Barbarians And Savages Research Paper

“Savages” and “barbarians”; were the words commonly used by politicians and citizens around the United States to describe Native Americans. Who were these “savages” and “barbarians”? They were native people who according to white standards did not conform to the idea of a “civilized” person. In the Southeastern United States, there were a group of tribes that were known as the “Five Civilized Tribes”. These five tribes, the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole were considered civilized because they had adopted elements of white society such as cultivating their land, converting to Christianity, creating centralized governments and becoming literate. Cherokee Indians resisted removal through social and political means; their

Under the terms of the Treaty of Hopewell, the Cherokee ceded a large part of their territory to the United States. The Treaty of Hopewell was followed by the Treaty of Holston, in 1791, which further reduced Cherokee territory. Articles VII and VIII in the Treaty of Holston are important to take note due to their content. Article VII “guarantee to the Cherokee nation, all their lands not hereby ceded.” and Article VIII permitted the Cherokee Nation to punish any American citizen who trespassed on Cherokee land without repercussion from the federal government. These Articles are important since they described protections afforded to the Cherokee Nation by the federal government that were disregarded by the state of Georgia in 1826 and 1827, when its General State Assembly passed resolutions which “asserted that by virtue of its colonial charter, Georgia had complete sovereign dominion over all the land and people within its border.” Article VIII of the Treaty of Holston was challenged by the State of Georgia on December 29, 1829, when the Georgia State Assembly passed laws that extended its jurisdiction over The Cherokee Nation and declared all Cherokee laws void and

Georgia and Worcester vs. Georgia would eventually be heard and decided by the United States Supreme Court. The first lawsuit, Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, was filed in 1831. The purpose of the lawsuit was to have an injunction granted to the deny Georgia’s claims of jurisdiction over the Cherokee. The lawsuit was brought in response to the Georgia Guard arresting a Cherokee for the murder of another Cherokee. The murder occurred within the jurisdiction of the Cherokee Nation, but the Georgia Guard arrested him citing the authority granted to it under the Georgian laws of 1829 and 1830 which extended Georgia’s jurisdiction over the Cherokee Nation. Georgia gave a hint of what its response would be in the future to any instructions from the Supreme Court, after they were notified the case would be heard by the Court, they defiantly proceeded to execute the convicted Cherokee. The injunction sought by the Cherokees was denied. If Georgia had simply waited for the court’s response, they would have been within their right to proceed with the execution. The court ruled the Cherokee could not sue Georgia in the Supreme Court as they were not considered a foreign nation but instead were considered a “domestic dependent nation”. According to the Court, under the Constitution, the Indian tribes were not considered foreign nations, their relationship to the United States was that of a legal guardian and its ward. Therefore, the Supreme Court was not the