Native Americans

1. Native Americans 1763-1850 Katie Fry, Elizabeth Elcan, Lee Folk

2. Thesis Native Americans between 1763 and 1850 were not just kept from achieving the American Dream; they had it ripped from their hands by ever-expanding, dishonorable white America.

3. After the French and Indian war, the Native Americans realized that they could use European countries as an ally to hurt the Americans encroaching on their land in the west, leading to Pontiac’s Rebellion. http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/french-indian.htm

4. Pontiac’s Rebellion • Pontiac was a lesser known Ottawa chief who sided with the French during the French and Indian War. • He was angry when the British took over the French forts in the west after the war. http://www.libraries.wvu.edu/adamstephen/

5. Pontiac’s Rebellion • Pontiac planned a direct attack on the British Fort Detroit, but the plan was leaked and when the warriors came into the fort, the British soldiers knew what was going on. • After devising a new plan, Pontiac’s men attacked surrounding farms, killing 3 civilians. • Pontiac pretended to agree to a truce but took the second in command of the fort hostage.

6. http://www.burnpit.us/2010/08/battle-of-bushy-run-british-force-defeats-indians-relieve-fort-pitt/http://www.burnpit.us/2010/08/battle-of-bushy-run-british-force-defeats-indians-relieve-fort-pitt/

7. Pontiac’s Rebellion • After a few months under siege, the British received supplies and soldiers from Fort Niagara and Pontiac gave up. • The rebellion of other Native American tribes travelled to British outposts in the west. • More than 2,000 white settlers were killed during the rebellion. • The movement ended around 1763. • Pontiac was killed in 1763 by a Peoria warrior.

8. Battle of Fallen Timbers • The uprising was led by a Miami warrior named Little Turtle. • He fought whites on the western border of Ohio. http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/image.php?img=960

9. Battle of Fallen Timbers • Over 630 whites were killed close to the Wabash River. • Attempts at a treaty were made but failed. • General Anthony Wayne brought in 4,000 troops to the Ohio River Valley and won an important victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ohiorivermap.png

10. http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry-images.php?rec=43

11. Treaty of Greenville • Negotiated in 1785, after the Battle of Fallen Timbers. • The Miami tribe was promised that they can keep the land they occupy. • The other Native Americans gave up their claim to most of the land in the Ohio River Valley. • Created a temporary solution. • The Iroquois rejected the treaty in 1786. • The American settlers still continued to settle on westward lands belonging to Native Americans, and they felt threatened.

12. The Constitution and Native Americans • The Constitution failed to mention any specific way of dealing with Native Americans. • They were not counted in the population (Art. 1). • Tribes are legal entities but not foreign countries. • Have no representation in the government.

13. Broken Treaties • Article 4 of the Constitution binds the new government to respect the treaties made by the old government in reference to Native Americans. • The old government had treaties to take land in the Northeast and Southeast from Iroquois, Choctaw, Cherokee and Chickasaw by force.

14. Tecumseh’s Resistance • Brother was Tenskwatawa (the Prophet). • Technically a Shawnee but identified himself as an “Indian.” • Wanted Native American tribes to unify against whites. • Urged other Indians living in the area to avoid contact with whites, resist the temptation of alcohol, and not allow their land to be taken. • Killed by William Henry Harrison in 1813. http://madmonarchist.blogspot.com/2010/07/monarchist-profile-chief-tecumseh.html

15. 1800-1830: Jeffersonian Policy “If we are to wage a campaign against these Indians the end proposed should be their extermination, or their removal beyond the lakes of the Illinois river. The same world will scarcely do for them and us.” -Thomas Jefferson

16. Jefferson’s View On Native Americans • Grew up always interested in Native American culture but didn’t think there was a place for it in the new America • Believed in the idea of “noble savages”- Indians were lesser than whites but were a respected race • Wanted to assimilate Indians into white culture

17. Native Americans in the South • There were five major tribes occupying the area of Mississippi, Alabama Georgia and Florida • Know as “Five Civilized Tribes” • Cherokee • Chickasaw • Choctaw • Creek • Seminole • These tribes had a combined population of almost 60,000 • They tried to assimilate into white culture in order to stay on their land • In the 1820s the United States government commissioned Jedidiah Morse to write a detailed report covering all of the nation’s Indian Tribes. • He showed that the Native Americans were civilized in his report, which , “issued in 1822, waxed eloquent about the economic and educational progress of the five tribes and advised that they be left in peace to continue it” (Howe 342).

