A Bit of Native American History

Indian Removal…

“New World” Discovery

• Native Americans were here first• Columbus stepped off his ship in the

Bahamas, beginning of the Columbian Exchange-the interchange of plants, animals, and diseases between the Old World and the Americas following Columbus's arrival in the Caribbean in 1492.

• Columbus called the people he met “Indos”, meaning people of India, since that is where he thought he had landed

After the American Revolution

• 1783, The Treaty of Paris, formally ending the American Revolution, is signed by representatives of Great Britain and the United States.

• In the treaty, the British cede (give up) all of their North American territories south of Canada and east of the Mississippi River to the United States.

• Former agreements between the British and the Indian occupants of these territories are implicitly voided.

• The United States now claimed all Indian lands east of the Mississippi River by right of conquest.

The U.S. in 1783

• About 3 million people, mostly living along the Atlantic seaboard

• Native Americans, about 600,000, controlled most of the land west of the Appalachian Mountains

Quizlet:

1. What European gave the natives he met the name “Indians”?

2. What was the “Columbian Exchange”?

3. Who did the Americans gain independence from?

4. Who controlled most of the land west of the Appalachian Mountains?

George Washington

• President Washington and his Secretary of War, Henry Knox, claimed to respect Indian rights

• They promised to secure Indian lands through treaty and purchase

Meanwhile, in Georgia…

• Like many Americans after the Revolutionary War, Georgians developed a huge appetite for land, which was addressed through various means

• Headright System• Land lotteries• Yazoo Land Fraud

Creeks and George

• As settlers pushed into Creek lands along the Oconee River, skirmishes and attacks occurred between the two groups

• In 1790, President Washington met with Chief Alexander McGillivray and the Treaty of New York was signed

• The Creek gave up all of their lands east of the Oconee River and in return, the US government promised that no whites would go into lands west of the boundary

Back in Georgia

• When Georgians heard of the treaty, they were enraged because it seemed the federal government had taken the side of the Indians

• Neither side paid any attention to the treaty

• Then the Yazoo Land Fraud took place and the federal government had to step in and help Georgia with the scandal

William McIntosh

• As more land was ceded to the government, the Creek tribes lost touch with one another and sometimes signed treaties without asking the tribes to agree

• In 1825, Creek Chief William McIntosh and Georgia governor Troup, signed the Treaty on Indian Springs, selling Creek land to the state

McIntosh Murdered!

• Groups of Creeks who disagreed with the treaty decided that, in accordance with Creek law, McIntosh had to die

• The Creek set fire to McIntosh’s home, dragged him from the house, stabbed him in the chest, and then scalped him as a warning to others

Quizlet

1. How did George Washington promise to treat Native Americans?

2. After the Revolutionary War, what did many Georgians want?

3. What were some of the ways to acquire this?

4. What did Chief William McIntosh do that caused him to be killed?

Sequoyah

• Contributing to advancements in the Cherokee culture was George Gist, son of a Virginia scout and soldier, and his mother, who was a Cherokee princess

• Sequoyah means “lonely lame one”- he was crippled since childhood

• Interested in white man’s “talking leaves”• In 1809 he began to make a syllabary-a

group of symbols that stood for whole syllables

Sequoyah

Sequoyah_Creates_Cherokee_Writing_System.wmv

Cherokee Literacy

• Sequoyah spent 12 years on his syllabary• Some members of his tribe made fun of him

but after he taught his daughter and a few young chiefs to write and understand the symbols in a few days, tribe members changed their minds

• By 1830, over 90% of the Cherokee could read and write and were the first to have their own language in written form

Dahlonega Gold

• After gold was discovered in 1829, gold fever swept through North Georgia

• The Georgia legislature passed a law that placed part of the Cherokee land under state control

• Later the Cherokee were denied any right to the land or gold

Quizlet

1. What was George Gist known as?2. What did he create?3. How effective was his creation?4. What was found in the Cherokee

region of Dahlonega?

Worcester v. Georgia, John Marshall, and John Ross

• Most Georgians didn’t care what happened to the Cherokee, but a group of white missionaries did and they were ordered off the land and told to sign an oath of allegiance to the governor

• 11 people, including Reverend Samuel Worcester, refused to sign the oath and were chained and made to walk from the North Georgia mountains to Lawrenceville, where they were sentenced to 4 years in a state penitentiary in Milledgeville

• Worcester took his case to the Supreme Court where Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the decision could not stand because Cherokee territory was not subject to state law

• In 1832 the state government had a lottery to give Cherokee lands to whites

• Chief John Ross made several trips to Washington to ask Congress for help-he wanted the Cherokee protected and past treaties honored

Andrew Jackson

• Elected president in 1828 and former friend to Native Americans, especially Cherokee

• 1830 Congress passed the Indian Removal Act that called for all Native Americans to be moved to the western territories that had been acquired with the Louisiana Purchase

• Jackson signed the bill into law but the Supreme Court issued an order protecting the rights of the Cherokee

• Jackson refused to honor the Court’s decision and claimed it was a matter for states, not the federal government

Removal of Creek and Cherokee

• Many Creek refused to leave their land but it was forcibly taken from them, while others went hungry

• When Creeks in Alabama and Georgia attacked whites, the US Army forced them to move west

• In the meantime, the US became involved in an Indian war in Florida and the Creek helped the US defeat the Seminole

• As the Creek were being removed, Georgia was moving the Cherokee forcibly off their land

Trail of Tears

• December 1835 Cherokee told to come to New Echota and sign a treaty giving up all of their land-Cherokee trader Major Ridge and his son John and a few others agreed

• In 1838 General Winfield Scott ordered the removal of the remaining Cherokee who refused to leave their land and many were sent to Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas

• A few Cherokee escaped and hid in the mountains of North Carolina

• The rest began an 800 mile walk that would leave thousands dead

• The Cherokee called the move “ANuna-da-ut-sun’y” or “the trail where they cried”

Quizlet

1. What did Reverend Samuel Worcester refuse to do?

2. How did the Supreme Court rule in Worcester v. Georgia?

3. What president signed the Indian Removal Act? What did he do when the Court ruled against it?

4. The Creeks fought with the US Army to defeat what group in Florida?

5. Some Cherokee managed to escape from north Georgia and hid where?