The story of the Cherokee Indian Tribe, as with pretty much all Native American tribes, is one of great tragedy, suffering, and survival. In 1829, gold was discovered in the Cherokee Nation, which was also in the state of Georgia, and white settlers began pouring in. This discovery, along with the ever-expanding population of the United States, prompted president Andrew Jackson and the U.S. Congress to pass the infamous Indian Removal Act of 1830, which forcibly moved all Indian tribes west of the Mississippi River. This included the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole, and Cherokee nations. Thousands of people were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands, in violation of previous treaties. The Indian Removal Act directly caused the tragic Trail of Tears, in which tribes were moved, at gunpoint, by U.S. troops. Thousands of Native Americans died en route. The Indian Removal Act is one of the most shameful episodes in U.S. history.
In the year before the Indian Removal Act, as the government was preparing to remove them, representatives of the Cherokee Nation delivered written petitions before congress, pleading for justice and humane treatment. These written documents are known as “The Cherokee Memorials.” The writings are elegant, thoughtful, and ultimately heartbreaking, as they fell on deaf ears and callous consciences. Here are some excerpts from The Cherokee Memorials, delivered before the U.S Congress in 1829:
“We, the representatives of the people of the Cherokee
nation, in general council convened, compelled by a sense of duty we owe to
ourselves and nation, and confiding in the justice of your honorable bodies,
address and make known to you the grievances which disturb the quiet repose and
harmony of our citizens, and the dangers by which we are surrounded… our safety
as individuals, and as a nation, require that we should be heard by the
immediate representatives of the people of the United States, whose humanity
and magnanimity, by the permission and will of Heaven, may yet preserve us from
ruin and extinction.”
…
“It remains to be proved, under a view of all these
circumstances, and the knowledge we have of history, how our right to
self-government was affected and destroyed by the Declaration of Independence.”
…
“We still adhere to what is right and agreeable to
ourselves; and our attachment to the soil of our ancestors is too strong to be
shaken.”
…
“We now look with earnest expectation to your humble bodies
for redress, and that our national existence may not be extinguished before a
prompt and effectual interposition is afforded in our behalf.”
…
“It is with reluctant and painful feelings that
circumstances have at length compelled us to seek from you the promised
protection, for the preservation of our rights and privileges. This resort to us is a last one, and nothing
short of the threatening evils and dangers that beset us could have forced it
upon the nation but it is a right we surely have, and in which we cannot be
mistaken—that of appealing for justice and humanity to the United States.”
…
“Will you listen to us?
Will you have pity upon us? You
are great and renowned—the nation which you represent is like a mighty man who
stands in his strength. But we are small—our
name is not renowned. You are wealthy,
and have need of nothing; but we are poor in life, and have not the arm and
power of the rich.”
…
“As his neighbors increased in numbers, his power became
less and less, and now, of the many and powerful tribes who once covered these
United States, only a few are to be seen—a few whom a sweeping pestilence has
left. The Northern tribes, who were once
so numerous and powerful, are now nearly extinct...Shall we, who are remnants,
share the same fate?”
…
“The land on which we stand we have received as an
inheritance from our fathers, who possessed it from time immemorial…This right
of inheritance we have never ceded, nor ever forfeited. Permit us to ask, what better right can the people
have to a country, than the right of inheritance and immemorial peacable
possession?”
…
“To the land, of which we are now in possession, we are
attached. It is our fathers’ gift: it
contains their ashes; it is the land of our nativity, and the land of our intellectual
birth. We cannot consent to abandon it
for another far inferior, and which holds out to us no inducements. We do moreover protest against the arbitrary
measures of our neighbor, the state of Georgia, in her attempt to extend her
laws over us, in surveying our lands without our consent, and in direct
opposition to the treaties and the intercourse law of the United States, and
interfering with our municipal regulations in such a manner as to derange the
regular operation of our own laws. To
deliver and protect them from all these and every encroachment upon their
rights, the undersigned memorialists do most earnestly pray your honorable
bodies. Their existence and future
happiness are at stake. Divest them of
their liberty and country, and you sink them in degradation…”
…
“Your memorialists humbly conceive that such an act [forced
removal] would be in the highest degree oppressive. From the people of these United States, who,
perhaps, of all men under heaven, are the most religious and free, it cannot be
expected. Your memorialists, therefore,
cannot anticipate such a result. You
represent a virtuous, intelligent, and Christian nation. To you they willingly submit their cause for
your righteous decision.”
Despite these elegant and passionate words, Congress passed
the Indian Removal Act, thousands of Cherokee and other tribes were forcibly
removed, and thousands died…in “a virtuous, intelligent, and Christian nation.”
