American and Indigenous Interactions

Matthew Vanderlaan

E. Mullins

History 17

6 May, 2013

American and Indigenous Interactions

The land that we live in today has not always belonged to our fathers and to us. When the first settlers voyaged over to the American continent, they shared the land with the Native Americans, which they named Indians for the thought they had landed in India. The Native Americans owned these indigenous lands all the way up until the establishment of the first settlements, which would later become the United States of America. These settlements expanded into a nation, which expanded further and further west; however, they were given opposition from the indigenous people in many different ways. There are numerous ways the colonists and the U.S. tried to justify this expansion including: the idea of a free land, portraying the natives as brutal savages who need guidance, and a need for more land to sustains a rapidly growing nation in both population and economics. The Native Americans didn't react well to this and most of them retaliated through warfare, while some sought peace and even went as far as integrating into the American nation. All of these factors would lead to what is now our home.

To begin, the early American colonies had justified their expansion by having the idea of it being a free land that no one owns and by having a rapidly growing population with more civilization. In "From Letter by a Swiss-German Immigrant" Johannes Hänner wrote to his family, "I have told you quite fully about the trip… That we have a free country… one made do whatever one wants. Nor does the land require payment in tithes… The land is very big from Canada to the East of us, to Carolina in the South, and to the Spanish Border in the West… One can settle wherever one wants without asking anyone when he buys or leases something,"(Foner 119). This letter is a perfect example of how the settlers believed the land they had come across was a free world where they could do anything they desired. This was not the case, however. The land had been previously owned and used by the Native population before being driven out by these settlers. In "Give Me Liberty", the author Eric Foner wrote, "Thanks to a high birth-rate and continuing immigration, the population of England's mainland colonies, 265,000 in 1700, grew nearly tenfold, to over 2.3 million seventy years later,"(111). The statistics mentioned in this quote pertain to the rapid growth over only seventy years of American colonization. With the population growing this rapid there was a sure sign that expanding further into the continent needed to be done to keep growing and to become self-sustained.

Just like the colonists, the U.S. government justified expansion by having a growing nation in need of land to sustain the growth in population and economics; as well as, addressing the Natives as cruel monsters who need to separate from the American nation and prosper alone. In his second inaugural address, Andrew Jackson stated, "The consequences of a speedy removal will be important to the U.S, to the individual states, and to the Indians themselves… It will place a dense and civilized population in large tracts of country now occupied by a few savage hunters. By opening the whole territory… it will incalculably strengthen the Southwester Frontier and render the adjacent States strong enough to repel future invasions without remote aid. It will relieve the whole states… of Indian occupancy, and enable the states to advance rapidly in population, wealth, and power,"(61). This quote tries to justify expansion by stating how the different states will grow and prosper, which will ultimately create a stronger nation. Jackson states how the American population is getting larger and how they can become stronger with the removal of the Natives. Also, later in his address Jackson states, "It will separate Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites; free from the power of the states; enable them to pursue happiness in their own way and under their own rude institutions,"(61). In this quote, Jackson is trying to explain how the Natives would become stronger as a whole from detachment; as well as, trying to portray them as savages who need separation from civilized communities. To conclude, the American government justified their expansion by explaining how each party would prosper and live long with complete and total separation.