U.S. History

Chapter 12: A New National IdentitySection 4: Indian Removal

The Black Hawk War

• 1827: officials order removal of Indians from Illinois

• Sauk leader Black Hawk ignores order

Black Hawk

The Black Hawk War

• 1830: Returning from winter hunt, Sauk find village overtaken by white settlers

• Attacks on settlements & U.S. troops

• August 1832: running low on food & supplies, Black Hawk surrenders

Indian Removal Act

• American Indians lived in Southeast

• Desire to open land to settlement

• Indian Removal Act—authorized the removal of American Indians who lived east of the Mississippi River

Indian Removal Act

•Indian Territory—area of land containing most of present-day Oklahoma

Map of Indian Territory

Indian Removal Act

• Bureau of Indian Affairs—federal agency that oversaw policy directed towards American Indians

Indian Removal Act

• Choctaw first Indians sent to Indian Territory

• Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek—over 10 million acres of Choctaw land was ceded to the state of Mississippi

• Disastrous removal during Winter 1831-32 (1/4 died)

Indian Removal Act

•Other Indians resist

•1836: federal troops remove Creek from Alabama

•1837-38: Chickasaw removed from Mississippi

The Cherokee Nation

• Cherokee believed they could prevent conflict by adopting white culture

• Invited missionaries to establish schools

• Children learned to write/speak English

The Cherokee Nation

• No written Indian language

• Sequoyah: produced a Cherokee writing system Sequoyah

The Cherokee Nation

•Cherokee Phoenix newspaper

•Created government inspired by U.S. Constitution

Trail of Tears

•Gold discovered in Cherokee land in Georgia

•Cherokee refuse to move

•Georgia militia attack Cherokee towns

Trail of Tears

• Cherokee sue state

• Cherokee claim: Independent nation & that Georgia had no legal power within their territory

• 1832: Worchester v. Georgia

“…[the Cherokee nation] is a distinct community, occupying its own territory,…in which the laws of Georgia have no force.”

--Chief Justice John Marshall

“John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it.”

--Andrew Jackson

Trail of Tears

• 1838: U.S. troops begin to remove Cherokee to Indian Territory

• Georgia took farms, businesses property

• “Trail of Tears”: ¼ of the 18,000 Cherokee on the march died

The Second Seminole War

• 1832: Seminole leaders forced to sign treaty

– Agree to leave Florida within three years

– Seminoles of African ancestry would be considered runaway slaves

The Second Seminole War

•Osceola: called upon the Seminole to resist removal by forceOsceola

The Second Seminole War

• Second Seminole War

• 1837: Osceola captured, dies in prison

• 1500 soldiers died, millions of dollars spent

• U.S. gives up fight