The land of the Native Indians had been encroached upon by American settlers. By the 1800’s, their was more white settlers than Native Indians. Nearly 400,000 white settlers were illegally settling upon the decreasing land of the Indians that the government noted as theirs. Due to the US government’s lack of involvement towards the encroachment of their citizens on Indian land, a conflict was bound to happen. Indians were infuriated. The Shawnee Chief Tecumseh stood up to take action and plead for all the Indians to unite and resist against the white settlers. Tecumseh was known as a warrior. He fought the battle of the Ohio River Valley territory between the Shawnee and Kentuckians. Throughout the mid 1790’s the Americans won a few prominent battles which pushed him westward. In …show more content…
The land holdings were recognized by the government through treaties which made these settlements illegal. Reluctantly, the US government chose not to punish their own citizens for disregarding the treaties and illegally settling on the land of the Indians. Outraged, he spoke out against the injustice and urged the Indians, “to unite in claiming a common and equal right in the land,” as written in, The Book of the Indians. 1 Ultimately, his goal was to form a confederation of Indian tribes to unite against the white settlers. His aim was for all of the tribes to agree on selling any piece of land to the white settlers before it was sold off by an individual tribe. In 1809 he set out to meet with different tribes in effort to unite and resist. The land that was occupied first was theirs, he believed. The land, he elucidated, “for it never was divided, but belongs to all, for the use of each.”2 The white men were never content and were constantly on a mission to find more land. Indians believe the land is for all, but the land you may call your own is where you go home after a day of fishing, hunting, collecting. This land is the land that the white men cannot encroach and
It had previously been the policy of the American government to remove and relocate Indians further and further west as the American population grew, but there was only so much...
During the violent attacks happening between Indians and American settlers, Tecumseh took an active part in the warfare. Tecumseh became accepted as a spokesman for the more militant members of the tribe, but because of his youth, his role in the peace negotiations was minimal. After this, most Shawnees returned to Ohio, but Tecumseh and other warriors stayed behind. As a result of this violent time, Tecumseh was made war chief with a growing following.
...y robbing the Indians of their land, the English upset and hurt many of the Native American tribes, which lead to many disputes over ownership of the land.
In March of 1768, in present-day Ohio, Tecumseh was born. Tecumseh's name means "Panther in the sky." Tecumseh was the fifth born in his family. His mom, Methotaske, was a Creek, and his dad, Puckeshinewa, was a Shawnee. He excelled at the game's Indian boys played. He also organized other boys to go on hunts. When Tecumseh was younger he admired and looked up to the warriors, like his older brother. He also tried to be like the warriors. Later in his life, Tecumseh became a powerful chief to the Native American Tribe, the Shawnee's. He did not want the Americans to take the Native American's land. He accomplished many things in his life.
The American Indians were promised change with the American Indian policy, but as time went on no change was seen. “Indian reform” was easy to promise, but it was not an easy promise to keep as many white people were threatened by Indians being given these rights. The Indian people wanted freedom and it was not being given to them. Arthur C. Parker even went as far as to indict the government for its actions. He brought the charges of: robbing a race of men of their intellectual life, of social organization, of native freedom, of economic independence, of moral standards and racial ideals, of his good name, and of definite civic status (Hoxie 97). These are essentially what the American peoples did to the natives, their whole lives and way of life was taken away,
Cronon raises the question of the belief or disbelief of the Indian’s rights to the land. The Europeans believed the way Indians used the land was unacceptable seeing as how the Indians wasted the natural resources the land had. However, Indians didn’t waste the natural resources and wealth of the land but instead used it differently, which the Europeans failed to see. The political and economical life of the Indians needed to be known to grasp the use of the land, “Personal good could be replaced, and their accumulation made little sense for ecological reasons of mobility,” (Cronon, 62).
escaped, by then all three tribes Chokonen, Nedni and Bedonkehe formed a band of brothers.
land away from indigenous people and he did not think is was fair for them to
In the 1830's the Plains Indians were sent to the Great American Deserts in the west because the white men did not think they deserved the land. Afterwards, they were able to live peacefully, and to follow their traditions and customs, but when the white men found out the land they were on was still good for agricultural, or even for railroad land they took it back. Thus, the white man movement westward quickly began. This prospect to expand westward caused the government to become thoroughly involved in the lives of the Plains Indians. These intrusions by the white men had caused spoilage of the Plains Indians buffalo hunting styles, damaged their social and cultural lives, and hurt their overall lives.
The Indians thought of land very differently to the white man. The land was sacred, there was no ownership, and it was created by the great spirit. They could not sell their land to others, whereas the white people could fence off the land which belonged to them, and sell it freely to whoever they wanted. The Europeans didn't think that the Indians were using the land properly, so in their eyes, they were doing a good favour to the earth. To the Indians, the land was more valuable than the money that the white man had brought with him, even though it didn't belong to them.
had created the Indian Removal act which sent them along the trail of tears to the
Natives were forcefully removed from their land in the 1800’s by America. In the 1820’s and 30’s Georgia issued a campaign to remove the Cherokees from their land. The Cherokee Indians were one of the largest tribes in America at the time. Originally the Cherokee’s were settled near the great lakes, but overtime they moved to the eastern portion of North America. After being threatened by American expansion, Cherokee leaders re-organized their government and adopted a constitution written by a convention, led by Chief John Ross (Cherokee Removal). In 1828 gold was discovered in their land. This made the Cherokee’s land even more desirable. During the spring and winter of 1838- 1839, 20,000 Cherokees were removed and began their journey to Oklahoma. Even if natives wished to assimilate into America, by law they were neither citizens nor could they hold property in the state they were in. Principal Chief, John Ross and Major Ridge were leaders of the Cherokee Nation. The Eastern band of Cherokee Indians lost many due to smallpox. It was a year later that a Treaty was signed for cession of Cherokee land in Texas. A small number of Cherokee Indians assimilated into Florida, in o...
America was expanding at such a rapid pace that those who were in America before us had no time to anticipate what was happening. This change in lifestyle affected not only Americans, but everyone who lived in the land. Changing traditions, the get rich quick idea and other things were the leading causes of westward expansion. But whatever happened to those who were caught in the middle, those who were here before us? One of those many who roamed the land before Americans decided that they owned it were the Native Americans.
There were several motives for the removal of the Indians from their lands, to include racism and land lust. Since they first arrived, the white Americans hadn’t been too fond of the Native Americans. They were thought to be highly uncivilized and they had to go. In his letter to Congress addressing the removal of the Indian tribes, President Jackson states the following:
The first point he made was how the Westward expansion affected the Plains Indians. The Plains Indian tribes consisted mostly of the Kiowa, Kiowa Apaches, Comanche, Sioux, and Cheyenne. As the white settlers made their way across the country taking land, the Indians pushed back by raiding settlements and killing the occasional settler. More and more white settlers were pouring into the West in search of gold and silver. As the settlers came into the territories, large herds of buffalo were killed, much of the time just for the sport of it. This had an adverse affect on the Indians since they relied on buffalo not only for food, but also for hides and blankets as well as to make teepees. Another factor was the pony herds; the U.S. Army frequently seized herds and a herd of upwards of one thousand was killed just so the Indians would not be able to use them. The soldiers that were on patrol in the West kept pushing the Indians, driving them away from their hunting and fishing grounds.