![]() Prior to the Indian reservation system, Indian women farmed and took care of the land while men hunted and helped protect the tribe. Much of the reservation land wasn’t good farmland, and many Indians couldn’t afford the supplies needed to reap a harvest. It decreased the land owned by Indians by more than half and opened even more land to white settlers and railroads. The government hoped the legislation would help Indians assimilate into white culture easier and faster and improve their quality of life.īut the Dawes Act had a devastating impact on Native American tribes. In 1887, the Dawes Act was signed by President Grover Cleveland allowing the government to divide reservations into small plots of land for individual Indians. Missionaries attempted to convert them to Christianity and give up their spiritual beliefs. Indians were encouraged or forced to wear non-Indian clothes and learn to read and write English, sew and raise livestock. Starvation was common, and living in close quarters hastened the spread of diseases brought by white settlers. Not only had tribes lost their native lands, but it was almost impossible to maintain their culture and traditions inside a confined area.įeuding tribes were often thrown together and Indians who were once hunters struggled to become farmers. In 1851, Congress passed the Indian Appropriations Act, which created the Indian reservation system and provided funds to move Indian tribes onto farming reservations and hopefully keep them under control.ĭaily living on the reservations was hard at best. The Indian Appropriations ActĪs white settlers continued westward and needed more land, Indian territory shrank-but there was no more land for the government to move them to. They fought federal troops for almost a decade before their leader was killed and they finally surrendered. Disease and starvation were rampant, and thousands died along the way, giving the tortuous journey the nickname “ Trail of Tears.”Ī group of Seminoles, however, refused to leave and hunkered down in Florida. In 1838, President Martin Van Buren sent federal troops to march the remaining southern Cherokee holdouts 1,200 miles to Indian territory in the Plains. Even some Indians in the North were forced to relocate. Over the next few years, the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Creeks were forced to move westward on foot, often in chains and with little or no food and supplies. The Indian Removal Act was controversial, but Jackson argued it was the best option since settlers had rendered Indian lands incompatible with sustaining their way of life. The government would pick up the cost of relocating the Indians and helping them resettle. The Act allowed the government to divide land west of the Mississippi to give to Indian tribes in exchange for the land they’d lost. On May 28, 1830, the Indian Removal Act was signed by President Jackson. ![]() And in December 1828, Georgia ordered the seizure of the remaining Cherokee land in their state. ![]() Over the next several years, the government passed several acts to diminish Indian autonomy, despite the Cherokee forming a new constitution-based government of their own. When Georgia held lotteries to allocate seized Indian land, the battle-weary Creeks who’d sought sanctuary in east Alabama fought for their independence against the militia of Andrew Jackson, which included so-called “friendly Indians.”Īfter suffering a devastating defeat at what became known as the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, the Creeks yielded more than 20 million acres of land to the federal government. Andrew JacksonĪfter the Louisiana Purchase, Thomas Jefferson hoped to move eastern Indian tribes past the Mississippi River-but most Indians rejected his idea. Georgia agreed to cede her western land to the government in return for Indian land title. The United States acted to remove all Indian nations from the southeast. In the early 19th century, settlers moved into southern Cherokee territory en masse and wanted their government representatives to claim the land. Not only did the federal government want Native Americans to give up their land, they also encouraged them to become farmers and Christians. To reestablish peace between the Cherokees and the settlers, the Treaty of Holston was signed in 1791 in which the Cherokees agreed to give up all land outside of their established borders. The Cherokees cried foul and revolted against the white settlements. In 1785, the Treaty of Hopewell was signed in Georgia-the largest state at the time-placing the native Cherokees under the protection of a young United States and setting boundaries for their land.īut it wasn’t long before European settlers intruded on Cherokee land.
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