Indian Removal in Georgia
Created by Caleb Hardy
Creeks (A.K.A. Muskogee’s)
• Upper Creeks- lived in towns in upper Alabama
• Lower Creeks- lived in towns in western Georgia,
southern Alabama and Northern Florida (these Creeks
later became known as Seminoles)
• The Creek Territory in Georgia was used for hunting
(Very Important)
• The Muskogee Creeks were given the name Creeks from
the Ocmulgee Creek by the white settlers, but soon
began to call themselves Muskogee to the Europeans.
Conflicts with “White Man”
• The Creeks fought on the side of the British during the
Revolutionary War.
• Once the Patriots won their Independence, Americans
thought that they should not have the right to their
native land.
• Lower Creeks peacefully gave up their land (they are
known as White Sticks)
• Upper Creeks fought the white invaders fiercely (they
are known as Red Sticks)
Oconee War
• Chief Alexander McGillivray led the Red Sticks to wage a war
against the white settlers and others siding with them.
• Many Cherokees fought on behalf of the white men
• To end the fighting, President Washington invited Chief
Alexander McGillivray to New York in 1790.
• They signed the Treaty of New York, ending the fighting.
• This treaty granted all of the land east of the Oconee River
to the whites and all of the land west of the Oconee River to
the Creeks.
• The Whites were angry that the Creeks were given any land
and the Creeks were agitated that the whites were given
land; therefore, nobody was happy with this treaty.
New Land for Georgians
• With the Creeks giving up land – more land was available
for White settlers.
• After the Treaty of New York (1790), many White families
began to come for land. As more and more came, they
began to move north and then west.
• More people are wanting to own land in Georgia, but
there is only so much land to go around.
• To decide who would get the land, they performed a land
lottery, with the first one beginning in 1803.
War of 1812
• Not even three decades after the signing of the Treaty of Paris,
which formalized Britain’s recognition of the United States of
America, the two countries were again in conflict.
• Resentment for Britain’s interference with American international
trade, combined with American expansionist visions, led Congress
to declare war on Great Britain on June 18, 1812.
• Lower Creeks (White Sticks) sided with the United States and did
not want to fight.
• Upper Creeks (Red Sticks) sided with the British hoping to get
their back that they lost in the Treaty of New York.
Fort Mims Massacre
• On August 30, 1813, more than
1000 Red Sticks attacked Fort
Mims, in southern Alabama, killing
and scaling 500 innocent white and
mixed blood men, women, and
children who had fled to the fort
for safety.
• The Creeks had been armed by the
British in Pensacola, FL.
• Known as the “Worst Massacre in
American History”.
Battle of Horseshoe Bend (1814)
• American Forces, led by Andrew Jackson,
met the Red Sticks at Horseshoe Bend, on
the Tallapoosa River, in eastern Alabama.
• Fighting alongside Jackson were,
Cherokee Indians led by John Ross and
Sequoyah, and White Stick Creeks led by
William McIntosh.
• About 600 Red Sticks were killed.
• This defeat led the Red Sticks to give up
their land in South Georgia to General
Jackson.
Chief William McIntosh
• His efforts during the Battle of Horseshoe Bend made him a War Hero
leading the Creeks to name him Chief of the tribe left in Georgia.
• His first cousin was George Troup, who was the Governor of Georgia,
and Troup believed that this relationship would lead to the Creeks
selling the rest of their land in Georgia.
• McIntosh was offered $200,000 to sell the rest of the Creek land in
Georgia.
• McIntosh approached Cherokee Chief John Ross to sell the Cherokee
land as well, but Ross warned the Creeks of the intentions of the
White Man.
Creek Land Sold
• On February 12, 1825, McIntosh
took the offer and sold the
remaining land in Georgia by
signing the Treaty of Indian
Springs.
• After selling the Creek land,
McIntosh was brutally murdered
outside his home in Indian Springs.
• Watch Georgia Stories:
http://www.gpb.org/georgiastorie
s/story/story_of_chief_william_m
cintosh
http://digital.library.okstate.
edu/kappler/vol2/treaties/cr
e0264.htm
Cherokees
• The Cherokee Chiefdom consisted of 80
or so towns along rivers and streams in
Northern Georgia. In the late 1700’s, the
chiefdoms combined in a unified
government.
• The Cherokees adopted much of the
white culture. A Cherokee named
Sequoyah created a Syllabary in the early
1800’s, and many Cherokee became
teachers and lawyers.
• New Echota was the capital.
• They established a legislative, executive, and judicial
branch, through a constitution.
• The Cherokee Phoenix was printed as a bilingual
newspaper.
• Many Cherokees converted to Christianity as missionaries
built churches in their territory.
Sequoyah
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L84GG4hEfts
Gold Rush
• Benjamin Parks discovered gold in
Lick Log, Georgia, while deer hunting,
which is now Dahlonega. Parks
proceeded to tell everybody and this
led to the first Gold Rush in the
United States.
• The Cherokee controlled most of the
land in the gold region. Georgia’s
legislature began to plan the removal
of the Cherokee immediately after
the discovery of gold in their land.
• This would eventually lead to the
“Trail of Tears”.
Indian Removal Act
• In 1828, the General Assembly decided to make
the Cherokee’s body of laws “null and void”.
• As Andrew Jackson took office in 1829, he
declared that he would remove all Indians in the
Southeast.
• The Indian Removal Act was passed by Congress on
May 28, 1830.
• The law authorized the president to negotiate
with southern Indian tribes for their removal to
federal territory west of the Mississippi River in
exchange for their ancestral homelands.
Worcester v. Georgia
• Worcester was a Christian Missionary living in the Cherokee Nation.
Georgia directed any whites living in the Cherokee territory to sign an
oath pledging to uphold the laws of Georgia because the Cherokee had
their own set of laws. Worcester said no, was jailed, and took it all the
way to the Supreme Court.
• Justice John Marshall announced the Supreme Courts decision: Georgia
laws did not apply in the Cherokee Nation and Georgia could not detain
Worcester, since he lived in the Cherokee Nation.
• The Cherokee celebrated, but President Jackson stated, “John Marshall
has made his decision; now let him enforce it.
John Ross
• Like the Creeks, the Cherokee
were divided. Many Cherokee
followed Chief John Ross and
resisted the whites. The others
believed that it was best if they
went west.
• Major Ridge, John Ridge, and Elias
Boudinot (Cherokee Leaders)
ended up singing the Treaty of
New Echota (1835), selling the
rest of the Cherokee land for 5
million dollars. They were later
killed for selling the land.
Trail of Tears
• Indian removal began in 1838.
• Andrew Jackson forced his adversary,
General Winfield Scott, to enforce the
removal.
• The first parties of Cherokee to leave
Georgia suffered huge losses in both
people and livestock, attempting to travel
west in the scorching heat of summer.
• The Cherokee clearly viewed Scott as their
“warden,” when they appealed to him to
postpone the removal until cooler months,
stating, “We, your prisoners, wish to speak
to you... We have been made prisoners by
your men but do not fight you.”
The appeal to Scott worked, and he agreed to postpone the
removal.
Scott even backed a proposal to allow the departing Indians to be
lead by Cherokee Chiefs, rather than by the U.S. Army.
For this, Winfield Scott received terrible backlash from the proremoval forces, including former President Andrew Jackson, who
wrote to protest Scott’s decision.
Hitler later copied Andrew Jackson’s plan of Indian
removal in his plans for removal of Jews.
Native Americans were virtually wiped out by Jackson.
Today, Native Americans make up less than 1.5% of the
U.S. population.
http://www.gpb.org/georgiastories/videos/trail_of_tears