Essay Outline
Introduction
Discovery of gold and expansion to the West
Thesis Statement: White supremacy hindered a peaceful coexistence between the Cherokees and the Caucasians; hence, despite the former’s connection to their land and existing treaties, the removal was inevitable.
Reasons for staying
Ancestral land
A civilized people that cannot wander like savages
The move involved large numbers of Indians
Legal arguments
Individual and national rights
Treaty of Hopewell put the Cherokees under the protection of the United States
Treaty of Holston documented Cherokees agreeing to be under the rule of the Americans
Summarization of the Appeal of the Cherokee Nation
Conclusion
Restatement of thesis
Trail of tears
Whites supremacy dictated any contact with other races
White Supremacy: The Cherokee Appeal was Futile
The Native American tribes made first contact with white people in the sixteenth century with the arrival of Spanish voyagers. Pre-contact tribes were an established community with defined social, economic, and political structures that characterized their societies. Nonetheless, the first contact marked the beginning of many more as white settlers moved to the North America continent in search of opportunities. Expectedly, the steadily strengthening Great Britain pounced at the chance of a new colony and so, by the eighteenth century, the country boasted of thirteen territories. By extension, the colonial rule ended with the Revolutionary War in which the Americans triumphed to gain autonomy and form the United States of America. Through it all, the Indian tribes wove themselves between the clashing forces. Notably, the Cherokees joined ranks with the British because they were more powerful and had promised them self-governance. However, the Americans won, and the promises of the British government to the Cherokees quickly turned baseless, leaving the tribe at the mercy of their war enemy. With that in mind, the discovery of gold and the need for more land for the increasing numbers of white settlers was a good enough warrant to expel the Indian tribes. In other words, the war strained the relationship between the two races, and once precious stones became part of the equation, it became a case of survival of the fittest. White supremacy hindered a peaceful coexistence between the Cherokees and the Caucasians; hence, despite the former’s connection to their land and existing treaties, the removal was inevitable.
The central reasons for the Cherokees’ desire to remain on their land were in their words, the fact that it was “the land of our fathers” and moving would mean cutting those ties. Consequently, moving from their ancestral land would mean a new beginning in an unknown area with the possibility that most of the tribes would not survive. Naturally, as people who depended on their environment for survival, their fears of the appealing committee were acceptable, after all, there was a reason the whites did not want the area. Now, since the Caucasians did not want the area, there was little to no chance that the Indians will find it beneficial to their existence.
Such notions stemmed from the evolution of the Cherokee tribe under the watchful eyes of the United States government. Apparently, after the “efforts of benevolent societies” to aid the Indians adjust the tribes had “become civilized” and could no longer fit the white man’s description of a savage. On that note, with civilization comes the need for stability, which in turn will encourage people to put into practice methods of survival. That alone stood against the notion of uprooting their lives and moving to the unknown, especially with their numerous numbers. Later, their fears became justifiable as more than “four thousand Cherokees died along the Trail of Tears.”
Aside from their call for the American government to see reason, the Cherokees attempted to use the ideologies of equality and rights for all people to claim land liberties. Apparently, forcing the Indian tribes from their homes would be in violation of “the Cherokees treaties with Washington”, the appealing persons turned to the legislations. On November 1785, “36 chiefs and 918 Cherokees” signed an agreement with the American government in South Carolina’s Hopewell. As per the terms of the agreement, Cherokees seceded from “North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky” with the promise that white settlers will not invade their new land. In addition, the Cherokees were from that point onwards to be under the protection of the United States government against white invaders to their allocated regions. Next, there was the 1791 Treaty of Holston marking the second legal document signed between the Caucasians and Indians. Expectedly, the Indians were to give up land in Eastern Tennessee and allow white settlers freedom to do with the land as they wished. In exchange, the then president of the United States George Washington guaranteed protection of the Cherokees from white invaders. In fact, the treaty entailed a clause that required white persons to acquire passports before entering Cherokee land or else face possible eviction. At the same time, the whites were to help in the civilization of the Indians by providing advice and farming tools.
However, the crown of all efforts to civilize and maybe integrate Indian tribes into the white man’s society was the accepted article of having an Indian delegate in Congress. Expectedly, the agreement did not work as white settlers increased in numbers and the demand for land skyrocketed. Both treaties became redundant after the discovery of gold “in Cherokee territory in Georgia” and whites immediately flocked the region without acquiring the passports mentioned above. From killing resisting Indians to looting their properties in search of the precious metal, the white settlers were persistent in their goals, and no treaty could hinder them. In the end, the government “put Cherokee land on sale and moved militia in to crush any sign of Cherokee resistance”, a move that violated the treaty imposed rights of the Cherokees. The results were the forceful removal of the Indian tribes and the subsequent Appeal of the Cherokee Nation.
Conclusively, the ideologies of white supremacy made a peaceful coexistence between Caucasians and the Indian tribes an impossible feat just because one race had to prevail. Racial bigotry stains the history of the United States, and the Trail of Tears reinstates that logic because it proves the white man’s government only cared for the Caucasian lot. The removal of Indian tribes entailed an eight hundred miles trek through unknown terrains during winter. From that, one can make two possible conclusions; the Caucasians wanted the complete annihilation of the Indians or just wanted them out of the way so that they could access the gold. Nonetheless, white supremacy has reigned in the history of interactions between American whites and other races.
Bibliography
"Appeal of the Cherokee Nation (1830)." Western Carolina University. http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/coretexts/_files/resources/texts/1830CherokeeAppeal.pdf (accessed April 27, 2015).
Conley, Robert J. The Cherokee Nation: A History. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2005.
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Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States. New York: Harper Perennial, 2005.
