The Removal Era: 1817-1848
Further Pressure from Western Expansion
"Every effort was made, over a long period of time, to get rid of the Indian; to kill him off, starve him and discourage him into race suicide, in an effort to solve the Indian problem by eliminating the Indian" (Stevens).
Indian Removal Act (1830) |
"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" (Indian Removal Act). |
"The rationale was that by separating the “races” trouble could be prevented" (Fowler).
"The plan of removing the aboriginal people who yet remain within the settled portions of the United States to the country west of the Mississippi River approaches its consummation. It . . . ought to be persisted until the object is accomplished. . . . All preceding experiments for the improvement of the Indians have failed. It seems now to be an established fact they can not live in contact with a civilized community and prosper." |
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"The conflict between Indian removal and America's founding ideals surfaced during bitter national debates" (Race).
"If we abandon these aboriginal proprietors of our soil, how shall we justify it to our country, how shall we justify this trespass to ourselves?" |
"They have resisted every effort to meliorate their situation. There must then be an inherent difficulty arising from the institutions, character, and condition of the Indians themselves." |
Supreme Court Cases Rival American Indian Removal
Johnson v. McIntosh (1823)
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"The Indian inhabitants are to be considered merely as occupants, to be protected, indeed, while in peace, in the possession of their lands, but to be deemed incapable of transferring the absolute title to others" (Johnson v. McIntosh). |
"The case concerned the validity of a grant of land made by tribal chiefs to private individuals in 1773 and 1775 (before the passage of the Trade and Intercourse Acts, which would have prohibited such transactions). The Court held the conveyance invalid. . . . The result of this decision was to recognize a legal right of Indians in their lands" (Canby).
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Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831)
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"They may, more correctly, perhaps, be denominated domestic dependent nations. They occupy a territory to which we assert a title independent of their will, which must take effect in point of possession, when their right of possession ceases. Meanwhile, they are in a state of pupilage; their relation to the United States resembles that of a ward to his guardian." |
"Georgia enacted a series of laws that divided up Cherokee territory . . . [and] extended state law to the territory. . . . The Cherokees brought an original action in the Supreme Court. . . . The ability of the tribe to bring such a suit depended on its being a 'foreign state'. . . . Thus, while the language of the opinion was sympathetic to the Cherokee cause, the tribe was out of court" (Canby).
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Worcester v. Georgia (1832)
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"The Cherokee nation, then, is a distinct community, occupying its own territory, with boundaries accurately described, in which the laws of Georgia can have no force." |
"Several missionaries were arrested by Georgia authorities for violating a state law requiring non-Indians residing in Cherokee territory to obtain a license from the state governor. . . . The conviction of the missionaries was thereupon reversed" (Canby).
The Tribes as Sovereign Nations
These cases went against the majority's opinion and provided the basis for tribal sovereignty by saying American Indians had an inherent right to govern themselves, which includes the right to culture. The rest of the nation was not ready to recognize this, but these cases would later become important for preserving tribal culture.
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