Indian Removal in the 1830s
A Document-Based Question (DBQ)
Historical Context: Citizens of the United States have been interacting with Indians from the colonial
period up through the era of President Andrew Jackson (President from 1829-1837). As the United
States expanded beyond the original thirteen states, Americans increased their contact with Indians. In
order to regulate interactions and maintain uniformity, legal and official dealings with Indians were
restricted to Federal treaties. From 1816-1840 tribes located between the Mississippi River and the
original thirteen colonies were encouraged and impelled to move west; more than forty (40) treaties
were signed in this time period. When Andrew Jackson became president, he made Indian removal a
priority and passed the Indian Removal Act (1830).
Directions: This exercise is designed to help you develop skills analyze and interpret historical
documents. Some of the documents have been edited or abbreviated so that they are more manageable.
As you look at these documents, take into consideration the authors' points of view and any outside
knowledge you have of the situation. Please do not write on the Document Packet – all answers
should be written on your answer sheet.
Task: Using the documents provided, consider the crisis that developed around the issue of Indian
removal in the 1830s, making sure to evaluate the pros and cons surrounding Indian removal as well as
the various positions that were taken by Americans and Indians.
Document 1 – Cherokee Alphabet
http://cla.calpoly.edu/~lcall/204/trail_of_tears_map.jpg
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
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Many Indian tribes have an oral tradition – their history is passed down through stories, not written
language. However, in the early 1800s, a Cherokee named Sequoyah created an alphabet and in 1821
demonstrated his alphabet to Cherokee leaders, who were amazed and impressed by the
accomplishment. It was quickly adopted as the official written language of the Cherokee. Because of
the simplicity of Sequoyah's alphabet system, many Cherokee became literate in a short time. In 1827,
the Cherokee Phoenix - Tsa La Gi lehisanunhi - was established. Funded by the Cherokee Council, this
first Indian newspaper was published in New Echota, Georgia. On February 21, 1828, the first issue of
the paper was printed. In time, other works including the Holy Bible would be printed in Sequoyah's
alphabet.
http://www.georgiatribeofeasterncherokee.com/alphabet
.htm
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Document 2 – Historical Map of Georgia, 1822
http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/histcountymaps/ga1822map.htm
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Document 3 - Indian Removal Act of 1830
Chap. CXLVIII.--An Act to provide for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing in any of the
states or territories, and for their removal west of the river Mississippi.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in
Congress assembled, That it shall and may be lawful for the President of the United States to cause so
much of any territory belonging to the United States, west of the river Mississippi, not included in any
state or organized territory, and to which the Indian title has been extinguished, as he may judge
necessary, to be divided into a suitable number of districts, for the reception of such tribes or nations of
Indians as may choose to exchange the lands where they now reside, and remove there….
Document 4 – Supreme Court Ruling, Worcester v. Georgia, 1832
"From the commencement of our government Congress has passed acts to regulate trade… with the
Indians; which treat them as nations, respect their rights, and manifest a firm purpose to afford that
protection which treaties stipulate. All these acts, and especially that of 1802, which is still in force,
manifestly consider the several Indian nations as distinct political communities, having territorial
boundaries, within which their authority is exclusive, and having a right to all the lands within
those boundaries, which is not only acknowledged, but guaranteed by the United States. . . . The
Cherokee Nation, then, is a distinct community, occupying its own territory, with boundaries
accurately described, in which the laws of Georgia can have no force, and which the citizens of
Georgia have no right."
- John Marshall, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
Document 5 - Letter from Cherokee Chief John Ross, "To the Senate
and House of Representatives"
The Treaty of New Echota, signed by the Jackson administration and a group of Cherokees claiming to represent their
people, stated that the tribe would relocate west of the Mississippi. The majority of Cherokees, over 15,000, opposed the
treaty. In this letter, Chief John Ross and the others state the case for the Cherokee majority.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h3083t.html; http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h3083.html
Red Clay Council Ground, Cherokee Nation, September 28, 1836
“By the stipulations of the [Treaty of New Echota],… we are stripped of every attribute of freedom
and eligibility for legal self-defence. Our property may be plundered before our eyes; violence may
be committed on our persons; even our lives may be taken away, and there is none to regard our
complaints. We are denationalized; we are disfranchised. We are deprived of membership in the
human family! We have neither land nor home, nor resting place that can be called our own.”
- Chief John Ross
The Papers of Chief John Ross, vol 1, 1807-1839, Norman OK
Gary E. Moulton, ed.
