Case Study #2

In 1830 the United States government passed a land policy that removed all Native Americans to West of the Mississippi River to a region designated as the Indian Territory. According to this 1830 Indian Removal Act, this designated territory was to be Native American Lands for "as long as the grass grows or the water runs, in peace and plenty." In exchanged for moving westward, Native Americans would be compensated by payment for their lands and free transportation to the Indian Territory which would be closed to white settlement. Each nation would have the opportunity to meet and to vote on a treaty drafted by government officials.

Although the president at the time, Andrew Jackson, believed the Native Americans were capable of acculturation/assimilation into white culture, he realized that because whites coveted Native American lands and retained racist attitudes toward Native Americans; there would be no immediate possibility of Native Americans and whites living peacefully together. Jackson's solution was to remove, forcibly if necessary, natives out of the path of Anglo settlement. He felt that by the time white settlement had caught up again with the Native Americans in the Indian Territory that the Native Americans would already be assimilated and conflict would be avoided.

In 1835 a council was held with the Cherokee Nation to vote on a removal treaty. The Cherokee Nation resided on 8 million acres of fertile land, predominantly in the state of Georgia that was coveted by white Georgians for years. The majority of the Cherokees (16,000) under the leadership of John Ross refused to even attend the treaty council as they had no desire to leave their lands. A minority (500) of Cherokees under Major Ridge, attended the treaty council and ultimately signed a removal treaty, the Treaty of New Echota, which ceded all the Cherokee Nation's land for %5.6 million dollars and transportation to the Indian Territory. Shortly after the treaty was signed, it became public knowledge that government officials had bribed many of the Cherokee leaders to sign the treaty (Major Ridge was paid $30,000 for his signature). The treaty was submitted to congress for its approval.

1.      Should Congress sanction the treaty in the interest of preventing further Native American-White conflict even though it is an obviously non-representative and illegally obtained treaty?

2.      How can the United States government balance the white majority's demand for land with the rights of the Native American minority who control the lands?

3.      What are the political, social, and ethical ramifications of the government's ratification of such a treaty?