The Indians

The Indians

The Indians where put on plots of land called reservations. The Indian tribes possessed or owned the land but the government had total supervision. There they could not hunt their own food, instead, had to live on government rations. The children could no longer speak in their native tongue and where forced to learn the English language and choose more “Christian” names. These reservations where usually kept away from whites. From 1838 to 1839 some 20,000 Cherokee Indians sent out on foot on an 800 to 850 mile trip from Georgia to Tennessee and from Tennessee to Oklahoma. The Cherokee where forced out of there southeastern homeland by federal troops and forced to move to the Indian Territory which is now know as Oklahoma. 4,000 to 6,000 Indians died along this journey from hunger, disease, exposure to the elements and attacks. Once they reached their destination, they where reorganized under their new chief named John Ross. They were then known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Another factor in Indian reservations was the start of the California gold rush. The gold rush started when a sawmill employee from Colomo, California named James Marshall came upon gold flecks while wading in the American River in California on January 28th, 1848. Word spread quickly of this new found fortune. Families from all over the country packed up all they owned and headed to California to gain instant wealth. The Treaty of 1868 guaranteed the Sioux nation occupation of their sacred Black Hills territory and could live their lives chasing and hunting the buffalo. The sanctuary was called The Great Sioux Reservation. General William Tecumseh Sherman, a well-known hater of the Native Americans, thought that the sooner the buffalo where killed off, the sooner the Sioux Nation would have to move on to a government controlled Indian reservation. In response, General Sherman wrote a note to another well know Indian-hater, General Phil Sheridan. The note said that he could execute...

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