speak English, and his speech is only transmitted through a translation. Joseph mourns the duplicity of the white man, defends his tribe's actions, and mourns the death of his people. He portrays his people as a people of peace who, after they realized that resistance against the white man was futile, chose to give up their guns. However, they were displaced, time and time again, after the white man grew greedier and desired the profit and gold that could be gained from the territories where his people lived.

In Seneca Chief Red Jacket’s Address to White Missionaries and Iroquois Six Nations, Red Jacket delivers a speed in Buffalo Grove, New York in 1805, regarding his tribe’s view on religion. For instance, when giving an anecdote on the history of his ancestors, he states, “Our seats were once large, and yours very small. You have now become a great people, and we have scarcely a place left to spread our blankets, You have got our country, but you are not satisfied; you want to force your religion upon us.” which evokes pity to listeners by telling how the Christian whites stole the land from the Native Americans who had fed them and clothed them only to be returned with nothing but the loss of their homeland (Red Jacket 2). Expressing a contradiction of the treatments, Red Jacket conveys the moral question of whether it was right of Europeans to treat their Native hosts in such a tactless manner. There is no greater sorrow on earth than the loss of one’s native land and Red Jacket expresses that emotion of sorrow by claiming that his people could not even find a place to put their blankets as their land was not in their possession anymore. In addition, whites felt entitled to convert the native americans to the ways of Christ by

In reading Alfred A. Caves’ article, it says that Jackson violated treaties that the U.S. had with the Indians in order to remove them from their land. It says that the government “misunderstood and often times misrepresent the provisions of the law” . Many times the treaties with the Indians were not seen as actual agreement that the government didn’t have to follow and abide by what was said in the agreement. When the Indian Removal Act came along in 1830, the act made things even more complicated. One of the

The United States perspective on the Native people has drastically changed from President to President. “George Washington originally started the ‘Indian Civilization Campaign’, which encouraged the Native people to adopt Western-European culture along with Christianity.” (Sturgis, pg 5) The United States was to recognize the Native groups as the owners of the land they inhabit, with the rights to sell or retain them. This ideology was later adopted and implemented by Thomas Jefferson who believed that it was, “established by Jus gentium for America, that a white nation settling down and declaring that such and such are their limits, makes an invasion of those limits by any other white nation an act of war, but gives no right of soil against the native possessors.” (Sturgis, pg 5)

This can be seen when the Ponca Tribe received word that “the President told [them] to pack up—that [they] must move to the Indian Territory.” In the interest of the President, someone who did not govern over them, he was forcing the Indians to move out of their home. They were given land that was not suitable for anyone to live on and weren’t even paid for the land that was taken away from them. After some time, these Indians would come to find out that everything they’ve been lied to and that “The President said he knew nothing about it.” Even though they lost their homes, it was only the commencement of the hardships and adversities that were to surface soon. For instance, Americans forced the Ponca tribe from their land in Nebraska and made them take the long trek to their new home in Oklahoma all on foot. The travel alone, nearly eradicated the Ponca tribe and as said by Chief Standing Bear that, “Many died on the road. Two of my children died. After we reached the new land, all my horses died. The water was very bad. All our cattle died; not one was left.” The Ponca Indians were deceived to more than once and mistreated due to the fact that they were not considered people under the law of the United States and that America's expansion was more important than their rights as human