Why Cherokee Indians Blame President Jackson for Passing the World's Worst Law

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The seventh President of the United States, Andrew Jackson, became famous for the law, which is now constantly mentioned in the lists of the worst American laws. Thanks to Jackson, the Indian genocide began. No, he did not give the order to shoot them. But in fact, he did everything to start the destruction of the indigenous people of North America. And they first tried to fight for their lives … through the courts.

In May 1830, American President Jackson signed the Indian Resettlement Act. This act was supposed to begin a voluntary land exchange process, as a result of which the Indians living in the southeastern states would move to uninhabited lands west of the Mississippi and receive these lands into eternal possession for themselves and their descendants.

If the abandoned land contained “useful improvements,” that is, plowed fields, houses, outbuildings, according to the law, the settlers were entitled to monetary compensation. In the first year in the new place, the settlers were promised financial assistance and protection from local tribes hostile to the United States. In general, it seemed that the American authorities intend to solve the purely capitalist problem as humanly as possible - to free expensive land suitable for sale for estates, universities and other buildings and projects from those who still cannot invest in these lands and who have enough land as such for life.

After the law was passed, Jackson spoke to Congress saying, "I am delighted to announce to Congress that the government's generous policy of Indian resettlement, unswervingly pursued for nearly thirty years, is nearing its happy end." Jackson argued that resettlement is a necessary measure for the Indians, because they dream of preserving their old way of life. Moreover, de facto, it was about peoples who by that time were actively using the achievements of European civilization and striving for integration - but the president hypocritically kept silent about this.

These are not people, these are wild dogs

Anyone who knew his biography well would not have believed in Jackson's kindness to the Indians. A boy from an Irish family, he, of course, was on the side of the rebels during the Revolutionary War - because Britain was disgusting to the Irish. Upon learning that the Scream Indians were allies of the British (and faced with them in battle), Jackson hated all the Indians en masse. “These are not people, these are wild dogs,” he said.

If the case were limited to insults, this would not be unusual. But during the war, Jackson fell in love with screaming camps, exterminating women and children there - so that the Indians could not continue their race and disappeared from the face of the earth. From the dead, he cut off scalps and noses for memory, and also tore off the skin, from which he then made bridles for horses with his own hands in moments of rest.

Later, Jackson also fought with the Seminole tribe and the Spaniards. He hated the Spaniards too. In general, everyone whom he met in battles, the future president immediately struck off the list of those who had the right to live. In years of peace, he learned to moderate his racism in public a little, avoiding phrases like “good Indian - dead Indian” in his speech, but in general he did not change his views. In general, both his views and his election campaign (based on slinging mud on everyone and everything) are now often remembered, comparing Jackson to Trump.

It was this man who wrote to Congress how he wished well for the Indians, since the highest good for them is the ability to live without the influence of a white man. This man said that everything will, of course, be voluntary, and his goal is exclusively the welfare of the Indian tribes, who once signed treaties with the American government (peace in exchange for the recognition of ownership of part of their lands). These were the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw tribes, as well as … Seminoles and Shouts.

The resettlement of tribes, no doubt, solved at once a number of problems that worried Jackson: how to use their lands more economically, how to remove the “savage faces” from the lands of these “savage faces” long inhabited by Europeans, and how to create a layer between European colonists in the West and West American tribes that resisted the seizure of their lands - the United States had just begun to expand on their territory. That is, in fact, the Indians from the east of the country were going to push their heads against the West Indians, making them cannon fodder and a human shield for the Europeans.

Voluntary-compulsory

Representatives of the government began to knock on the doors of Indian houses. The first offers to relocate (and receive monetary compensation) were friendly. The rest contained a veiled threat. Finally, mysterious attacks began to occur on the homes of the Indians - someone destroyed their property, broke it or set it on fire.

And although even at the stage of veiled threats, many Indians rushed to leave their homeland, fearing that sooner or later the authorities would organize real pogroms and consoling themselves with promises, many remained. First, they hoped for a new election, which was to take place in 1832 - can't the Americans re-elect someone as unpleasant as Jackson? And perhaps it will be possible to come to an agreement with the new president, or the program will really turn into an exclusively voluntary one.

Secondly, the Indians did not believe that they had where to retreat. If promises of eternal possession of certain territories are so easily broken - why believe that new promises will be fulfilled? And the unbelievers were right. Decades later, the settlers were again deprived of their land and homes.

For their lands and dignity, the five tribes tried to fight in a civilized way. They filed a class action lawsuit against the authorities - and lost. The fact is that the Indians were not considered US citizens, and the transition to the citizenship of the invaders meant not only the renunciation of freedom, but also of the ancestral and sacred lands. The Cherokee tried to resist the longest through influence on public opinion, negotiations and courts.

Twenty-two-year-old Choctaw George Harkins, just elected as a leader and determined to take his people away, wrote an open farewell letter published by the press - a famous letter that begins with the words: “We are caught between two evils” and ends with “We Choctaw prefer to suffer and remain free, but not to live under the destructive influence of laws, in the creation of which we did not take any part”.

Later it will be called genocide

The path that the Choctaw followed the young leader, as well as other indigenous peoples of the American Southeast, is now known as the Trail of Tears. The journey itself claimed thousands of lives. The unfamiliar climate, which also made it difficult to manage the usual household, took away thousands of new lives. But it became impossible not to follow the Path of Tears. The fewer Indians remained in their homeland, the more aggressive the authorities behaved. The fences were demolished, under various pretexts the men were arrested, shackled, beaten with whips. It was especially hard for the Cherokee tribe, on whose lands gold was suddenly discovered.

Meanwhile, during raids on fresh settlements in the west, the local Indians learned what was happening in the east. The story of how the Europeans violated all their treaties and how many lives were taken away by “voluntary resettlement”, embittered the local tribes: they decided to fight to the last, realizing that the Europeans were basically incapable of civilized contacts.

The Indians of the southeast who remained on their lands also took up arms. Those who grew up in the USSR remember well the film about the leader Osceola - this is the real leader of the Seminole rebels, moreover, a scream by origin. The uprising of the Seminole, who tried to defend the lands seized by force and against any agreements, gave Jackson a reason to speak in an informal setting: they say, he always warned that the Indians are bloodthirsty and will reject any peaceful measures. Naturally, the uprising was suppressed in the bloodiest way.

Meanwhile, the last of the voluntary-forced migrants, the Cherokee, the army withdrew from their homes and at gunpoint drove to the west. This campaign, under escort, was the most deadly - the Indians and the black slaves and servants who were with them were not given a breath. Thousand three hundred kilometers on foot killed the oldest and smallest, pregnant women and just the sick.

Officially, about half a thousand people were recorded as losses. However, the military doctor, who was in the convoy and accompanied one (!) Of the deported parties, testified about at least four thousand dead. To keep the rhythm of the move, the Cherokee, who had long been Christians, sang in chorus a church hymn, translated into their native language, "Oh, Grace." This song has become the unofficial hymn of the people.

The troubles of the resettled Indians were written in the American press. They took direct interviews and testimonies - among the European population there were supporters of justice who sympathized with the deported. However, this did not affect anything. Jackson remained a popular president. Military operations in the west, during which all living people were exterminated at the Indian settlements, were presented as the protection of the colonists by preventive strikes.

As for Jackson's hatred of the British, with which this story began … Apparently, since he could not shake a drop of gold from their lands, the British were the only people to whom he forgave everything and with whom he was friends during his entire presidential term.

The Cherokee are one of the largest American indigenous tribes, along with the Navajo. The daily life of the Navajo Indians in black and white photographs of the late 1940s (25 photos).