INDIAN REMOVAL (adopted from the College Board’s AP page)

Read the information that is relevant to your side of the debate to get yourself
informed.

Indian Removal Act (excerpts)

Indian Removal Debate in Congress (2 representative voices)

Read Sprague for removal, Forsyth against removal

Jackson’s Annual Messages (excerpts concerning Indian Removal)

Federal Indian Laws (including the judgment on the Supreme Court cases)

On assimilation:
Several resources can be used to introduce students to the concept of assimilation. Students
can examine the Cherokee alphabet devised by Sequoyah, the Cherokee Phoenix newspaper,
and the 1827 Cherokee Constitution. Ask students to compare and contrast the U.S. and
Cherokee Constitutions. Elias Boudinot, editor of the Cherokee Phoenix, made "An Address to
the Whites" in Philadelphia in 1826; two years later, he expressed concern about the mounting
voices that discounted assimilation.
Cherokee Alphabet
Sequoyah
Cherokee Phoenix
Elias Boudinot's "An Address to the Whites"
Boudinot's Concern Over Assimilation

Reaction to removal was considerable and vocal. The Chickasaw Historical Research page
contains letters written by the Chickasaw to U.S. officials. John Ross of the Cherokee presented
a memorial to Congress protesting removal in 1836. Students may refer to this site for an
account of conditions on the Trail of Tears, which received this treatment by Robert Lindneux in
1928. Some statistics have been collected for Cherokee leaving under their own supervision.
Addresses delivered by General Winfield Scott to the troop escorts and to the Cherokee are
here.
Chickasaw Historical Research Page
John Ross
Trail of Tears
Robert Lindneux
Statistics on Unsupervised Cherokee Migration
General Winfield Scott's Speeches

Divide students into small groups that will each represent one of the contemporary voices raised
on this issue: assimilationists, such as Thomas Jefferson; staunch advocates of federal removal,
such as Andrew Jackson; white citizens of southern states hungry for Indian lands; the Supreme
Court, represented by Chief Justice John Marshall; Cherokee such as John Ross who
championed assimilation and refusal to relocate; the signers of the New Echota treaty, such as
Elias Boudinot, who acquiesced to federal pressures; Christian missionaries who supported
Cherokee self-determination; and the tribes of the Old Northwest, who rose in resistance. Each
group should develop a set of debate points that capture the content and flavor of the
contemporary debate. It is essential that each group conduct itself as much as possible as
contemporaries would.