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Relations between the United States and Native Americans
The relationship the native Americans had with the United
Native American history essay
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It is no surprise that American Indian tribes are mentioned in our Constitution. Indian tribes have always played a major part in the non-Indian exploration, settlement, and development of this country. When Christopher Columbus thought he had discovered the “New World” in 1492, it is estimated that 10-30 million native people lived in North America, that is, in the present day countries of Mexico, United States and Canada. These millions of people lived under governments of varying sophistication and complexity. These native governments were viable and fully operational political bodies which controlled their citizens and their territories and were an important factor in the development of the United States government we live under today. …show more content…
From the very beginning of its existence, the U.S. dealt with Indian tribes on an official governmental and treaty making basis. Political involvement in Indian affairs was a very important part of governmental life in early America. Indian tribes were very powerful in the 1700s and early 1800s in America and were a serious threat to the new United States. Hence, the United States government was heavily involved in negotiating and dealing with tribes as part of its governmental policies. The United States ultimately negotiated, signed and ratified almost 390 treaties with American Indian tribes. Most of these treaties are still valid today. The United States did not give Indian tribes anything for free in these treaties. Instead, the treaties were formal government to government negotiations regarding sales of land and property rights that the tribes owned and that the United States wanted to buy. The United States Supreme Court stated in 1905 that United States and Indian treaties are “not a grant of rights to the Indians, but a grant of rights from them — a reservation of those not granted.” Thus, while tribal governments sold some of their rights in land, animals, and resources to the United States for payments of money, goods, and promises of peace and security, the tribes held onto or reserved to themselves other lands and property rights that they …show more content…
This Congress also had to manage Indian affairs and keep the tribes from fighting against the United States. The new Congress also sent diplomatic representatives to the tribes and promised friendship and peace, and ultimately it signed eight treaties with Indian tribes between 1781-1789, including treaties with the Iroquois Confederacy, the Cherokee Tribe, the Shawnee Tribe and numerous other tribes. However, this Congress’ power in Indian affairs was limited because the Articles of Confederation did not clearly give this Congress the exclusive power to deal with tribes. Thus, various states meddled in Indian affairs and actually caused wars between tribes and Georgia and South Carolina, for example, because the states were trying to steal Indian lands. The problems caused by states getting involved in Indian affairs led many people to call for the formation of a new and stronger United States government wherein the exclusive power over Indian affairs would be placed only in the hands of the national government and would be taken completely away from the
The article “The Founding Indian Fathers” by Jack Weatherford is about how the Indians contributed to the American Government and how we went off the Indians system. We see how they had a council of each of the separate nations just how we do now. We also followed how one person wasn’t allowed to hold one position and hold another so they wouldn’t be so powerful. Another thing was that in their meetings there were no interruptions when someone was speaking. The caucus was another thing that was copied. One thing that I learned was that the Chiefs of the Indians had nothing to do with the government he was to perform rituals and other ceremonies. I think the authors main point was to show how the American government derived from that of the
As the frontier moved west, white settlers wanted to expand into territory, which was the ancestral land of many Indian tribes. Although this had been going on since the administration of George Washington, during the administration of Andrew Jackson the government supported the policy of resettlement, and persuaded many tribes to give up their claim to their land and move into areas set aside by Congress as Indian Territory. In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Resettlement Act, which provided for the removal of Indians to territory west of the Mississippi River. While Jackson was President, the government negotiated 94 treaties to end Indian titles to land in the existing states.
