Indian Removal Quotes

This quotation illustrates the racist view of Native Americans that prevailed at the time. The Mexican government invited settlers and would give then the Indian lands. In addition to Mexicans who came to Texas, many Americans also went to Texas, changing their citizenship to Mexico. Later, they banded together and broke from Mexico and Joined the United States. The Indians lost most of their lands.

Sheridan was essentially right. With the Bison no longer available for hunting, the plains Indians had to depend on agriculture and settle on reservations or assimilate and integrate into white society. There was no specific policy to destroy the great buffalo herds, but the railroads allowed meat and the hides to be shipped East and sold for large profits for the companies who organized hunters and paid well for the buffalo. The overhunting and lack of any conservation principles soon led to the disappearance of the herds and almost made the Bison extinct. Today, we have built up some herds and they are being raised like cattle again providing meat and hides for man’s use. It is too bad that these techniques were not known then, as that could have been a terrific industry for the Indians although ranching was contrary to their then existing culture.

The economic development contribution of military spending is not new and not limited to today’s military bases and defense contracts and plants. See {623902} for Sheridan’s famous prediction.

In the 1830's a few Cherokee Indians were found who would sign a "treaty" agreeing to their removal westward.

The treaty turned over the Cherokee Tribal Lands and agreed that the tribe would relocate to Oklahoma and obtain new lands there. The vast majority of the Cherokee chose to reject this treaty and insist that the Federal Government adhere to the Previous Treaty that was in force and maintain the Cherokee on their traditional land in the East. Ridge and some of his group made a lot of money and obtained much attention from the whites pushing for removal—President Andrew Jackson for example. But Jackson, using soldiers and force, pushed the Cherokee on the “Trail of Tears” at gun and bayonet point. After the Cherokee had arrived in Oklahoma, and Ridge and his family had set up in rather elegant quarters, he was assassinated by the other Cherokee’s after having been found guilty under traditional Cherokee laws.

This quotation is the most hypocritical statements made by any President in his Inaugural Address. Jackson would not only flip flop on this principle and force the Indians (Cherokee and the Trail of Tears) to remove from their traditional lands in the East, but the Federal Government by Treaty was obligated to guarantee the sovereignty of the Cherokee land. What even made Jackson’s actions worse, was that the Cherokee had won their case before the Supreme Court, and Jackson became the only President in American history to refuse to enforce a Supreme Court decision that the Cherokee were entitled to their traditional land.

Wayne played so many parts depicting whites in the process of expanding Westward that many people saw him as an expert on the history of the Westward Expansion. He did not comment on the whites who then kept huge ranches “selfishly” for themselves or those who selfishly would not share the mineral rich land that they had taken with anyone including the original Indian owners. So in this view, the Indians should have not been capitalists but they should have been socialists and shared their resources.

The meeting included several Indians, President Grant, and the Secretary of the Interior and the Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Indians had been offered $25,000 and land in the Oklahoma Indian Territory in exchange for moving from their traditional lands.

First Indian newspaper in the U.S.

The months later, Colorado “volunteers” attacked a Cheyenne village flying and American and White flag, killing the women and children at what would come to be known as the Sand Creek Massacre.

This was one of Jackson’s official major justifications for his controversial Indian Removal policy. The logic was that since there had been some Indian raids on whites with whites being killed, the whites had a right to retaliate and a good way of doing that was by taking their land and removing them to lands far away. He saw a Christian virtue to the policy as they whites did not raid and kill the Indians. The “logic” such as it was, of course, ignored the fact that there had been white raids and massacres of Indians as well, but in both cases, they were done by a small minority of the Indians and Whites, Jackson’s view was that all Indians should be held responsible for the act of some violent Native Americans. However Jackson had used this guilt generalization before and even used the term “retaliatory vengeance” when he vowed revenge on the British for his treatment as a Prisoner of War in the American Revolution — See Quotation 621975.

The railroads that opened up the West are often used as examples of American corporate and entrepreneurial achievement. But private enterprise would not risk the capital for such a visionary and innovative scheme. It was the Federal Government which provided loans to start and paid for every mile of track with huge grants of land along the right of way. Then the Federal government provided the security and conducted numerous wars against the Indians to make the construction and operation possible. Had the Government and President Lincoln not pushed and supported the plan, there would have been no transcontinental railroad.

Jackson was the only American President who disobeyed a Supreme Court Decision. See {635653}. In doing this, he killed tens of thousands of Indians, allowed the Southern Whites to steal most of the Cherokee land. His Indian Removal contrary to the Supreme Court decision, was the worst case of ethnic cleansing in the history of the United States.

The Supreme Court had ruled that Georgia and the other Southern States and the Federal Government could not remove the Cherokee from their land. However, President Jackson was going to force them off their very well developed farms and estates despite the Supreme Court ruling. Ridge and a few others were bribed by the whites to get a self- appointed group of Cherokee to “sell” their land in the South East to white syndicates, Ridge and his fellows then were given the choicest land in Oklahoma which was far inferior to the land that they had left.

This law allowed the President to forcibly move entire tribes from their native lands to sparsely settled land in the West. Oklahoma became knows as Indian Territory as so many Indians were relocated there. The act, and this clause in particular, gave the President the authority over all Indian tribes in the nation and established the difficult if not impossible relationship between the Indian nations and the Federal government. The act—the last sentence of the quote—also ratified all treaties with the Indians and pronounced them inviolate. That was not to be.

Jackson ignored the decision of the Supreme Court and forced at bayonet point the Indians in the South East to leave their land and relocate to Oklahoma in what has been known as “the trail of tears”.