18. The “Five Civilized Tribes” http://www.freeinfosociety.com/article.php?id=271

19. Cherokee Tribe Tries to Assimilate • The biggest of the five civilized tribes was the Cherokee. • They adopted white culture by changing their family structure, taking on a plantation style lifestyle with slaves, and adopting democratic style government. • Overall, the Cherokee tribe did everything it could to assimilate like Jefferson had wanted but whites still saw them as savages and didn’t want them as part of their culture. • Whites were also eager to have them removed to take advantage of their valuable land.

20. Cherokee’s Change in Family Structure • Previously the Cherokee nation had the women as the farmers and the men as hunters; the children were loyal to their mother’s tribe. • They adopted the US system of patriarchy where land is passed from father to son. • Wife became the domestic caretaker and the father moved to the head of household position.

21. Cherokee Plantations • Transformed into the Jeffersonian yeomen farmers. • As communication with whites increased the Native American’s prejudice of blacks increased. • Cherokee plantations had slaves • More than 1,500 slaves in the Cherokee nation

22. Cherokee Democracy • Bicameral legislature • District and superior court system • Elective system of representation • 1827- adoption of formal constitution that resembled US Constitution

23. Sequoyah’s Written Language • Seen as a renaissance of Cherokee culture • Cherokee’s have a new means of self expression • First Native American News paper, The Cherokee Phoenix, was published in 1828 • Only human ever known to have created a written language without knowing a different one before. http://library.conlang.org/quotations/sequoyah.html

24. Seminole’s Adaptation to White Culture • Seminole’s lived in Northern Florida and were started after white settlers came to America. • Although also civilized they didn’t simply adopt white culture; they strongly resisted it. • Also had black slaves but gave them their own land and owners just demanded a yearly tribute. • Phrase “Seminole Negroes” is coined • The Seminole Negroes fought alongside the Seminoles in wars against Americans in the 1820s and ‘30s.

25. http://www.the-niceguy.com/articles/Leaving.html

26. Treaty of Moultrie Creek (1823) • Six Seminole leaders claiming to speak for the entire tribe signed the treaty (after taking bribes) that removed them from the fertile lands of northern Florida to its swamplands. • The treaty also required the return of runaway slaves and that the Seminoles turn away any future runaways. • For this reason, blacks were some of the strongest to protest Indian removal, and many blacks fought in the Second Seminole War. • Treaties like this were common.

27. Native Americans in the Northwest • Before 1790s few people ventured across the Appalachians but as the population continued to grow more and more people went into the Ohio area where many Native Americans were living. • These Native Americans were less unified and their numbers were already low after the war of 1812. • These tribes were more easily forced west of the Mississippi.

28. http://www.fs.fed.us/ne/delaware/biotrends/biological_trends.htmlhttp://www.fs.fed.us/ne/delaware/biotrends/biological_trends.html

29. 1830-1850 The Age of Jacksonian Policy “They see that our professions are insincere, that our promises are broken, that the happiness of the Indian is a cheap sacrifice to the acquisition of new lands.” -James Barbour Secretary of War under John Quincy Adams (qtd. in Howe 348)

30. Before Age of Jackson http://www.snowwowl.com/histandrewjackson.html http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/book/mar15.html

31. Policy Before Jackson • Thomas Jefferson believed in assimilation first and removal second. • The Native Americans who became civilized could stay and live independently on farms, like Americans, but those who refused would be removed to the west. • Jackson did not start the idea of Indian Removal. • “The federal government had already taken substantial strides toward removing Native Americans from the East by the time Jackson entered the White House” (Brinkley 244).

32. Andrew Jackson’s Removal Policy: Move ‘em or defeat ‘em • Because of his history of fighting Native Americans and his need for Southern support, Jackson supported an aggressive removal policy. • Jackson’s policy left America with two options in dealing with the Native Americans: to either crush the tribes if the resisted removal, or force Removal on them and basically practice genocide. • His stated purpose was to secure more farmland for independent farmers who he believed to be the basis of society.

33. Andrew Jackson’s Background with Indians • Jackson made his name fighting Native Americans in the early 1800s. • Led the Tennessee militia at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814, where he crushed the Creek nation. • In his military service he had coerced tribes to move west. http://andysallpointswest.blogspot.com/2009/08/battle-of-horseshoe-bend-hidden-gem-in.html

34. Age of Jackson “Why does not the Great Father put his red children on wheels so that he can move them as he will?” -Spotted Tail Sioux Chief (qtd. in Brands 455)

35. Jackson’s Indian Removal • When Jackson came into office, his first priority was Indian Removal. • Southern states hastened Removal • In 1829, Cherokees found gold on their land in Georgia. • Because the federal government was not acting fast enough, Georgia, wanting Native American land, proclaimed state jurisdiction over the Indians’ tribal lands. • Federal treaties had secured the lands for the Indians, so it was basically another case of Southern states nullifying federal law, but as expected Andrew Jackson supported the states. • He used it both as a political ploy to get white Southern support and as a way to carry out his personal prejudices about Native Americans. • By the end of Jackson’s presidency, he had dislocated 46,000 Native Americans. • He gained 100 million acres of Indian land.

