Conflict over Indian Land

1. Conflict over Indian Land

2. The Problem • White colonists wanted land in which the Native Americans owned • Some Native Americans welcomed the colonists. Example: Tomochichi’s Yamacraws signed treaties of peace and friendship • Most Native Americans were not willing to give up their land, even for a price.

3. Conflicting Views Over Land Ownership Native Americans White Colonists Land could be bought, sold, or inherited A landowner was entitled exclusive rights • Did not believe an individual could own land • Believed a person could manage the land and use it • Other tribes respected Indian claims to land so long as they were managing the land • Once the tribe stopped using the land, they lost their special right.

4. Native American Leaders • Born to European men and Native American women • Alexander McGillivray • William McIntosh • John Ross • Elias Boudinot • George Guess (“Sequoyah”)

5. Major Indian Groups • *Creeks* • Controlled most of present day Georgia and Alabama • 17,000 • *Cherokees* • North of Creek land • 13,000 • *Seminoles* • A branch of the Lower Creeks • Occupied land in southwestern Georgia and northern Florida • The number in Georgia was small. Eventually they all moved to Florida. • Choctaws • Largest tribe @ 25,000 adults and children • Chickasaws • 2,000 • North of Choctaw land * - played and important role in Georgia History

6. Creeks • Not a single tribe, but rather a loose confederation of tribes and chiefdoms • Spoke a variation of the Muscogean language • Sometimes referred to as “Musgogees” • 2 distinct groups • Upper Creeks • northern half of Alabama • Lower Creeks • western Georgia, southern Alabama, and northern Florida • Seminoles: south Georgia and Florida

7. Creeks • Organized around a political unit called a “chiefdom” • Consisted of one or more towns or settlements, governed by a chief (mico) and a tribal council

8. Conflicts between Whites and Creeks • Some Creeks side with the British during the Revolutionary War • After the war, white Georgians remembered this and demanded they give up some land. • They wanted the land between the Ogeechee and the Oconee Rivers. • Lower Creeks agreed to turn over territory, but the Upper Creeks, led by Alexander McGillivray, refused. He was later persuaded by President Washington to cede to Georgia lands.

9. After the Yazoo Land Fraud… • Georgia turned over it’s western lands to the United States in 1802. • They received $1,250,000, and the national government’s promise to remove all Indians from the state as soon as reasonably and peacefully possible. • At the same time, the government was promising Indians that they would protect their land from white colonists.

10. Cession of Land • 1802-Creeks ceded land • Used for Georgia’s permanent capital: Milledgeville • Distributed in the first land lottery • 1805- Creeks ceded more land that was used in the second land lottery • The Creeks received money and other goods from the government in return for their land

11. Col. Benjamin Hawkins • Appointed U.S. Indian Agent by President Washington in 1796 • His job was to administer U.S. treaties and help promote peaceful relations with the Creeks • Headquarters was on the bank of the Flint River • Taught the Creeks farming methods and homemaking skills • He received constant pressure from white Georgians because of their want for more land.

12. War of 1812 • U.S. went to war with Great Britain • Over a variety of issues: • The Creeks were divided over whom to support • Lower Creeks decided to stay friendly with the United States • Upper Creeks saw this as a way to get their land back (Red Sticks)

13. Red Sticks • Launched a civil war against the Lower Creeks • 1813- 1,000 Red Sticks overran Fort Mims in southern Alabama killing 500 (mainly innocent victims)

14. General Andrew Jackson • Met the Red Sticks at Horseshoe Bend on the Tallapoosa River in eastern Alabama with a force that included Cherokees and Lower Creeks seeking revenge for the massacre at Fort Mims • Jackson’s forces killed 700 Red Sticks • In August 1814, General Jackson, called all Creeks who wanted peace to meet at Fort Jackson • Many friendly Creeks came • 1 Red Stick came • Jackson forced the Creeks to give up all land in south Georgia and east Alabama

15. William McIntosh • Leader of the Lower Creeks • Fought under General Jackson at Horseshoe Bend • His cousin was Georgia’s first governor, George Troup • McIntosh was said to have received money for accepting a deal to cede the Creek’s land • He was unable to persuade the other Creek leaders • He tried to get the Cherokees to sell their land. He offered John Ross money, but he refused. • John Ross warned the Creeks about McIntosh, but he was too late

16. February 12, 1825- McIntosh signed a treaty ceding all Creek lands to the U.S. • A few years before a law was passed by the Creek National Council that condemned any chief who sold land without approval to death • May 1, 1825- Creek warriors surrounded his house and set it on fire. He was shot then stabbed when he ran from the burning building

17. John Quincy Adams • Troup demanded that the treaty to remove the Creeks should still be honored • Quincy did not think the treaty was legal, so he did not enforce it. • He threatened to arrest any surveyor found on Creek lands • He backed down when Troup threatened war with the U.S. He wanted to avoid war with Georgia • New treaties forced the Creeks to sell their land • By 1827, the Creeks were removed to Oklahoma

18. The Seminoles • Southwest Georgia and Northern Florida • Allowed escaped slaves to live on their lands in freedom • A threat to Georgians because they were against slavery • Slaves lived in “maroon camps” on Seminole land or were accepted as members of the tribe • Intermarriage was common between the Seminoles and slaves (Black Seminoles were fully accepted)

19. First Seminole War • 1817: American military forces under Gen. Jackson crossed into Florida • Jackson victorious • 1819: Spain ceded Florida to the U.S. • Seminoles moved from south Georgia to north Florida

20. Indian Removal Act • Passed by congress in 1830 • Authorized the removal of all southeastern tribes • Required the consent of the Native Americans and offered compensation • Whether they agreed or not they were forced to move • Land was set aside west of the Mississippi River in Oklahoma and Arkansas

21. Second Seminole War • Due to their resistance to the Removal Act • 1835-1842 • Very expensive, but Americans won • All but 500 Seminoles who escaped to live in the Everglades, the entire Seminole nation was forced to move out west

22. Cherokees • Lived in the Appalachian Mountains: Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama • Out of the main path of white migration which allowed them to avoid removal for longer • Until the 1790s, they went to war frequently with whites and Creeks • Sided with the British during the Revolutionary War • Defeated in their last major battle with the U.S.

23. Afterwards, the U.S. offered a peace treaty • The Cherokees sided with the U.S. during the Creek War in 1813 and 1814 • Lived in towns (chiefdoms) of approximately 80 Cherokees

24. Progress of the Cherokees • Most “civilized” Indians according to the whites • Adopted many aspects of white culture • George Guess (“Sequoyah”): wrote and taught others to write the Cherokee language • Syllabary (used symbols, not letters) • New Echota was the Cherokee capital • In 1827, they wrote their own constitution patterned after the U.S. Constitution

25. Cherokee Phoenix, a bilingual newspaper • Missionaries were allowed to operate churches and schools • Many Cherokees accepted Christianity

26. Cherokee Setbacks • Although the U.S. government approved of the Cherokee government, they did not accept it • State leaders argued that the U.S. Constitution prohibited the creation of a “nation” within a state without the approval of that state’s government