During the late 1700s and early 1800s, the United States as a new nation went through enormous alterations of expansion which are widely attributed to the evolution of transportation, a tremendous population growth via immigration, and economic progress by way of the Industrial Revolution. Each of these socioeconomic factors transformed the public atmosphere resulting in a plethora of perspectives on all fronts. Travel shifted from walking and horseback to the utilization of steamboats, canals, and trains. The ever-growing population greatly filled the high demand for labor. With this phenomenal growth taking place, the expansion of the United States had direct catastrophic impacts on the Native American tribes and the lands which they had inhabited. This piece will analyze the methods in which the United States government incurred upon both the Native Americans and Hispanics with the intention of land grabbing regions upon which they dwelt.
To open, throughout the early part of the nineteenth century many indigenous peoples were living peacefully as neighbors with many Americans in sovereign territories. The Cherokee for example were one of the first tribes of the Southeast to adapt to quite a few of the European ways of life before the American Revolution. Through trade, they developed a new writing syllabary that transformed their educational culture, and they shifted their political structure towards having tiered representatives much like the early European colonists. In addition, a few Native American tribes fought with the United States military against other uprisings.
In Atlas of Nations, Anton Treur states, “The Cherokee fought alongside Andrew Jackson when he led U.S. troops against Red Stick Creek in 1814 and then against the Seminole in 1818” (Treuer 78). It is important to note the significance of Native Americans going into battle with the United States because this provides adamant evidence of reliance and trust between both groups. Contrastingly, however, the Cherokee fighting against other Native peoples with the United States offers up the argument where the United States government was playing both sides against the middle. In other words, the United States was taking advantage of the good nature of the Cherokee people by leading them into battle against the Seminole tribe. “The campaign solidified U.S. control over eastern Florida, but the Seminole protected most of their territory” (Treuer 83). Under these circumstances, an argument can be made that, the action taken by the United States government was to intentionally manipulate the Native peoples of the Southeast against one another by breaking up the “Five Civilized Tribes” (consisting of the Cherokee, the Seminoles, the Chickasaw, the Choctaw, and the Creek) in order to take their land. “From 1814 to 1824, Jackson was instrumental in negotiating nine out of eleven treaties which divested the southern tribes of their eastern lands in exchange for lands in the west”(PBS People & Events Indian Removal 1814-1858). In brief, the ploys of treaties and capitalizing on the Native tribes’ goodwill by Andrew Jackson failed and resistance positions hardened on all sides.
Correspondingly, in light of the cemented positions, Congress enacted the Indian Removal Act in 1830. In A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 – 1875, Statutes at Large, 21st Congress, 1st Session, the first section of the Indian Removal Act states:
“Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That it shall and may be lawful for the President of the United States to cause so much of any territory belonging to the United States, west of the river Mississippi, not included in any state or organized territory, and to which the Indian title has been extinguished, as he may judge necessary, to be divided into a suitable number of districts, for the reception of such tribes or nations of Indians as may choose to exchange the lands where they now reside, and remove there; and to cause each of said districts to be so described by natural or artificial marks, as to be easily distinguished from every other.”(A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 – 1875 Statutes at Large, 21st Congress, 1st Session 411-12)
As illustrated, the previous methods of treaties, war, and manipulation against the Native tribes of the Southeast region had failed. Congress had given President Jackson the full power to remove the Indians from their land through “legal” measures. “To present an illusion of tribal consent, Jackson’s secret agents bribed, deceived, and intimidated Indians, falsified records, squelched open debate, and finally persuaded some tribesmen to sign in favor of removal” (Exiles In Their Own Land 149). Many tribes submitted to the government by signing these forced relocation documents which commenced the horrific grim walk of death to designated territories across the Mississippi River. During the journey, many Natives peoples continued to keep their communal traditions of oral storytelling alive.
