Irony in America

Jake Hart

Mr.Calore

8 February, 2006

Irony In America

The native tribes of America have always been seen as different from everyone else. Andrew Jackson, President of The United States, saw them as mindless savages who deserve to be relocated. This was completely different from what two Europeans, Maximilian and Bodmer, who saw these people as magnificent and actually real people. This is ironic because the "American," Andrew Jackson, who grew up on the western frontier and around the native tribes, thinks less of them then the two foreigners.

Andrew Jackson grew up in Tennessee which was the western frontier of America at the time. He grew up with the native tribes all around him. One would think that being around them all the time Jackson would have been able to see that they are people too and that they are capable of thought.

In 1830, just a year after taking office, Jackson pushed a new piece of legislation called the "Indian Removal Act" through both houses of Congress. It gave the president power to negotiate removal treaties with Indian tribes living east of the Mississippi. Under these treaties, the Indians were to give up their lands east of the Mississippi in exchange for lands to the west. Those wishing to remain in the east would become citizens of their home state. This act affected not only the southeastern nations, but many others further north. The removal was supposed to be voluntary and peaceful, and it was that way for the tribes that agreed to the conditions. But the southeastern nations resisted, and Jackson forced them to leave.

Jackson's attitude toward Native Americans was paternalistic and patronizing -- he described them as children in need of guidance. and believed the removal policy was beneficial to the Indians. Most white Americans thought that the United States would never extend beyond the Mississippi. Removal would save Indian people from the depredations of whites, and would resettle them in an area where they could govern themselves in peace.

Philipp Maximilian, a Prussian Prince, who had never even seen a Native American before thought much higher of them then Jackson did. His reason for the journey, as stated in the preface to his book, was to provide foreigners with a description