Land, Growth, and Justice: The Removal of the Cherokees

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Land, Growth, and Justice: The Removal of the Cherokees There has always been a big debate on whether the Cherokee Indians should have or should not have been removed from the land they resided on. Although the common consensus of the whites was for removal, and for the Cherokees it was against removal, there were some individuals on each side that disagreed with their groups’ decision. The Cherokee Indians should have been removed from their homeland because the Cherokees would not have been able to survive on their own with the way they were living, they would not have been able to exist amidst a white population, and if they were removed, the whites would have helped them create a new and prosperous civilization. The Cherokees would not have been able to survive on their own due to their outdated way of life. “You have lived by hunting the deer and buffalo – all these have been driven westward; you have sold out on the seaboard and moved westwardly in pursuit of them. As they became scare there, your food has failed you; you have been a part of every year without food, except the root and other unwholesome things you could find in the forest.” Deer and buffalo were the Cherokee’s main source of food and they had become scare due to the fact that the Cherokee had hunted fifty thousand deer annually. Deer population plummeted because of the Cherokee’s reliance on European goods with which they traded deerskin for. There was one good that the Europeans had that negatively affected the Cherokees, and that was alcohol. “Frequent wars, too, and the abuse of spirituous liquors, have assisted in lessening your numbers.” Alcohol was consumed in huge quantities by the Cherokee which cause them to fall into drunken stupors which c... ... middle of paper ... ...enefitted them more than if they did stay. The whites wanted the Cherokee land and would take it by force if they had to. On their own, the Cherokee would not have been able to survive with their outdated methods of living which was inefficient. The Cherokee living among the whites would not have turned out well since the whites did not associate and relate themselves to the Cherokee which created conflict and rivalry between both groups. Since the takeover of Cherokee land seemed inevitable, the Cherokee should have accepted relocating and adopted the ways of the white people. The Cherokee should have realized that the whites were a flourishing powerhouse in comparison. Works Cited Becker, S., & Glover, L., & Wheeler, W. (2012). Discovering the American Past: A Look at the Evidence, Volume 1: To 1877 (7th edition pp.176-211). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning

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