The Indian Removal Beyond the Mississippi: An Episode in the American Attitude Toward the Aborigines
Date of Award
7-1938
Degree Type
Bachelors Essay
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts (BA)
Department
History
Abstract
The Indian Question baa been and still is a problem in the minds of many people. Books condoling the treatment Indians received at the hands of the whites and books censuring their treatment of the settlers have been written and read by the public. There are two sides to every question. The fact is that wrongs were perpetrated, tolerated, and executed on both sides. In most cases the fact also has been discovered that the whites were the cause of friction or the unjust aggressors. This holds true especially in regard to the land grabbing policy of the settlers. Treaties setting the boundary between the hunting grounds of the Indians and the settlements of the whites were made and broken, almost at will, until finally they were put aside al.together by ridding the country entirely of Indiana. This was accomplished by so-called "removals" of the Indians to unsettled areas of the continent.
This paper deals with three types of removals. First the gradual. peaceful, far distant removal, which will be illustrated by considering the fate of the Delewares, who originally were found by colonizers in what is now New Jeresy. Second the Choctaws,
who sought the fertile land beyond the Mississippi before the gogernment forced them to leave their territory east of the Mississippi. which will be dealt with as typical of what may be called a voluntary Indian removal. Lastly the Cherokee Indian Nation, which had established homesteads, organized its own government, established schools and set up business, only to be deprived of all this by forceful removal. which will afford an
example of the worst sort of treatment allotted many of the tribes. The Cherokees, when they were left the choice of getting out or submitting to the State laws of Georgia when this same State denied them protection by her laws, were forced from their
territory.
Recommended Citation
Alacoque, M., "The Indian Removal Beyond the Mississippi: An Episode in the American Attitude Toward the Aborigines" (1938). Bachelors’ Theses. 214.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/bachelor_essays/214
Comments
A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the College of Liberal Arts of Marquette University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts