Essay and 13 Questions

“Native Americans: Removal and Resistance”:

· an American irony: As American colonists gained more freedom and independence, Native Americans lost freedom and independence. The British presence had actually kept the colonials from impinging further on Indian land and rights. This is why so many Native Americans had fought for the British during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.

· The Indian Removal Act of 1830: enacted by President Andrew Jackson; enforced under General Winfield Scott in 1838 (under President Martin Van Buren); forcibly taking away Cherokee land in Georgia (because of the gold and continued conflict and discrimination) and relocating the Cherokee to “Indian Country” (in Oklahoma, west of the Mississippi River); as many as a third died during the long travel (“The Trail of Tears”)

· the deception-treaty signed by wealthy Cherokee planters in 1835 that ceded Cherokee land: the Treaty of New Echota

a. Why does Black Hawk view the idea of Cherokee land in Georgia being sold to INDIVIDUALS so absurd? (via lottery!)

b. How does Petalesharo’s speech communicate a sentiment similar to that of Red Jacket?

c. Why, apparently, was Elias Boudinot killed by his own Cherokee people? (had quit the fight against removal too soon, out of a sense of fatalism and practicality; wealthy enough to move west before the Trail of Tears)

d. What is the obvious symbolism behind the title of the Cherokee newspaper which Boudinot edited?

e. Stylistically, what American hypocrisy is being pointed out ironically through STYLE in the introduction of the Cherokee Council’s 1829 “memorial”?

f. How does Emerson reveal the element of CLASS behind the motivation for Indian removal in Georgia?