President Jackson declared that “our ancestors found them the uncontrolled possessors of these vast regions” (188). It has been through persuasion and force that we have moved the Native Americans until some tribes have become extinct. The governor, Lumpkin, of Georgia argued that the state cannot exercise against the constitutional rights and moral duty. The Cherokee’s claimed that the treaties and laws of the United States had guaranteed their residency, their privileges and secured them against intruders. Even though the Cherokees had successfully appealed to the Executive, Legislative and Judicial governments Georgia continues to rob them of their laws government and land rights. The Cherokee people petitioned to the government of the United States to fulfill their promises and protect them and all they were given for a response was that the United States could not interfere. Even though I believe the Cherokee Nation had to fight for their sovereignty none of the choices available to them would have provided them with a good resolution. The white people really did not want them to assimilate because they feared them and considered them uncivilized. Moving freely to unknown lands would have been very difficult. By this time the Indians had suffered many losses from disease, they were becoming dependent on
The governmental leaders of the United States of America began implementing Indian policies from its inception. As Euro-Americans they expected all non-whites in the U.S. to assimilate into a Euro-American (Christian) lifestyle, without reciprocation or sympathy to the traditions and history of our native people. Our founding fathers and subsequent leaders of the United States at varying times have used suppression, segregation, aggression, and assimilation to manage what they perceived as an Indian problem, and civilize them. The native peoples of North America have responded to these actions by, at times, complying with the U.S. government and allowing themselves to be relocated to other areas of the country leaving behind their ancestral
In 1831, the Supreme Court of the United States decided that the fact that the U.S. government had made treaties with various Native American nations in the past did not set precedent for treating said nations as independent, sovereign states. Despite the facts that the United States had made legal treaties with Native Americans numerous times and that U.S. law states that the United States can only make treaties with foreign nations, the Supreme Court decision in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831) declared that Native American nations were not sovereign but “domestic dependent” nations, subject to the plenary power of the United States. This abrogation of Cherokee (and, by extension, Native American) sovereignty did not only disrupt
The US government’s official role in Indian affairs began as far back as the Continental Congress (1786) when the Indian tribes were still considered independent nations with whom the settlers had to make treaties (Jackson 1). The purposes for these interactions were to buy land and to keep peace between encroaching settlers and natives.
George Washington’s secretary of war, Henry Knox, articulated this policy that aimed towards transforming the hunters who worshipped spirits and spoke “savage” languages into individuals who owned land, worshipped one true god, and spoke English. Anderson explains that although the policy to civilize the Indians seemed almost philanthropic at a glance, beneath the surface the policy represented a new attempt to seize the Indians’ land. Nevertheless the “civilization policy”, as Anderson calls it, demanded a total reorganization of the spiritual, social, and psychological world of the Cherokees3. In hopes of gaining the respect of white politicians and to prevent further loss of land the Cherokees adopted what Anderson refers to as “white culture”. They raised livestock, established schools, developed written laws, and abolished clan revenge. In 1817 the United States government negotiated the first Cherokee treaty that included a proposal for removal. The government promised to assist those who chose to relocate to the West and around 2,000 Cherokees elected to move despite the oppositions of Cherokee leaders. Many chose to stay and strengthen their Cherokee nation. According to Anderson in the early 1820’s Cherokees were able to read and write in their own language and by 1827 the they also created and established a supreme court and a constitution much
Beginning in the 1860s and lasting until the late 1780s, government policy towards Native Americans was aggressive and expressed zero tolerance for their presence in the West. In the last 1850s, tribal leaders and Americans were briefly able to compromise on living situations and land arrangements. Noncompliance by Americans, however, resumed conflict. The beginning of what would be called the "Indian Wars" started in Minnesota in 1862. Sioux, angered by the loss of much of their land, killed 5 white Americans. What resulted was over 1,000 deaths, of white and Native Americans. From that point on, American policy was to force Indians off of their land. American troops would force Indian tribe leaders to accept treaties taking their land from them. Protests or resistance by the Indians would result in fighting. On occasion, military troops would even lash out against peaceful Indians. Their aggression became out of control.
