The Cheroke's in America

The major American aspiration during the 1790s through the 1860s was westward expansion. Americans looked to the western lands as an opportunity for large amounts of free land, for growth of industry, and manifest destiny. This hunger for more wealth and property, led Americans conquer lands that were rightfully someone else's. Manifest destiny and westward expansion brought many problematic issues to the Unites States verses the Indians that took the Americans to the Civil War.

The first issue that arose for the Americans, was where to put the existing Indians while they conquered their land. The United States felt that the Indians needed to be secluded from all other races so that they would become civilized. This Indian Territory was where eastern Indian tribes such as the Kickapoos, Delawares, and Shawnees lived. As the population of Americans increased in the western sector of the United States, they also invaded that land specially allotted for the Indians. Instead of moving the Americans out of the Indian Territory, the government minimized the size of Indian Territory by half. Now the Northern half was open for white settlement. As for the western Indians, such as the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapahos, American settlers went around them to settle the California and Oregon. The Americans decided to stay away from further conflict with the native Americans because they knew they were unable to move them away from their land.

Americans continued their western movement and put forth their domination over the Indians. The first step the United States took in claiming this new land for them was by establishing a land system. The Land Ordinance of 1785 established an orderly way to divide up and sell the new lands of the Western United States. Shortly after, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 set up a system of government for the land north of the Ohio River. Slavery was outlawed in the five states that made up the Northwest Territory, and no self-government was to be set up until at least five thousand free white men were in the territory.

The next step the Americans took had to do with forcing the Indians off their land. They managed to trick the Indians by making treaties with them. The Indians were practically forced to agree with the treaties. Most Americans didn't even keep their promises. For example, in the Treaty of Fort Stanwiz of 1784 and the Treaty of Fort McIntosh of 1785, the Iroquois and other Ohio Indians were forced to give a portion of their land to the United States. The U. S. then proceeded to divide up this land, but settlers could not buy any of it until 1788. Many Americans became restless and decided to go in and settle these lands illegally, not honoring their treaty with the Indians.

These treaties were the only way the United States was going to be allowed to legally take over the Indian lands with the agreement of the Indians. This new recognition and use of treaties fell under the Indian Intercourse Act of 1790. This was a form of written documentation that allowed the ceding of land to be possible through the treaties. Americans, however, did not honor their agreement with the Indians, and in the future, some tribes used this against the government in trying to regain the land that was taken from them illegally.

The Cherokee Victory

The Cherokee Indians, the most cooperative and accommodating to the political institutions of the united states, suffered the worst fate of all Native Americans when voluntarily or forcibly moved west. In 1827 the Cherokees attempted to claim themselves as an independent nation within the state of Georgia. When the legislature of the state extended jurisdiction over this Ð''nation,' the Cherokees sought legal actions, not subject to Georgia laws and petitioned the United States Supreme Court. The case became known as Cherokee Nation vs. Georgia in 1831. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall denied their claim as a republic within Georgia, he then deemed the Cherokee as a Ð''domestic dependent nation'. One year later through the case of Worcester vs. Georgia, the Cherokee's were granted federal protection from the molestation by the state of Georgia. Through the Indian Removal act in 1830 President Andrew Jackson appropriated planning and funding for the removal of Native Americans, Marshall's rulings delayed this for the Cherokee Nation, and infuriated President Jackson. Marshall's decision had little effect on Jackson and ignoring this action the president was anxious to see him enforce it.

The federal government proceeded to find a way around this decision and had three minor Cherokee chief's sign the "Treaty of New Echota" in 1835 giving the Cherokee lands to the government for 5.6 million dollars and free passage west. Congress got the treaty ratified by only one vote. Members of their tribes murdered all three chiefs who took part in the signing of the treaty. After this event there was not much the Cherokee's could do and were forcibly moved west on what they called and are known today as the Ð''Trail of Tears,' which became a constitutional crisis in our history. In this instance the lack of cooperation between the branches of the government was the downfall for the Cherokee nation. The way the Cherokee's were forced west caused losses of up to twenty percent of the nation. This figure is only a guess and scholar's think it was more a third of the nation was lost. The Ð''Trail of Tears' was also a morale issue in the United States, later having an impact on our history the way other Native American races in general are treated in the future.

If Chief Justice John Marshall had claimed that in either case of "Cherokee Nation vs. Georgia" or "Worcester vs. Georgia" the Indian Removal act was unconstitutional, the history of the Cherokee nation would have forever changed. In my alternate history, John Marshall claimed that the Indian Removal act, passed by President Jackson, was unconstitutional. In the case of "Worcester vs. Georgia," not only do the Cherokee have a distinct political community and granted federal protection from molestation by the state, further removal of the tribe through the Indian Removal act would be considered immoral and unconstitutional. This is clearly illustrates by the fourth and ninth amendments. With this one decision alone, a chain of events would have taken place:

First the United States federal government would not have forcibly removed the Cherokee's. Events would therefore change, in favor of the Cherokee, which would inflame the Georgian legislature. This would mean that previous involuntarily moved tribes would be deemed compensation, such as sovereignty much earlier on