In Native American Testimony, the documented voice of Choctaw, James Culberson shares what fellow tribe member, Kanchi, a pastor, said to the people in, Tushpa Crosses the Mississippi:
“Some time back beyond our old homes I heard a man preach from a book that he called Bible [Holisso Holitopa], and although that book was read by the white man, I believe there is something better in it than the way the white man acts…We are in so much trouble now, but don’t want to kill or destroy, so give us hearts that we hear about in this book and let us be good, and if we live to see this new country to which we travel, help some of us to do good to those we meet. Perhaps we will not bring shame upon the land.”(James Culberson 153)
In light of this documented testimonial, it should be noted that the Cherokee refused to sign these new documents from the United States government. They took their challenge to the Supreme Court where they won a court decision in 1831 granting sovereignty, but some members were willing to accept moving. “Ridge and others signed the Treaty of New Echota in 1835, granting land and relocation terms requested by the Americans” (Treuer 78). Ultimately, the consequences of these actions resulted in the Trail of Tears where thousands of Cherokee people lost their lives traveling in awful conditions to Oklahoma territory. To summarize, the tactics of the U.S. government involving isolation, divide and conquer, and negotiations, decimated the indigenous population while changing the landscape of the North American continent forever.
In similar fashion to the betrayal by the U.S government obtaining land from the Native tribes, land grabbing through “Westward expansion” also impacted the Hispanic populations in the Mexico region. A key factor surrounding Texas, slavery, and the Mexican American War actually can be linked to the Missouri Compromise that had taken place years earlier. “During the 1820’s, Americans crossed the Mexican border, settling in a territory known as Tejas. Many of them were slaveholders from the South in search of new lands for cotton cultivation”(Takaki 156). As previously mentioned, the United States attempted various treaties with the Native Americans to expand the nation. With that established, this is compelling evidence that reflects how the U.S. government first approached the tribes of the Southeast because the same behavior is mimicked with Mexico. On the whole, the balance of power between the slave and “free” states which the Missouri Compromise had resolved was intertwined with the war and Texas. In order to obtain the land, the United States government entered negotiations with Mexico just as they had previously done with Native American tribes. “In 1845 the United States annexed the Lone Star Republic, and Mexico broke off diplomatic relations” (Takaki 158). All in all, after the Mexican American War ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, we begin to see evidence of forced cultural shifts in the region that mirror the practices which the early European colonists conducted while engaging with the Native peoples upon first arriving on the new continent. History dictates that the colonists viewed the Natives as savage like people who needed to become more “civilized”. Additionally, through both trade and religion, cultural assimilation transformed the Indigenous peoples in an overwhelming fashion. Comparatively, this same intertwining of cultures had identical impacts on the Hispanic people. “Together the American merchant and the land lawyer provided financial capital and legal work necessary to loosen Mexican ownership of land”(Ngai and Gjerde 174).
In the final analysis, we can see that President Andrew Jackson and the members of the United States Congress carried out similar tactics against the Native Americans as the U.S. government did against Mexico. The one foundational principle behind these actions actually dated back to European culture with the “Doctrine of Discovery” that evolved into the “Manifest Destiny” during the Antebellum Era of United States History. Ultimately, the “dual identity” which the colonists were eager to shed during the American Revolution had not gone away because the land grabbing and killing of Native peoples reflects the belief mannerisms from the past.
Works Cited
“A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 – 1875 Statutes at Large, 21st Congress, 1st Session .” n.d. American Memory The Library of Congress . 11 December 2017. https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=004/llsl004.db&recNum=458>.
“Exiles In Their Own Land .” Nabokv, Peter. Native American Tesimony . New York,NY: Penguin Putnam Inc. , 1999. 145-151.
James Culberson, Choctaw. “Tuspa Crosses the Mississippi.” Nabakov, Peter. Native American Testimony . New York,NY: Penguin Putnam Inc. , 1999. 152-157.
Ngai, Mae M. and Jon Gjerde. Major Problems in American Immirgration History . Boston,MA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning , 2013.
PBS People & Events Indian Removal 1814-1858. n.d. 11 December 2017. <https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2959.html>.
Takaki, Ronald. A Different Mirror A History of Multicultural America . New York,Ny : Back Bay Books , 2008.
Treuer, Anton. Atlas of Indian Nations . Washington DC: National Geographic , 2013.
