Removal Of Cherokees To Land West Of Mississippi

During Andrew Jackson’s presidency from 1829 to 1837, a lot of controversial decisions were made. The removal of Cherokee Indians to land west of the Mississippi River in the 1830’s was one, and this was more a change of the national policy than a reformulation. Since the Spanish came to the New World from the 1500’s, the continent’s inhabitants- Indians, were there. Beginning from the Washington government in the 1790’s, the policy United States used to administrate the Indians was civilization and assimilation. Under the ambitious administration of Andrew Jackson, who was in favor of Western speculation, the Indians were forced to move from their homeland.

From the beginning of the United States’ government, Indian tribes were given rights to be treated as nations, and their rights be respected according to the Constitution. For instance, Henry Knox, Secretary of War in 1789, wrote to President George Washington that, “The Indians being the prior occupants, possess the right of the soil. It cannot be taken from them unless by their free consent, or by the right of conquest in case of a just war” (Document B). By this, the US government confirmed the authority of Indians on American land as they are the “prior occupants”, and their land should never be taken unless they agree or they lose in a war. Although the US government sounds just and fair in attitude, for years, Indians were intentionally tricked into treaties that ceded huge amount of territory to the whites.

To compensate their moral beliefs because of their intensive usurpation of Indian land, US government brought up ideas that it is their “duty to make new efforts for the preservation, improvement, and civilization of the native inhabitants” as in the First Annual Message to Congress of President James Monroe (Document I). As time goes by, the civilization of Indians by the US showed progress. In the letter John C. Calhoun written to Henry Clay in 1820, the Indian tribes “appear to be making gradual advances in industry and civilization…” and among them, “The Cherokees exhibit a more favorable appearance than any other tribes of Indians” (Document J). By 1825, the Cherokees already established schools and agriculture, rather than their old traditions of hunting to make a living, was taught. The Cherokee, Sequoyah, even invented the Cherokee alphabet (Document K). All these were signs of civilization of the semi-nomadic Indians.