NATIVE AMERICAN INDIAN POLICY: REMOVAL or GEONICIDE? PT. I
Was the American Indian Removal Policy Legal?
Several sovereign Indian nations, since shortly after Jamestown was founded, were continually on the retreat. Broken treaty after broken treaty. Even before, the Spanish used them as slaves and the British would kill them on sight. Only the French held the confidence of Indians possibly because they treated them as more of an equal. The French were not there to settle, necessarily, but to trade and trap. Indians had no problems with them and even inter-married with them.
With the settlers expansion of the 1700 and 1800's, , the Indians were being pushed west out of the farming countries of Pennsylvania and New York. Gold fever in the northern Georgia mountains, located on Cherokee lands, led Georgia to ignore even the Supreme Court's order that the Cherokee had rights to that land. Gold was never found, but whites to claim the land was the real intent. This is the origin for the infamous "Trail of Tears" of the Cherokee Nation.
Indian removal policies contributed to the developing sectionalism between North and South. Georgia's refusal to obey the Supreme Court reinforced the idea of States' Rights over national subjugation. President John Quincy Adams directly told Georgia that they have no right to move into Cherokee territory and even threatened federal military action against Georgia, if necessary.
As far back as 1879, General Knox wrote to President Washington that America should treat Indians like Americans, and treat them as a sovereign nation. Ironically, Americans would claim for their cities, rivers, counties, states, etc. Indian names and tribes (i.e. Indiana, Kansas, etc.) as giving recognition and preservation to them. But the beginning of the end had started. It would only get worse for the Native American Indian Nations. We will see that most assuredly, in black and white, in parts two and part three, next.
An honorable attempt to help the Indians assimilate into the white culture was made by Colonel Daniel Morgan Boone. Morgan, son of the famous Daniel, established one of the earliest settlements in Kansas, in 1827, northwest of present day Lawrence. Officially, Daniel Morgan Boone was the father of the first white child born in Kansas in 1828, named Napoleon Boone. Boone taught the Indians agriculture and was well received by the Indians.
The United States record of ratifying Indian treaties is truly disturbing, although not all Americans felt Indians should be exterminated. Baptist Preacher Isaac McCoy in 1818 hoped to preserve Miami (Indiana and Ohio) Indians from extinction by turning them into farmers in Indian Territory (Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, etc). Much the same thing was hoped for the Michigan Territory Indians, like Potawatomies, Delaware, and Weas.
In fact, no intimidation or threat of force was necessary for William Clark (formerly of Lewis and Clark Expedition) in 1825, to convince Kansa and Osage Indians to allow their lands to be used for Indian reservations which eventually became part of the Indian territory of Kansas. In other cases, Indians gave up their lands for bribes, whiskey, or both.
Government officials sincerely felt that the "wooden psychology" of no wood, no settlers, would hold in Kansas and that the Indians would have this land forever. The Kansa are also known as the Kaw, and altogether, there are fifty-four different spellings for the Kansa Indians. This territory included much of what is now Kansas.
However, during the 1700's and 1800's, the vast majority of Americans wanted Indians gone. Out of sight and out of mind. Alive or dead! This was the beginning of the end for many of the Native American Indian Nations. These threats of extinction were only going to grow exponetially worse, which in parts two and three, will be more abundantly clear.
Published by Jack Wellman
I'm a pastor at Mulvane Brethren Church (KS) & author who gives free training for Effective Evangelism at various churches in the states and have published 3 books on Amazon: "Teaching Children The Gospel",... View profile
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8 Comments
Post a CommentWow how interesting!
I think it's horrible the way our Government treated the "Native Americans." They were here first!!!
love this piece, and loved the comments too, I agree with Joshua, and thanks for including history we've not been taught, I don't have any native american heritage but have always found that I feel a deep connection with them and in my school days wrote many papers on the subject, so interesting! thanks for sharing ;)
Jack, we need more pieces like this...for some reason a lot of the weak spots and contemptible parts in our nation's history have been covered and have been left unmentioned...in the process of omitting historic events from history books, the voices of those who suffered injustices in our history have not been heard...this past semester in college I had history class that focused on the problems in America after the Civil War, boy were my eyes opened...for so many years in elementary and high school, kids don't know of the pain that results from the actions of human selfishness......for instance, it wasn't until this semester in college that I learned about the massacre at wounded knee....hearing about it nearly made me cry.....thanks for this Jack
Milisabelle, this is most fascinating. Please tell me more so I can incorporate it into a book I am doing for Native American Indians of which I am 1/4th Cherokee! Thanks much.
Acadians (french)were rounded up and their land stolen, families broken up, sent away on ships that didn't always reach a shore, except for the Cajuns. We have reestablished our link with them. I am surprised that this story included us, as English history books in Canada leave out our story and their stealing our land. I consider myself Metis, not accepted by any of the cultures here. Thanks so very much for including us. (have you noticed that First Nations people in the centre of the continent have French names? Did you know that St Louis was named after the French King, as well as numerous cities/towns from Quebec to the Pacific and to Nouvelle Orleans? Or that Sacajewea was married to a Frenchman and was carrying his baby when she took Lewis and Clark to the settlements on the Pacific coast?
As a Franco-Ontarian, whose first ancestor arrived in Quebec in 1534, I am so pleased that our history of blending with the First Nations is acknowledged. The English in Canada(many of whom where Loyalists who left America to remain British) were violently anti-native and -French. Those of us who recognized that the Native people saved us, and who rejected the feudal system that the church and aristocracy espoused, escaped to the woods and became 'coureur de bois' wore native clothes, lived like and with the native people, and intermarried. Quebec city just celebrated 401 years of being legally a city. I am proud of those ancestors, both French and first Nations. I identify more with the native ancestry, but cannot trace it because the 'church' would not acknowledge mixed marriages (which is why so many left to escape the Old Country ways. The English here made life hard for us, past laws denying us the right to speak our language (reversed in the 20th century! 350 years ago the Acadia
As a Franco-Ontarian, whose first ancestor arrived in Quebec in 1534, I am so pleased that our history of blending with the First Nations is acknowledged. The English in Canada(many of whom where Loyalists who left America to remain British) were violently anti-native and -French. Those of us who recognized that the Native people saved us, and who rejected the feudal system that the church and aristocracy espoused, escaped to the woods and became 'coureur de bois' wore native clothes, lived like and with the native people, and intermarried. Quebec city just celebrated 401 years of being legally a city. I am proud of those ancestors, both French and first Nations. I identify more with the native ancestry, but cannot trace it because the 'church' would not acknowledge mixed marriages (which is why so many left to escape the Old Country ways. The English here made life hard for us, past laws denying us the right to speak our language (reversed in the 20th century! 350 years ago the Acadia