On January 27th, 1825 the U.S Congress had its annual meeting to discuss issues going on in the country and on this day one of those issues was agreeing to set aside territory for Native Americans. This Indian Territory was land that was west of the Mississippi River, but did not include the states Louisiana or Missouri, and the Territory of Arkansas. The land was called Indian Territory because it was set aside by the United States government to move the Native Americans that they relocated from the southern part of the United States in order for white settlers to move into to live on. This territory will eventually be called the state of Oklahoma. By setting aside this land it allowed the United States government to relocate the Native Americans
They united to create the Iroquois Confederacy. They hoped to stop the fighting. Five Native Americans nations joined together and wrote a constitution. The most important rule says “that people should put an end to war and instead settle their differences through peaceful means” (Takacs, 2003, p.12). These ideas inspired our founding fathers to create their own version of the constitution. According to Stubben (2000), “the scholarly debate has gone beyond proving that indigenous societies did influence the development of American democratic norms, values, and institutions to defining the degree of such influence”. The ideas and organization of Native Americans influenced the American government. Each nation chose a chief to represent their tribe. The chiefs met to discuss problems and create solutions so that everyone would be on the same page. They worked together worked together to
Soon States passed laws limiting Native Americans rights, they also limited the indians right to enter and leave their own territory whenever they wished(Trail of Tears). Instead of fighting and declaring war on the settlers, Native Americans decided on taking states to court. One case that made it to the Supreme Court was Worcester V. Georgia. Chief Justice John Marshall declared that the states could not do such practices and that Native Americans were their own Nation(Trail of Te) President Andrew Jackson did not enforce the Supreme Court ruling infact he encouraged others to do the same. Sates in the south still had a determination to push Native Americans of the land and to claim it. Andrew Jackson put into place The Indian Removal Act. This Act gave the Federal Government power to exchange Native American lands east of the Mississippi River for land to the west(Trail of Tears). Indians were to be relocated to a new territory in Oklahoma. Indians were to be removed voluntarily and peacefully, laws were to be put into place to negotiate fair removal treaties(Trail of tears..). President Jackson ignored all regulations and forced indians to leave their home
Europeans arrived in the New World set to vanquish and create oppressive rule, with no regard the Native civilization originally there, affect the concord of their relationship for years to come. As the European arrived in the Americas, they never learned to be unified with the Native Americans because they primarily misunderstood them, and they only viewed them from one perspective. European exploration offered an obstacle in terms of adapting to the new found land as well as dealing with the Nations that had claims to the vast lands already. When the Native Americans and encountered the colonist they had mixed views and vice-versa, which eventually led to confusion and immense conflict. This effort of only seeing what they wanted to see
It has for some time been the strategy of the Government to present among them human expressions of progress, in the hope of bit by bit recovery from a meandering life (“Andrew Jackson Calls”). This is where they concluded the need for terrains that belonged to Native Americans for expansion and growth of resources. In correlation, the United States Government gave it its best shot to help the white settlers obtain Indian area. The US Government took the approach of becoming oblivious to the matter and by also passing lawmaking body requiring the Indians to surrender their property (Zinn). The Native Indians were compelled to yield and assimilate to US law or leave their countries where they were also forced to move and wound up in Oklahoma. An article states, “The five noteworthy tribes influenced were the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole” (Remini). These were known as The Civilized Tribes that had effectively tackled a level of coordination into a more advanced westernized society, by for example, creating composed dialect and figuring out how to write and peruse
In 1787 the United States Constitution Article 1 section 8 established a federally mandated relationship between the government and the people of Indian Nations in regards to commerce. Although this agreement and many treaties subsequently thereafter were disregarded on the part of the United States (Smith, 2002), it established an official responsibility between the two nations. In 1921 the Snyder Act, which established authorization for the federal government to provide basic healthcare for members of federally recognized United States Indian tribes, was passed (Wallechinsky, 2010).
The Indigenous Peoples Movement works to acquire legal protection and works to raise awareness towards the indigenous peoples’ causes globally. Indigenous peoples are generally defined as individuals who belong to a highly conservative, culturally and linguistically different non-dominant social group,—distinct from the modernly dominant society—hoping to maintain that separation with the superior culture. In addition, their cultures and traditional practices have been harmed over the centuries—complications arising from the European colonial era; still, many negative affections remain influencing their economic situations in the modern century. Indigenous peoples, who have been pushed into poor economic statuses due to the expansions of the