Key Points: Native Peoples, Racism, and Removal in US History

Native Peoples and the Founding

  • The United States at the outset will not recognize native peoples as part of the new experiment in nation building.
  • Thomas Jefferson familiarized himself with the doctrine of discovery and wrote one of the most racist statements enshrined as part of the Declaration of Independence: "Merciless Indian savages whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions."
  • As the United States is created, school children will learn early in life the prejudices of the founding fathers; native peoples will not be accorded rights and privileges of citizenship in the nineteenth century.

Racism as an Instrument of Power

  • Racism is an instrument of power used by those in power to perpetuate their power.
  • Jefferson knew very well what he was doing when he phrased the quote into the declaration.

From Prejudice to Policy: Pathways

  • Following the logic of prejudice, stereotype, avoidance, to discrimination, making it legal to a disadvantaged population, to segregation, making it legal to an isolated population.
  • This illustrates how prejudice can translate into policy over time.

Genocide? The United States and Native Peoples

  • The class asks: Has The United States committed genocide?

Indian Removal Act and Andrew Jackson

  • The removal policy associated with Andrew Jackson is the Indian Removal Act.
  • Jackson moved native peoples east of the Mississippi River to the west.
  • Andrew Jackson is known as the genocide president for this policy.

Trail of Tears: The Cherokee Experience

  • The Cherokee experience with removal is dramatic; they lost their children, elders, and shed blood along the way.
  • It is referred to as the Trail of Tears.

Visualizing the Removal

  • A film clip will assist in visualizing the removal process.