Native Americans

Ethnic StudiesSpring 2009

Battle of Fallen Timbers

Interaction with Europeans• Treaty of Greenville

• Indians defeated at the Battle of Fallen Timbers

• 1795 ceded the Indian’s Ohio territory to English

• Washington was eager to remove Native Americans from the Ohio River Valley for American settlers

Tecumseh, Shawnee tribe• refused to sigh this treaty• urged resistance to the white man• his brother was known as the “Prophet”• his brother had visions that told him to

reject white ways to preserve culture• Tecumseh wanted to unite tribes to fight

whites

Battle of Tippencanoe-1811• Tecumseh out of town• Indian encampment, Prophetstown

(Tippecanoe)• His brother, the “Prophet” gets in a conflict

with the governor of Indiana (William Henry Harrison) and dies in battle

• Tecumseh now extreme enemy of U.S

Battle of Thames-1813• Tecumseh fights with British against U.S as

part of the War of 1812• Tecumseh killed in battle

Fort Mims Massacre

• Creek War starts as a civil war, faction called the “Red Sticks”

• Settlers and mixed-blood Creeks took refuge in Ft. Mims in north of Mobile, Alabama

• The Red Sticks attacked and killed about 500 people

• After Ft. Mims, panic in the Southeast changed the Creek War from a civil war to a conflict with between the U.S. government and the Red Sticks

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9b/Ft._Mims_sign.JPG

Battle of Horseshoe Bend-1814• Considered part of War of 1812, but really

Creek War• Andrew Jackson lead efforts to clear

Alabama for settlement • Creek “Red Sticks” inspired by Tecumseh

were defeated by General Jackson’s forces of infantry, Cherokee. Choctaw, and Lower Creek Indians

• Jackson saw no difference between Indians he fought with and those he fought against—tribes forced to sign over most of Alabama and southern Georgia

QuoteAccording to Walter Bourneman in his book "1812 The War That Forged A Nation", pg. 152, Chief Junaluska, the Cherokee Chief who led 500 Cherokees in support of Jackson at Horseshoe Bend, stated that "If I had known that Jackson would drive us from our homes, I would have killed him at Horseshoe".

Indian Removal Act of 1830-• authorized President Jackson to negotiate

land exchange treaties with the Native Americans

• eventually Native Americans were granted the land West of the Mississippi in exchange for their land in the east.

• Indian Territory- land West of the Mississippi

Conflict• Cultural assumptions Europeans had about

Native Americans• treaties made with a few trine members is

bound to all members• Natives were savages• Natives needed to adopt white culture

Black Hawk war -1832 • response to the Indian Removal Act • fought in Indiana• Native American Black Hawk fought to get

land traded to the Europeans back

Seminole Wars 1835-1842• fought in Florida• U.S military tried to get the Seminoles out

of this territory, but Indians put up a long hard fight

• over $20 Million spent on this conflict and 1500 U.S soldiers died

Sequoyah• created a written alphabet for the

Cherokee language

New Echota• in Georgia• town set up by the Cherokee to set up a

government• John Ross the leader of the Cherokee

nation and President of New Echota

Treaty of New Echota• ceded Cherokee land to Georgia and

pushed the Indians west• sparked the Trail of Tears for the Cherokee 

Worcester v. Georgia• court case brought on by the Cherokee

Nation opposing the state’s right to sign the Treaty of New Echota

• Supreme court found that states did not have jurisdiction over the Indian nations

• Treaty of New Echota unconstitutional

George Troup• governor of Georgia • wanted to give Cherokee land to settlers• after the Treaty of New Echota, he gave

the land away in a lottery

John Ross• leader of the Cherokee Nation and leader

during the Trail of Tears• opposed the Treaty of New Echota• got over 15000 petitioners to sign saying

did not accept the agreement of New Echota

Geronimo• belonged to the Apache tribe• fought against the U.S to keep his land• U.S army enlisted Native Americans to

fight against him because they had war tactics similar to his