Forced Removal
Murder is murder and
somebody must answer
Private John G. Burnett
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1802 Thomas Jefferson
promised to Delaware and
others to respect all
treaties but,
Also planning to move
them
2 ways
Trade
Might
 Trade
 Bring
civilization to “savages”
 “we shall push our trading houses,
and be glad to see the good and
influential individuals run into debt”
 “because we observe that when these
debts get beyond what the individuals
can pay, they become willing to lop
them off by cession of land”
 Might
 No
regulation on frontier
 Leads to warfare
 Army steps in to make peace, dictate
peace terms and
 You guessed it! land cession part of
peace
 200,000 square miles in nine states
during presidency
Next big push in 1830 with the
 Indian removal Act
 Andrew Jackson
 “What good man would prefer a
country covered with forests and
ranged by a few thousand savages
to our extensive republic studied
with cities, towns, and prosperous
farms embellished with all the
improvements that art can devise
or industry execute by more than
12 million happy people and filled
with the blessings of civilization,
liberty and religion”
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– State of the Union 1830
 Jackson
new this but needed the
Cherokee and others to be
“Savage” in order to disposes them
 Jefferson
–Culturally inferior but capable of
improvement
 Jackson
–Racially inferior and incapable of
change
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Cherokee most well known movement
“trail of tears”
But many others also forced to move west
Video Clip
Two factors arise from removal that will
affect Native Americans post 1840
 1. White conceptions and action cause
friction within and abuse of Native
American communities
 2. Explanation of importance of court
cases
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– A. Cherokee Nation V Georgia
– B. Worcester V Georgia
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QUESTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION
1. What do the following Marshall and Ross
documents reveal about the status of Indian
nations in the United States? Identify key
passages and consider their bearing on the
standing and sovereignty of Indian tribes.
 2. How does John Marshall define the place of
Indian tribes in the federal constitutional system?
Which of his statements about Indian rights and
sovereignty seem to be most important—and
most relevant to the political aspirations of Indian
peoples today?
 3. What does John Ross identify as the "strong
shield" of Cherokee rights, and what does he see
as the threat to those rights?
John Marshall
 Supreme Court lacked
original jurisdiction over
Native Americans
 “Domestic, dependent
nations”
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– Retain some aspect of
sovereignty from treaties
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Marshalls opinion was a
feeble gesture compared
with Georgia’s dramatic
assertion of state power
when it hung Corn Tassel
– Legal Scholar Sidney Harring
Cherokee Nation
V. Georgia
Worcester V Georgia
Established the legal doctrine in American
Law of American law of United States Native
American Relations
 Marshall
 Cherokee Nation “a distinct community
occupying its own territory . . .in which the
law of Georgia can have no right to enter
without the consent of the Cherokee”
 Federal – Native American relationship
stronger than State –Native American relation
ship
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19th C focus on Domestic and Dependent
 20th C focus on Nation
 “Tribes are sovereign nations with broad
inherent powers that, almost without
exception, exist by dint of inherent right
not by delegation”
 “one cannot really understand the field
(Indian law) without understanding
Worcester”
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– Charles F. Wilkinson