Cherokee Indians example essay topic

667 words
On August 23, the "Trail of Tears" had begun for the Cherokee Indians. The Government (white men) was forcing the Indians of its tribal land to the west to unfavorable land. The Cherokee embarked on the long bitter journey to Oklahoma from Georgia. Make shift stockades were constructed by General Winfield Scott before the actually journey began. The army started to gather Indians on May 23 to put them in the newly constructed stockades (prisons). They Indians were treated unfairly no warning was given to them, instead they were captured doing their every day chores such as farming and tending to house hold duties.

The white people where eager to come and claim land and look for gold as soon as the Indians were carried away. Once Andrew Jackson became president he pushed his views on the public. Jackson thought that Native Americans should be forced to move for the expanding settlements. Jackson main interest was to acquire the land the Cherokee had, so he and other potential landowners could profit from the land. Jackson was all about the almighty dollar". Although the Cherokee had been his allies in the earlier war against the Creeks, Jackson had made no secret of the fact that he strongly favored the removal of all Native Americans to lands west of the Mississippi River".

(Page 123 Discovering the American Past) Jackson used the Indians when he needed them and betrayed them when the opportunity would arise. Jackson feels that it would be out of the government interest and a waste of time to try to civilize the Indians, because once they are civilized and have permanent settlements it would be harder to move them or purchase their land at a cheap price. He also feels that the Indians have been kept in a state of uncertainty and will soon start to realize that the Americans are unfair and do not care about their fate just their land and the money that could be made from it. President Thomas Jefferson tries to convince the Indians on why it would be best for them to move westward. Jefferson tries to use a different approach by telling the Indians that the cause of their troubles are very plain and the remedy can only be fixed by the Indians their selves.

Jefferson tells the native people that they have drove the buffalo and deer westward and that it would be better for them to move westward to follow them. Jefferson also tells the Indians that every year they have been a part of no food do to the fact of not knowing how to cultivating. He also tries to show them that the whites have double their population every twenty years while the Indians numbers continue to decline do wars and abuse of liquor. Jefferson says this is because whites raise livestock and know how to cultivate the earth. He tries to convince the Indians to double their numbers, by giving up their own ways and confirm to the ways of the white man. If they do this they will become great people.

They will become great people if and only if the women learn how spin and weave clothes, while the men must put down their weapons and pick up ploughs and hoes to farm. Jefferson encourages the Indians to marry white people so the blood can mix and the Indians can become one. This is a way to eliminate the Indians through social and economic ways. He wants to change the whole life style of the Indians instead of learning how to live with one another President Jackson and Jefferson have the same overall goal, which are to eliminate the Indians. The only difference is that Jackson uses the technique by any means necessary and Jefferson has a different approach that will take patients and time.