Indian Resistance and Removal

Population growth and westward expansion enlarged the demand on Indian land. Before 1871, the United States had treated Indian tribes as sovereign nations until this practice was ended by the Congress. After 1871, the government resolved to follow the ritual of international protocol with tribal leaders – they were received with pomp in Washington, and the agreements with them were ratified as any other international pact. But in practice Indian sovereignty was a fiction – the process of making treaties was aimed to acquire Indian lands.

The appetites of new settlers were insatiable – often the Indian tribes were just forced to cede their lands for a very low price (Indians in Michigan ceded their land for pennies an acre). The government created the Indian agency system, which monopolized trade with Indians and paid Indians for abandoning their land.

At the same time American reformers tried to assimilate Indians into their society by educating and Christianizing them. Christian missionaries founded schools to teach Indians to live like white settlers. The whole system failed as Indians were reluctant to send their children to schools and refused to pray.

In the 1820s, it became clear that neither economic dependence nor treaties could force Indians to cede their land. The Biggest attention was paid to the so-called Five Civilized Southern Tribes: the Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks, Chickasaws, and Seminoles, who aggressively resisted white settlements. President James Monroe in 1824 offered these tribes to settle beyond the Mississippi River for further "improvement and civilization", but these tribes unanimously rejected Monroe's offer, they wished to remain on their own land.

The struggle was continued in the federal courts where Cherokee Nation tried to defend their rights for ancestral land and won, but President Andrew Jackson ignored the Supreme Court's ruling. In 1830, Congress passed the Removal Act, which provided Jackson the funds for negotiating new treaties and resettling Indian tribes west of the Mississippi.

The Choctaw were the first to go. In winter 1831, they were forced to leave their ancestral land in Mississippi and Alabama for the new Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma.

Most Indians refused to move, so federal troops were sent to round them up – Indians moved to Oklahoma under military escort. Their way was called Trail of Tears, as nearly one-quarter died of disease and exhaustion. Government provided one wagon for every twenty Indians, but many wagons were lost crossing rivers and hundreds of people had to walk three hundred and fifty miles. They arrived at the new place "wounded, sick, with newborn babies, and the old men on the point of death... Neither sob nor complaint rose from that silent assembly. Their afflictions were of long standing, and they felt them to be irremediable" (Alexis de Tocqueville).

However, not all tribes obeyed government's decisions – a small band of Seminole successfully resisted removal and remained in Florida. They refused to abandon their land and started a fierce guerrilla war against the . United States in 1835. After seven years of the Seminole War, Americans lost 1,500 soldiers and $20 million, and finally had to abandon it.

The story of Indian removal was one of the cruelest in the history of the United States. Most whites just wanted Indian lands; they had little or no respect to Indian culture. Others believed that two civilizations could not coexist, and the only way to preserve Indian civilization was to remove the tribes and give way to white settlement. The conception of manifest destiny and westward migration devastated Native American people and their culture.

Task 1. Answer the following questions.

1. What was the main tendency of moving from east to west?

2. How was the Louisiana Territory acquired?

3. What were the objectives of the Lewis and Clark expedition?

4. What was the effect of the War of 1812 on the United States?

5. What were the major events of the War of 1812?

6. What did the Monroe Doctrine call for?

7. How were the frontier lands settled?

8. What was the impact of westward expansion on Indian land?

9. Where did the removed Indians settle?

10. Why was it important to maintain equal number of free and slave states in the Union?

11. How did the Missouri Compromise resolve an issue of slavery?

Task 2. Match the word or word-combination from the column A to its explanation in the column B.

A	B
1) "forty-niner"	a) the right to spread American freedom and democracy
2) empire of liberty	b) the way of Indian removal from their ancestral land to Oklahoma
3) manifest destiny	c) forced migration of Indians from their native lands to new territories
4) frontier	d) a line of covered wagons moving to western territories to start a new life
5) wagon train	e) a fortune seeker of the California Gold Rush
6) Indian removal	f) a border between cultivated land where people live on wild land
7) Trail of Tears	g) the USA
8) America's breadbasket	h) sudden, unexpected attacks on the official army forces
9) guerrilla fighting	i) agricultural territory supplying the country with grain

Task 3. Vocabulary development. State the meaning of the following derivatives and fill in the gaps.

1) expand, expansion, expansionism, expansionist

a) After the War of 1812, the US government maintained

policy.

2. In 50 years the nation to its present western boundaries.

3. American was justified by manifest destiny.

4. Westward changed lives of Native American tribes.

2) embargo (n, v)

1. British government tea imports to North America.

1. The police asked for a news while they tried to find a criminal.

3) frontier, frontiersman (-woman)

1. They lived in a town close to .

2. Today and are portrayed as heroes of the Wild West.

4) egalitarian, egaiitarianism

a) is the belief in actions taken according to principles.

b) In society people are equally important and have the same

opportunities in life.

5) acquire, acquirer, acquisition, acquisitive

a) An is a business organization that buys other companies to

sell them for profit.

2. The USA most territories in the 19^th century.

3. We live in society, where success is measured by material

wealth.

d) of Louisiana allowed the nation to expand westward.

Task 4. Discussion "How did the frontier influence Americans?" Enlist the main pluses and minuses of the frontier life and experience. Discuss the influence of the frontier on American past and present taking into consideration the following ideas:

1.The frontier formed such features of American character as toughness and self-reliance because settlers had to overcome numerous difficulties.

2.The frontier did not shape American mind — it shaped American history. Americans began to justify the conquest of new land with the idea of Manifested Destiny: God had ordained them to take new land.

3.The frontier added much to American concept of privacy — a true frontier man would never start building his house if from the place he could smell his neighbors chimney!

4.The frontier became a part of the American mind and the American vision of the world. Even today Americans can speak about difficult tasks they take on as "another frontier".