University of Oklahoma Press, 1985
Document 6 – President Andrew Jackson’s Address to Congress, 1830
"[Indian Removal] will separate the Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites; free
them from the power of the States; enable them to pursue happiness in their own way and under their
own rude institutions; will retard the progress of decay, which is lessening their numbers, and perhaps
cause them gradually, under the protection of the Government and through the influence of good
counsels to cast off their savage habits and become an interesting, civilized, and Christian
community.”
~ Andrew Jackson. 2nd Annual Address to Congress. December 8, 1830
Document 7 – John G. Burnett’s Story of the Removal of the Cherokees
Private John G. Burnett, Captain Abraham McClellan’s Company, 2nd Regiment, 2nd Brigade,
Mounted Infantry, Cherokee Indian Removal, 1838-39.
Adapted from: http://www.powersource.com/cherokee/burnett.html
Children:
This is my birthday, December 11, 1890, I am
eighty years old today. I was born in Tennessee,
December the 11th, 1810. I grew into manhood
fishing in Beaver Creek and roaming through the
forest hunting the deer and the wild boar and the
timber wolf. Often spending weeks at a time in
the solitary wilderness with no companions by
my rifle, hunting knife, and a small hatchet that I
carried in my belt.
On these long hunting trips I met and
became acquainted with many of the Cherokee
Indians, hunting with them by day and sleeping
around their campfires by night. I learned to
speak their language, and they taught me the arts
of trailing and building traps and snares.
The removal of Cherokee Indians from
their life long homes in the year 1838 found me a
young man in the prime of life and a Private
soldier in the American Army. Being acquainted
with many of the Indians and able to fluently
speak their language, I was sent as an interpreter
into the Smoky Mountain Country, and witness
the execution of the most brutal order in the
History of America. 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.
One can never forget the sadness of that
morning. Chief John Ross led in prayer and when
the bugle sounded and the wagons started rolling
many of the children rose to their feet and waved
their little hands good-by to their mountain home,
knowing they were leaving them forever. Many
of these helpless people did not have blankets and
DBQ Answer Sheet
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many of them had been driven from home barefooted.
On the morning of November the 17th we
encountered a terrific sleet and snowstorm with
freezing temperatures and from that day until we
reached the end of the 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.
I made the long journey to the west with the
Cherokees and did all that a soldier could do to
alleviate their sufferings. When on guard duty at night
I have many times walked my beat in my blouse in
order that some sick child might have the warmth of
my overcoat.
The only trouble that I had with anybody on the
entire journey to the west was a brutal teamster by the
name of Ben McDonal, who was using his whip on an
old feeble Cherokee to hasten him into the wagon. The
sight was nearly too much to handle. I attempted to
stop him and it ended in a personal encounter. He
lashed me across the face, the wire tip of his whip
cutting a bad gash in my cheek.
The long painful journey to the west ended
March 26th 1839, with 4,000 silent graves reaching
from the foothills of the Smoky Mountains to what is
known as Indian Territory in the West. Covetousness
on the part of the white race was the cause of all that
the Cherokee had to suffer.
When Scott invaded the Indian country some of
the Cherokees fled of caves and dens in the mountains
and were never captured and they are there today. I
have intended going there and trying to find them but I
have put off going and now I am too feeble to ride that
far. The fleeing years have come and gone and old age
has overtaken me. I can truthfully say that neither my
rifle nor my knife were stained with Cherokee blood.
Name
Please look at each relevant document and answer the following questions using complete sentences.
Document 1 – Cherokee Alphabet
Why do you think it was important to the Cherokee to have a written alphabet?
Document 2 – Historical Map of Georgia, 1822
Using the map, explain why you think many residents of Georgia were in favor of moving the
Cherokee Indians and the Creek Indians west of the Mississippi.
Document 3 - Indian Removal Act of 1830
In your own words, what does this law do?
What land does the government plan to “exchange” for Indian property?
Document 4 - Worcester v. Georgia, 1832
Did the Supreme Court rule that states like Georgia had the right to make laws that extended to the
territory of the Indians?
Document 5 - Letter from Cherokee Chief John Ross, "To the Senate and House of
Representatives"
In what way does Ross think the Cherokee are being exploited?
Document 6 – Andrew Jackson’s Address to Congress
Why did Jackson believe that Indian removal was an important policy for both whites and Indians?
Document 7 – Letter from John Burnett
What does Burnett tell us about the treatment of Indians?
Was this move voluntary? What evidence can you find in the text?
Pulling it all together
Why were Indians removed from their land, and what arguments did Americans use for it?
In what ways did Indians resist US policy?