Introduction: The Early National Period, 1783-1806
Introduction
The American government had begun to negotiate with the Indians during the Revolution, but the
weak Continental Congress had had difficulty implementing its Indian policies and enforcing the treaties it
negotiated. As a result, the government of the newly independent United States faced the necessity of
dealing with tribes already angered by illegal encroachments, broken treaties, and violent settlers. At the
same time the new government had to overcome opposition from three major sources: foreign powers, who
had often maintained close relations with Indians angered by the betrayal of agreements negotiated with the
Americans; states' rights advocates, who continued to claim that the federal government had no authority to
enforce its Indian policies within the boundaries of existing states; and land-hungry settlers, who blatantly
ignored federal policy and trespassed on Indian lands.
The first two lectures of this unit follow the young republic's attempts to deal with these myriad
problems in the period between the Peace of Paris and the War of 1812. The first lecture focuses on the
North, where the resistance movement led by the Shawnee leader Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa
developed. The Iroquois League had accepted peace at the end of the Revolution, and the defeat of
Tecumseh's forces in the War of 1812 marked the end of the powerful Indian confederacies of the North. In
the southern regions that are the subject of the second lecture, however, the Creek and Cherokee federations
remained strong and, despite land-cession treaties negotiated during this period, retained large segments of
their traditional territories. Some southern Indians had appealed to the Spaniards for protection; some
joined Tecumseh’s resistance movement and fought with the British in the War of 1812; others used
European tools and technologies to build prosperous communities. And all, like the Indians of the old
Northwest, found themselves surrounded and increasingly threatened by non-Indian settlers.
The concept of "Indian Country," the subject of the third lecture in the unit, was designed to protect
the Indians from non-Indian incursions, the abuses of the Indian trade, and the intrigues of foreign powers.
In practice, however, the boundaries of the "permanent" Indian country had shifted several times since the
British first articulated the policy in 1763. After the War of 1812, the tribes of the Southeast, including the
Creek and Cherokee federations examined in the fourth and fifth lectures, learned how fragile and
unenforceable the boundaries of Indian land were. In the decades following the War of 1812, the
government shifted the borders of "Indian Territory" further west, beyond the peripheries of non-Indian
settlement; the Indians overtaken by settlement were offered new lands, annuities, and guarantees if they
would relocate in "Indian Territory." By the 1830s, however, tribes like the Creek and Cherokee who would
not leave their homelands voluntarily found them removed forcibly.
While the frontier marched relentlessly westward, the federal government was developing legal,
executive, and administrative structures to supervise Indian affairs. In 1834 Congress restructured the
Indian department and restated the policies of the United States toward the Indians. The sixth lecture of the
unit outlines the development of those legislative and administrative structures in the young republic. But
policies and programs could not stop the unchecked expansion, which pushed Americans further and further
west, reaching its peak in the 1840s, 1850s, and 1860s. The seventh lecture of the unit explores the
ideology of "Manifest Destiny" which spurred that expansion, the practical interests which coincided with it,
and its consequences for the Indian peoples within United States territory. The period of "Manifest Destiny"
marked the end of an era in United States-Indian relations, as well as the demise of the republic's initial
Indian policy. By the 1850s the frontier had reached the ocean, and the concept of a permanent "Indian
Country" was little more than a fiction. The American government could no longer move the Indians west
beyond the peripheries of settlement, for there was no land to be had further west; the large numbers of
land-hungry settlers who had moved into close proximity with the outraged Indians created a volatile situa-
tion, and one that demanded the immediate concern of the government. Before the next module takes up
those new difficulties and the policies formulated in response to them, however, this module explores the
effects of the early national period on four tribes: the Seneca of the Northeast, the Cheyenne of the Plains,
the Cherokee of the Southeast, and the Navajo of the Southwest.