WESTERN FRONTIER

At the time of the American Revolution, the western boundary of the United States was the Appalachian Mountains. Land had become expensive in the colonies and many people were eager to settle the wilderness that lay beyond those mountains.

The Indians fought these invaders of their hunting grounds with a vengeance. They attacked frontier settlements. The white settlers struck back, sometimes massacring entire Indian villages. Indian warfare quickly became a part of frontier life.

At first, the new United States government tried to keep the peace by discouraging settlements beyond the mountains. "The utmost good faith shall always be observed toward the Indians, their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and in their property, rights, and liberty they never shall be invaded or disturbed..." read the Northwest Ordinance, designed to regulate the settling of the new frontier. But the frontier was far away and "good faith" was rarely demonstrated.

The United States tried different ways of dealing with their "Indian problem." Basically, they all boiled down to this: The Indian had to be either assimilated or removed farther west to make room for the European civilization the white Americans felt was destined to rule the continent.

In 1817, President James Monroe wrote that the Indians' only chance for survival was to be removed to an area, where they would not be disturbed by the settlers. Given time to learn civilized ways, or to practice their own way of life, they could survive.

And so, in 1830 the United States passed the Indian Removal Act. All Indians in the East would be removed to lands set aside for them west of the Mississippi River.

One of the tribes was the Cherokee. Ironically, the Cherokee had already adopted many of the white man's way; many owned large farms and brick homes in the state of Georgia. Their towns had stores, sawmills, blacksmith shops, spinning wheels and wagons.

In 1821, a Cherokee named Sequoyah developed a written language for his people. Using his 85-character alphabet, the Cherokee printed Bibles and a newspaper. They adopted a constitution modeled on that of the United States government.

Like Monroe, some whites thought removal was a way of saving the Indian peoples. Others saw it as a way to get more land from the Indians. When gold was discovered on Cherokee land, pressure for removal mounted.

A few Cherokees were willing to move to the new lands. Though they did not represent the Cherokee nation, they signed a treaty with the American government agreeing to the removal of the Cherokees.

The peaceful Cherokees were removed by force from their homes and forced to march overland to Indian Territory, in what is now the state of Oklahoma. The difficult journey took three to five months. In all, some 4,000 - one quarter of the Cherokee nation - lost their lives in the course of this removal. This shameful moment in American history has come to be called "The Trail of Tears."

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 1083