Indian Removal

Cause and Effect:

Buffalo Destruction

“Fathers, your young men have devastated the country and killed my animals, the elk, the deer, the antelope, my buffalo. They do not kill them to eat them; they leave them to rot where they fall. Fathers, if I went into your country to kill your animals, what would you say? Should I not be wrong, and would you not make war on me?”

– Bear Tooth, a Crow chief, 1867

“We took away their country and their means of support, broke up their mode of living, their habits of life, introduced disease and decay among them, and it was for this and against this they made war. Could any one expect less? Then, why wonder at Indian difficulties?”

– General Sheridan, American military leader who waged “total war” against Native Americans

The devastation of the bison population signaled the end of the Indian Wars, and Native Americans were pushed into reservations. In 1869, the Comanche chief Tosawi was reported to have told Sheridan, “Me Tosawi. Me good Indian,” and Sheridan allegedly replied, “The only good Indians I ever saw were dead.” The phrase was later misquoted, with Sheridan supposedly stating, “The only good Indian is a dead Indian.” Sheridan denied he had ever said such a thing.

The Railroads, Bison, and Native American defeat

In the wake of the Transcontinental Railroad, the lives of countless Native Americans were destroyed, and tens of millions of bison, which had roamed freely upon the Great Plains since the last ice age 10,000 years ago, were nearly driven to extinction in a massive slaughter made possible by the railroad.

Massive hunting parties began to arrive in the West by train, with thousands of men packing .50 caliber rifles, and leaving a trail of bison carnage in their wake. Unlike the Native Americans, who killed for food, clothing and shelter, the white hunters from the East killed mostly for sport. Native Americans looked on with horror as landscapes and prairies were littered with rotting bison carcasses. The railroads began to advertise excursions for “hunting by rail,” where trains encountered massive herds alongside or crossing the tracks. Hundreds of men aboard the trains climbed to the roofs and took aim, or fired from their windows, leaving countless 1,500-pound animals where they died….

Hunters began killing bison by the hundreds of thousands in the winter months. One hunter, Orlando Brown brought down nearly 6,000 bison by himself and lost hearing in one ear from the constant firing of his .50 caliber rifle. The Texas legislature, sensing the bison were in danger of being wiped out, proposed a bill to protect the species. General Sheridan opposed it, stating, “These men have done more in the last two years, and will do more in the next year, to settle the vexed Indian question, than the entire regular army has done in the last forty years. They are destroying the Indians’ commissary [food supply]…”

Cherokee Indian Removal Timeline

1785 First treaty between Cherokee and United States, established peaceful relations.

1796 George Washington initiated “civilization” program among Cherokees.

1802 Georgia ceded some of its western land to the United States; the U.S. government, in exchange, promised to purchase for Georgia all of the Indian lands remaining within the state. However, the Federal Government could only buy land through treaty.

1810 First major Cherokee migration to land west of the Mississippi.

1820s Cherokees became the most “civilized” of the five “Civilized Tribes” (Creeks, Chickasaw, Seminole, Choctaw and Cherokee). The Cherokee had a newspaper and many had converted to Christianity; they adopted a Constitution; they had farms and owned slaves.

1828 Andrew Jackson was elected President and declares his support for removal of Native Americans to lands west of the Mississippi River.

1828 Georgia extended its state power over the Cherokee Nation and nullified (made illegal) Cherokee law.

1832 Cherokee won their case in Worcester v. Georgia. U.S. Supreme Court upheld Cherokee sovereignty in Georgia. Andrew Jackson ignored the ruling.

1836 Treaty signed for the removal of Cherokees to land west of the Mississippi. Chief John Ross led 15,000 in protesting the treaty. Only 2,000 Cherokee agreed to migrate voluntarily.

1838 U.S. government sent in 7,000 troops, who forced the Cherokees out at bayonet point. 4,000 Cherokee people died of cold, hunger, and disease on their way to the western lands.

Plains Indians Explain Why the Railroad Threatens their Way of Life

“The Great Father has made [railroads] stretching east and west. Those roads are the cause of all our troubles... The country where we live is overrun with whites. All our game [hunted animals] is gone. This is the cause of the great trouble.…I have been a friend of the whites. I am now. The country across the river (Platte) belongs to the whites; this belongs to us; when we want game we want the privilege of going over there and kill it. I want these two roads stopped just where they are or turned over to some other direction. We will then live peaceably together… If you stop your roads we can get our game... My friends, help us; take pity on us.”

– Spotted Tail, chief spokesman of the Brule Tetons

at a conference with U.S. Indian Commissioners, 1867

Indian Removal Map

American Native Tribes Map prior to European Contact

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