36. Worcester v. Georgia (1832) • Georgia tried to remove the Cherokees from Georgia to get their land. • The Cherokees appealed to the Supreme Court to stop the white encroachment on their land. • John Marshall and the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Cherokee. • Jackson supposedly responded, “John Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it” (qtd. in Brinkley 245).

37. Indian Removal Bill (1830) • Set aside money to finance treaty negotiations between southern tribes and the federal government to try to get the tribes to relocate to the West. • The government wanted to make the Removal “legal,” so they made the tribes sign treaties. • Jackson did not care about the appearance of legality; he just wanted them gone.

38. The Trial of Tears http://lazerbrody.typepad.com/lazer_beams/2005/08/the_trail_of_te.html

39. The Trail of Tears (1830-1838) • Over a period of eight years, the US military rounded up the Native Americans in detention camps and then forced them to walk to Oklahoma (a few went to Kansas and Nebraska). • The first tribe removed on the Trail of Tears was the Choctaws from Mississippi and western Alabama in 1830. • The Creeks were the only other group to go during Jackson’s Presidency, in 1836. • The final two tribes to be completely relocated, the Chickasaw in 1837, and the Cherokee in 1838, made the westward trek to Oklahoma under Martin Van Buren. • For the entire trail of tears nearly 4,000 of the 16,000 Native Americans died.

40. Map: Trail of Tears Source: What Hath God Wrought

41. Indian Intercourse Act (1834) • It prohibited any white person from entering the Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, without a license. • The Territory was one big reservation for all Native Americans because the government did not believe the land to the west of it to be desirable. • It also acted as a buffer. • Later Americans broke this law, just like any other conserving Indian land, when they wanted to expand West.

42. Conflicts Between Americans and Indians

43. The Black Hawk War (1831-1832) • Black Hawk, the leader of a group of Sauk Indians, tried to escape their traditional enemies, the Sioux, by crossing the Mississippi and going into their traditional lands in Illinois. • By doing this, he refused to recognize a treaty with the American Government that would force them to give up those lands. • The Illinois militia attacked the Sauk and killed most of them even as they tried to surrender. • They captured Black Hawk and displayed him as a trophy of war.

44. http://mcns.wordpress.com/2010/05/16/black-hawk-and-his-son-whirling-thunder/http://mcns.wordpress.com/2010/05/16/black-hawk-and-his-son-whirling-thunder/

45. Second Seminole War (1835-1842) • A small part of the Seminole Nation, with Black Seminoles as the largest proponents of resistance, fought against Indian Removal led by Osceola. • They used guerilla warfare to fight off the American soldiers sent by Jackson. • Osceola was captured under a flag of truce and died in prison, but the Seminoles continued to fight. • In 1842, the American Government quit fighting which left a very few Seminoles in Florida, so it was the only of the 5 Civilized Tribes to not be completely relocated.

46. Gold Rush of 1849 • When gold was found in California in 1849, thousands of white settlers moved west. • They broke the Indian Intercourse Act along the way: another example of whites breaking treaties with the Indians when it became convenient. • When the settlers arrived in California they burned Native American towns and settlements. • They also spread disease, like the Europeans had when they first came, and the diseases severely lowered the Indian population.

47. http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~earlb/overland.htm

48. Could Indian Removal Have Been Avoided? • It was impossible to stop white expansion westward, but removal was not necessary. • Women like Catharine Beecher petitioned Congress opposing Removal. • Many people opposed Removal on religious grounds because it meant giving up on Christianizing them. • The issue that prevented Assimilation was the racist attitudes of all Americans but mostly Southern whites.

49. Positive Interaction • Some westerners did prove that they could work side by side with Indians. • “In 1833, Bent’s Fort in what is now southeastern Colorado began to facilitate commerce among Americans, Mexicans, and the Indian tribes of the southern Plains; it became ‘the capital of the southern fur trade.’” (Howe 49) • Whites and Native Americans did work together successfully, so it was possible. • The answer is yes it could have been avoided, but the attitudes towards Native Americans held by most Americans still encouraged Removal, and therefore destroyed the American Dream for Indians.

50. Works Cited • Brands, H W., et al. American Stories. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. Print. • Brinkley, Alan. American History a Survey. N.p.: McGraw Hill, 2007. Print. • Ellis, Joseph J. American Creation. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007. Print. • Howe, Daniel Walker. What Hath God Wrought. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2007. MyiLibray.Web. 9 Nov. 2010.