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                         November 21, 2001

Native-American History Month

Triumph over adversity: The removal of Southeastern Native-American tribes

By Capt. Kevin Clark
Dept. of History

Among Native Americans, Andrew Jackson may be the most reviled U.S. President in history. Though he hardly invented the idea that Native Americans East of the Mississippi should be removed to the West, he championed the idea shortly after taking office in 1828.

As early as 1811, certain Cherokee leaders sold lands to the U.S. and moved west of the Mississippi. Similar transactions would follow in the next two decades with other tribes. In 1830, however, Jackson codified removal and introduced an element of coercion unseen in previous efforts. Earlier thinking that natives could be "civilized" and made into European-style farmers gave way before the impatient westward push of frontiersmen like Jackson. The process took too much time and many natives had little interest in becoming "civilized." Responses to Jacksonian removal varied, but two tribes put up particularly fierce resistance to removal, even if they chose different methods: the Cherokees and the Seminoles.

Situated in Georgia and Carolina, many Cherokees spoke English and lived like their White neighbors. Some owned plantations and slaves, worshipped in churches, but still retained a firm pride in their heritage. Confronted with removal, much of the tribe rallied behind Chief John Ross, who, aided by Christian missionaries, mounted a public-relations campaign to fight passage of the removal law, labeling the government’s actions immoral and unjust. When the removal bill passed in 1830, Ross and the missionaries sued the U.S. government in a case that went all the way to Supreme Court. The Court ultimately ruled in favor of the Cherokees; Jackson simply ignored the order. Finally, in 1838, the Army reluctantly forced the Cherokees westward.

Unlike the Cherokees, the Seminoles opted to fight. The Seminoles called Florida home and when asked to bargain, they stalled for several years, stockpiling powder and ammunition for the coming fight. Threatened with an ultimatum in 1835, the Seminoles struck suddenly, wiping out almost all the plantations in Eastern Florida and a column of soldiers commanded by Major Francis Dade. Confronted with superior numbers, the Seminoles gradually withdrew with their African-American allies into the swamps and waged a vicious seven-year guerrilla war against frontiersmen and soldiers. Only after promising the safe removal of the African-Americans did the Seminoles begin to surrender en masse in 1838. Still, many Seminoles fought on and lived to fight another war with the U.S. in 1855. Only 100 Seminoles remained in Florida in 1858, but they never surrendered or signed a peace treaty.

The descendants of the Cherokee and Seminole resistance survive to this day and regard removal as the most pivotal episode in their history. Their strength and resourcefulness in the face of adversity should never be forgotten.