Ch. 10 Sec. 4 – Indian Removal
(p. 355-361)
MAIN IDEAS
Native Americans in
the Southeast
(p. 355)
Cherokees
(p. 355)
NOTES


Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee
o Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek
Florida
o Seminoles
o Seminoles were made up of Creeks, Native Americans in Florida and runaway slaves
1.) _______________________________________________________________________________________
a.) _______________________________________________________________________________________
o Also ran grain and lumber mills
b.) _______________________________________________________________________________________
c.) _______________________________________________________________________________________
2.) ________________________ = created a ________________________________ for the Cherokee language
3.) 1827 = _______________________________________________________________ for their Indian nation
o declared themselves a separate nation
State of Georgia
(p. 357)
1.) __________________________________________________________________in SE USA to grow cotton
2.) _______________________________________________________________________________________
from Creeks and Cherokees
o Georgia said that the Cherokees were not a separate nation and had to move
Supreme Court’s
Rulings
(p. 357)

Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831)
o Supreme Court refused to stop Georgia from enforcing their law to move the Cherokees
o Said that the Cherokees were a “domestic dependent nation” and Georgia state law applied to them
1.) _________________________________________________________________________________ (1832)
a.) ___________________________________________________________________________________
b.) Supreme Court ruled that ______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
c.) Cherokees had a ______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
d.) ___________________________________________________________________________________
Page #1
2009-2010
Ch. 10 Sec. 4 – Indian Removal
(p. 355-361)
President Andrew
Jackson’s Reaction
(p. 357)

Executive Branch = enforce laws (including rulings of the Supreme Court)
1.) Jackson _________________________________________________________________________________
 “John Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it.”
a.) Wanted _____________________________________________________________________________
b.) Believed Indians would be _____________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
o "My friends, circumstances render it impossible that you can flourish in the midst of a civilized
community. You have but one remedy within your reach, and that is to remove to the west. And
the sooner you do this, the sooner you will commence your career of improvement and
prosperity." Andrew Jackson
o “It will be my sincere and consistent desire to observe toward the Indian tribes within our limits a
just and liberal policy, and to give that humane consideration attention to their rights and their
wants which is consistent with the habits of our Government and the feelings of our people.”
Andrew Jackson

Chief Junaluska, the Cherokee Chief who saved the life of Jackson in Battle of Horse Shoe Bend and who led
500 Cherokees in support of Jackson stated that "If I had known that Jackson would drive us from our
homes, I would have let him die at Horseshoe"

Speckled Snake, a Creek more than 100 years old, responded in 1829 to Jackson’s announcement:
“Brothers! I have listened to many talks from our great father (American leaders). When he first
came over the wide waters, he was but a little man . . . Very little. His legs were cramped by sitting
long in his big boat, and he begged for a little land to light his fire on . . . But when the white man had
warmed himself before the Indians fire and had filled himself with their hominy, he became very large.
With a step he bestrode the mountains, and his feet covered the plains and the valleys. His hand
grasped the eastern and western sea, and his head rested on the moon. Then he became our Great
Father. He loved his red children and he said, ‘Get a little further, lest I tread (step) on thee . . .’
Brothers I have listened to a great many talks from our great father. But they all begin and ended in
this: ‘Get a little further; you are too near me.’”

Colonel Cobb, a Choctaw chief, addressed a government agent who came to remove his tribe: “Brother!
We have listened to your talk, coming from our father, the Great White Chief, at Washington, and my
people have called upon me to reply to you …Brother! We have, as your friends, fought by your side,
and have poured out our blood in your defense, but our arms are now broken. You have grown large.
My people have become small, and there are none who take pity on them. Brother! My voice is become
weak - you can scarcely hear me. It is not the shout of a warrior, but the wail of an infant. I have lost
it in mourning over the desolation and injuries of my people. These are their graves which you see
scattered around us, and in the winds which pass through these aged pines we hear the moanings of
their departed Ghosts. Their ashes lie here, and we have been left to protect them. Our warriors are
nearly all gone to the west, but here are our dead. Will you compel us to go too, and give their bones to
the wolves? Brother! ... You speak the words of a mighty nation. I am a shadow, and scarcely reach to
your knee. My people are scattered and gone; when I shout, I hear my voice in the depths of the forest,
but no answering voice comes back to me - all is silent around me! My words therefore must be few. I
can say no more.”
Indians’ Reactions
Quotes
Indian Removal Act
of 1830
(p. 357)
1.) _______________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
a.) ____________________________________________________________________ – Indian Territory
2.) Law also provided ________________________________________________________ . . . but not enough

Federal government did not provide enough money for tents, foods, blankets, shoes, winter clothes and
other supplies

Corrupt army officers bought cheap supplies and pocketed the extra money for themselves
Page #2
2009-2010
Ch. 10 Sec. 4 – Indian Removal
(p. 355-361)
Trail of Tears
(p. 358-359)
1.) ____________________________________________________________________________ in 1831-1833
2.) _______________________________________________________________________________________
a.) _______________________________________________________________ = Winter of 1838-39
b.) 7,000 soldiers forced _______________________________________________________________
c.) ________________________________________________________________________________
d.) ____________________________________________________________ out of 15,000 Cherokees
o "I saw the helpless Cherokees arrested and dragged from their homes, and driven at the bayonet point
into the stockades. And in the chill of a drizzling rain on an October morning I saw them loaded like
cattle or sheep into six hundred and forty-five wagons and started toward the west....On the morning of
November the 17th we encountered a terrific sleet and snow storm with freezing temperatures and
from that day until we reached the end of the fateful journey on March the 26th 1839, the sufferings of
the Cherokees were awful. The trail of the exiles was a trail of death. They had to sleep in the wagons
and on the ground without fire. And I have known as many as twenty-two of them to die in one night of
pneumonia due to ill treatment, cold and exposure..."
Private John G. Burnett
Captain Abraham McClellan's Company, 2nd Regiment, 2nd Brigade, Mounted Infantry
Cherokee Indian Removal 1838-39
Seminoles in Florida
(p. 359)
1.) _______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________ over 20 years
o Costliest Indian war fought by the US government
2.) 1840s – _________________________________________________________________________________
Page #3

In the 8 years of Jackson’s presidency, 45,700 Indians were relocated West of the Mississippi River

From 1789 to 1838, a total of 81,282 Indians were relocated to the West

"The Cherokee are probably the most tragic instance of what could have succeeded in American
Indian policy and didn't. All these things that Americans would proudly see as the hallmarks of
civilization are going to the West by Indian people. They do everything they were asked except one
thing. What the Cherokees ultimately are, they may be Christian, they may be literate, they may have
a government like ours, but ultimately they are Indian. And in the end, being Indian is what kills
them." Richard White, Historian
2009-2010