Document 1
The Cherokees appealed to Congress regarding their removal. Surely, they hoped, Congress would uphold their
rights. The Cherokees made their appeal to Congress in December 1829. Here are some excerpts from it.
To the honorable…Senate and House of Representatives of the United States…
[This] is the land of our nativity, and the land of our…birth. We cannot consent to abandon
it, for another far inferior, and which holds out for us no inducements. We do, moreover,
protest against the…measures of our neighbor, the state of Georgia, in her attempt to
extend her laws over us…in direct opposition to treaties…of the United States…To protect
[us] from…these encroachments upon [our] rights, [we] earnestly pray [you].
(Inducements means “attractions.” Encroachments means “violations.”)
Document 2
Congress debated Indian removal in the late winter and early spring of 1830. Theodore Frelinghuysen was a U.S.
senator from New Jersey. He was one of the senators who supported the cause of the Indians. He was opposed to
the Indian Removal Act. He thought that the U.S. government (with President Jackson’s approval) would trick,
bribe, and bully the Indian tribes as it carried out the law. This trickery, he feared, would lure the Indians into
selling their lands. They would accept wastelands in the West in the place of their fine lands in the South. Here
are excerpts from a six-hour-long speech Frelinghuysen made during these debates. (Cession means “repeated
requests.”
Cupidity
God, in his providence, planted these tribes on this…continent.
means
“extreme
…we cannot rightfully complete the cession of [their] lands, or take them by violence, if
greed.”)
[their] consent be withheld…
The confiding Indian [over many years] listened to our professions of friendship; we
called him brother, and he believed us. Millions after millions he has yielded to our
importunity, until we have acquired more than can be cultivated in centuries – and yet
we crave more. We have crowded the tribes upon a few miserable acres [in our South]; it
is all that is left to them of their once boundless forests; and still…our insatiated cupidity
cries, Give! Give!
Document 3
An Indian’s Views of Indian Affairs by Chief Joseph
…I have heard talk and talk, but nothing is done. Good words do not last long unless they amount to something.
Words do not pay for my dead people. They do not pay for my country, now overrun by white men. They do not
protect my father’s grave. …Good words will not give me back my children…will not get my people a home
where they can live in peace and take care of themselves.
I am tired of talk that comes to nothing. It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words and all the
broken promises. There has been too much talking by men who had no right to talk. Too many misrepresentations
have been made, too many misunderstandings have come up between the white men about the Indians.
I only ask of the government to be treated as all other men are treated. …I see men of my race treated as outlaws
and driven from country to country or shot down like animals. …We ask only an even chance to live as other men
live. We ask to be recognized as men. We ask that he same law shall work alike on all men. If the Indian breaks
the law, punish him by the law. If the white man breaks the law, punish him also.
Let me be a free man – …