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| What effects did American territorial expansion between 1785 and 1829 have on Native Americans? |
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. . . . If any citizen of the United States, or other persons not being an Indian, shall attempt to settle on any of the lands westward or southward of the said boundary which are hereby allotted to the Indians for their hunting grounds, or having already settled and will not remove from the same within six months after the ratification of this treaty, such person shall forfeit the protection of the United States. . . . 1785 Treaty |
| . . . .
Your forefathers crossed the great waters, and landed on this island. Their numbers were
small. They found friends and not enemies. They told us they had fled from their own
country for fear of wicked men, and come here to enjoy their religion. They asked for a
small seat. We took pity on them, granted their request, and they sat down amongst us. . .
They called us brothers. We believed them, and gave them a larger seat. . . Wars took
place. Indians were hired against Indians, and many of our people were destroyed. . . We
understand that your religion is written in a book. If it was intended for us as well as
for you, why has not the Great Spirit given it to us: and not only to us, but why did he
not give to our forefathers the knowledge of that book, with the means of understanding it
rightly? We only know what you tell you about it. How will we know when to believe, being
so often deceived by the white people. . . We do not wish to destroy your religion, or
take it from you. We only want to enjoy our own. . . Brother! You have now heard our
answer to your talk, and this is all we have at present. As we are going to part, we will
come and take you by the hand, and hope the Great Spirit will protect you on your journey,
and return you safe to your friends. 1785 Treaty |
| . . . . you are to
live in peace with all white men, for they are his children; neither wage war against the
red men your neighbors, for they are equally his children and he is bound to protect them.
. . . Lewis and Clark to the Oto Indians, 1804 |
| . . . . The way, and
the only way to check and stop this evil, is, for all the red men to unite in claiming a
common and equal right in the land, as it was at first, and should be yet; for it never
was divided, but belongs to all, for the use of each. That no part has a right to sell,
even to each other, much less to strangers; those who want all, and will not do with less.
The white people have no right to take the land from the Indians, because they had it
first; it is theirs. They must sell, but all must join. Any sale not made by all is not
valid. . . It belongs to the first who sits down on his blanket or skins, which he has
thrown upon the ground, and till he leaves it no other has a right.
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| Listen. . . . The
United States would have been justified by the Great Spirit, had they taken all the land
of the nation. . . . Listen-the truth is, the great body of the Creed chiefs and warriors
did not respect the power of the United States-They thought we were an insignificant
nation-that we would be overpowered by the British. . . (the British) were fat with eating
beef-they wanted flogging . . . . We bleed our enemies in such cases to give them their
senses.
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| . . . In the early
decades of the 1800s, tens of thousands of easterners took note of the fact that the
Indian threat was on the wane and that plenty of good land was now available in the
Buckeye State. . . . the great majority of the pioneers were Virginians, and those who
were not from Virginia came from the neighboring states: Kentucky, the Carolinas, and
Pennsylvania. . . A land of promise for many, the Ohio frontier was for all a place of
hazards and hardships. . . . the danger of Indian warfare was greatly diminished, though
it revived, briefly, during the War of 1812. . . . Migrating to Ohio in the Early 1800s, Gerald W. McFarland |
| The condition and
ulterior destiny of the Indian tribes within the limits of some of our states have become
objects of much interest and importance. It has long been the policy of government to
introduce among them the arts of civilization, in the hope of gradually reclaiming them
from a wandering life. . . . Professing a desire to civilize and settle them, we have at
the same time lost no opportunity to purchase their lands and thrust them farther in to
the wilderness. By these means they have not only been kept in a wandering state but been
led to look upon us as unjust and indifferent to their fate. . . . Our conduct toward
these people is deeply interesting to our national character. Their present condition,
contrasted with what they once were, makes a most powerful appeal to sympathies. Our
ancestors found them the uncontrolled possessors of these vast regions. By persuasion and
force they have been made to retire from river to river and from mountain to mountain,
until some of the tribes have left but remnants to preserve for awhile their once terrible
names. . . . Jackson Endorses the Indian Removal, December 8, 1829 |
Louisana Purchase: A National Achievement |
