The History of the Cherokee Eviction in the 1700s

In the period of the North American colonization in the early 1700’s to 1800’s, there was a lot of tension due to the Native Americans, specifically the Cherokees, that had previously been inhabiting the land in West America, specifically Georgia. Whites coming into that territory were not willing to compromise with the Natives and wanted what was eventually referred to as the Cherokee Removal. There were multiple points of view from both the whites and the Cherokee Nation. The arguments in favor of the Cherokee removal stated that the Native Americans had no legitimate title to the land they inhabited and that they were an obstacle to whites gaining their rich farmlands, and that the removal would protect Cherokee from white discrimination.

The Cherokee response to these arguments included switching from opposition to the agreement, speaking directly to the president themselves, and the Cherokee women petitioning.

One of the first documents that shows how whites were in favor of the Cherokee removal was the Intercourse Act of 1790.

The Intercourse Acts were a series of statutes that set boundaries to reservations in America. The Intercourse Act of 1790 stated that no sale of lands made by any Indians or any nation or tribe of Indians within the United States, shall be valid to any person or persons, or to any state. This was particularly significant because the Cherokees were trying to defend their land at the time that this act was put into action. The whites were trying to make it harder for them to do this.

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Not only did the whites prevent them from having any legitimate title to their land that they had inhabited for hundreds of years, they labeled the Cherokees as an obstacle for whites trying to gain their rich farmland to grow cotton, and search for the abundance of gold. The President at the time, Thomas Jefferson, stated that while they are learning to do better on less land, [their] increasing numbers will be calling for more land. He uses their ability to adapt to living on less land with the whites as a justification for the whites to obtain the land they are being removed from solely for themselves and the benefits of the new America. The whites’ belief that the Cherokee people were an obstacle wasn’t the only reason they were in favor of the Cherokee Removal.

Many whites in favor of the Cherokee removal believed that the Cherokee people living within their territory in the United States threatened the peace between the two groups. There were supposedly two options for the Cherokees living in Georgia, the land that the whites wanted to take over. Either they could move to land further out in modern-day Oklahoma, or stay where they are and essentially assimilate with the white culture, including practicing Christianity, and taking on the gender roles specific to how whites were used to them- women took care of the children while the men would work and lead. Though the Cherokee people were given that choice, the whites still opposed the natives living in that territory along beside them. Georgia’s own, Governor Wilson Lumpkin stated, “We cannot permit the course of our policy in relation to the Cherokee part of Georgia to remain in its present perplexed and extraordinary condition without jeopardizing the interest and prosperity, if not the peace and safety, of the State.” He did not believe that whites would be able to prosper with the Cherokees living in the same territory as them because he felt that it would ruin the peace and safety that the whites had already established without them. With all of the outspoken white opinions surrounding the Cherokee Removal, the Cherokee people themselves responded in several ways.

John Ross, the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1828-1860, adamantly opposed Cherokee Removal and took the Cherokee complaints to the President himself, Andrew Jackson. He begs President Jackson to “pity and save them.” He continues to explain exactly how the Cherokee Nation is feeling towards the Cherokee Removal, which Andrew Jackson is in favor of. “Let the comforts and enjoyments of life which have been so profusely scattered around you, by a bountiful providence remind you, that hundreds of their people, many of whom are women and children, may now be homeless wanderers, suffering with cold and hunger, for no crime, but, because they did not love their Country less.” Ross accuses the whites of wanting peace and prosperity, but discriminate against the Cherokee people, causing more of an uproar started by none other than themselves. Cherokee men weren’t the only ones responding to this issue.

Cherokee women were particularly opposed to the removal, and responded with a petition. Women of the Cherokee Nation took on a different role than white women. They farmed and hunted for the rest of the people. The white women’s job was generally to take care of the family and do housework. When the Cherokee women decided to stand up and take action, it wasn’t just for themselves. This petition was for each and every Cherokee person, even those who inhabited the territory before them. They say “We have raised all of you on the land which we now have, which God gave us to inhabit and raise provisions.” Raising your own on the land that another group is trying to take away from you was terrifying to them. They want the best for their people and their children, and in order to get that, they believe that they should stay on the land that they have known for years. The Cherokee women said “We do not wish to go to an unknown country [to] which we have understood some of our children wish to go over the Mississippi, but this act of our children would be like destroying your mothers,”5 which shows that they are not only trying to stand up against the white people trying to take their land, but they’re also trying to influence the other Cherokee people’s opinions on the Cherokee Removal. Nonetheless, not all of the people in each of these groups had the same opinion towards what was going on.

Though the majority of whites supported the Cherokee Removal and the majority of the Cherokee Nation opposed it, there were some exceptions mixed in these groups. John Ridge, a Cherokee leader, initially opposed the Cherokee Removal. He ended up switching over to acceptance stating, “By them the clouds of ignorance which surrounded me on all sides were dispersed. My heart received the rays of civilization and my intellect expanded and took a wider range. My superstition vanished and I began to reason correctly,” which emits the understanding of a different point of view, more specifically, the acceptance of the Cherokee Removal. Ridge decides that the assimilation of Native American people into the white culture would be a good idea because it would create a sense of unity. David Crockett, white Representative of Tennessee, was opposed to the Cherokee Removal due to religion and morality. He believed that the Indian Tribes of America, including the Cherokee Nation, had been recognized as a sovereign people from the very foundation of the government, and the United States were bound by treaty to protect them; it was their duty to do so. This point of view wasn’t as common among the whites. Crockett had a lot of sympathy for the Cherokee people and believed that they deserved to stay where they were no interruptions.

The difference of opinions and beliefs on the Cherokee Removal between the whites and the Cherokee Nation continued to cause tension. It eventually led to what is called the Trail of Tears, the forced removal of the Cherokees across the Mississippi to Oklahoma, a horrifying trek on which many of them died. Whites in favor of the removal did not give up on their wish to take over native territory for themselves, and the Cherokee response proved to be significant, but not enough.