Indian Removal

 

The Cherokee were unlike many tribes of the time who were easily characterized by whites as “savages”

 

The Cherokee were:

       mainly agrarian

       some owned plantations with slaves

       many converted to Christianity

       literacy in their native language was common

       1827 they created a constitutional republic (like U.S.)

       Government offered them two options in Georgia:

              A) land in Georgia with no tribal affinity

              B) larger areas of tribal land in the west

 

       Cherokee chose to stay, intermix, and intermarry with

              the whites

 

Indian Removal Act 1830:

       gave Jackson power to deal with Indians as a group

              rather than as individual tribes

       Law charged Jackson to move ALL Indians to the west

       Cherokee fought this move in Court and won (see

              Worcester v. Georgia) but Jackson refused to

              enforce the decision

      

Treaty of New Echota 1835: signed by three Cherokee

       tribesmen to turn over lands to the whites and removal

       soon followed (the three were murdered for their

       treachery)

      

From 1835 to 1845: 10,000 Cherokees traveled to

       Oklahoma, mostly peacefully and lost 25% of their

       numbers on the “Trail of Tears”