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89-556: Indian Relocation Act may refer to: the Indian Removal Act of 1830. the Indian Relocation Act of 1956 (Public Law 959). Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Indian Relocation Act . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to

178-805: A patriarchal society, was the matrilineal kinship system of Iroquois society and the related power of women. The Canadian historian D. Peter MacLeod wrote about the Canadian Iroquois and the French in the time of the Seven Years' War: Most critically, the importance of clan mothers, who possessed considerable economic and political power within Canadian Iroquois communities, was blithely overlooked by patriarchal European scribes. Those references that do exist, show clan mothers meeting in council with their male counterparts to take decisions regarding war and peace and joining in delegations to confront

267-708: A Mohawk war party by the shores of what is now called Lake Champlain, and again in June 1610, Champlain fought against the Mohawks. The Iroquois became well known in the southern colonies in the 17th century by this time. After the first English settlement in Jamestown, Virginia (1607), numerous 17th-century accounts describe a powerful people known to the Powhatan Confederacy as the Massawomeck , and to

356-743: A distinct language, territory, and function in the League. The League is composed of a Grand Council, an assembly of fifty chiefs or sachems , each representing a clan of a nation. When Europeans first arrived in North America, the Haudenosaunee ( Iroquois League to the French, Five Nations to the British) were based in what is now central and west New York State including the Finger Lakes region, occupying large areas north to

445-679: A genocide. The first removal treaty signed was the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek on September 27, 1830, in which Choctaws in Mississippi ceded land east of the river in exchange for payment and land in the West. The Treaty of New Echota was signed in 1835 and resulted in the removal of the Cherokee on the Trail of Tears. The Seminoles and other tribes did not leave peacefully, as they resisted

534-566: A mass influx of settlers, that the federal government was unable to prevent. As Robert V. Remini stated: Jackson genuinely believed that what he had accomplished rescued these people from inevitable annihilation. And although that statement sounds monstrous, and although no one in the modern world wishes to accept or believe it, that is exactly what he did. He saved the Five Civilized Nations from probable extinction. Similarly, historian Francis Paul Prucha argued that removal

623-585: A name composed in this whimsical fashion". Hale suggested instead that the term came from Huron , and was cognate with the Mohawk ierokwa "they who smoke", or Cayuga iakwai "a bear". In 1888, J. N. B. Hewitt expressed doubts that either of those words exist in the respective languages. He preferred the etymology from Montagnais irin "true, real" and ako "snake", plus the French -ois suffix. Later he revised this to Algonquin Iriⁿakhoiw as

712-511: A policy of political and military action for the removal of Natives from these lands and worked toward enacting a law for "Indian removal". In his 1829 State of the Union address , Jackson called for Indian removal . The Indian Removal Act was put in place to annex Native land and then transfer that ownership to Southern states, especially Georgia . The Act was passed in 1830, although dialogue had been ongoing since 1802 between Georgia and

801-637: A practice of cultural assimilation, meaning that tribes such as the Cherokee were forced to adopt aspects of white civilization. This acculturation was originally proposed by George Washington and was well underway among the Cherokee and the Choctaw by the beginning of the 19th century. Native peoples were encouraged to adopt European customs. First, they were forced to convert to Christianity and abandon traditional religious practices. They were also required to learn to speak and read English , although there

890-799: A result of the Beaver Wars, they pushed Siouan -speaking tribes out and reserved the territory as a hunting ground by right of conquest . They finally sold to British colonists their remaining claim to the lands south of the Ohio in 1768 at the Treaty of Fort Stanwix . Historian Pekka Hämäläinen writes of the League, "There had never been anything like the Five Nations League in North America. No other Indigenous nation or confederacy had ever reached so far, conducted such an ambitious foreign policy, or commanded such fear and respect. The Five Nations blended diplomacy, intimidation, and violence as

979-539: Is purely French, and is formed from the [Iroquoian-language] term Hiro or Hero , which means I have said —with which these Indians close all their addresses, as the Latins did of old with their dixi —and of Koué , which is a cry sometimes of sadness, when it is prolonged, and sometimes of joy, when it is pronounced shorter. In 1883, Horatio Hale wrote that Charlevoix's etymology was dubious, and that "no other nation or tribe of which we have any knowledge has ever borne

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1068-599: The French and British colonies. New France , which was established in the Great Lakes region , generally pursued a cooperative relationship with the Native tribes, with the existence of certain traditions such as marriage à la façon du pays , a marriage between tradesmen ( coureur des bois ) and Native women. This tradition was seen as a fundamental social and political institution that helped maintain relations and bond

1157-605: The House of Representatives . The Indian Removal Act was supported by President Jackson and the Democratic Party, southern and white settlers, and several state governments, especially that of Georgia . Indigenous tribes and the Whig Party opposed the bill, as did other groups within white American society (e.g., some Christian missionaries and clergy). Legal efforts to allow Indian tribes to remain on their land in

1246-823: The Iroquois League , and later as the Iroquois Confederacy , while the English simply called them the "Five Nations". The peoples of the Iroquois included (from east to west) the Mohawk , Oneida , Onondaga , Cayuga , and Seneca . After 1722, the Iroquoian-speaking Tuscarora people from the southeast were accepted into the confederacy, from which point it was known as the "Six Nations". The Confederacy likely came about between

1335-536: The Mohawk kanǫhsyǫ́·ni "the extended house", or from a cognate expression in a related Iroquoian language; in earlier sources it is variously spelled "Kanosoni", "akwanoschioni", "Aquanuschioni", "Cannassoone", "Canossoone", "Ke-nunctioni", or "Konossioni". More transparently, the Haudenosaunee confederacy is often referred to as the Six Nations (or, for the period before the entry of the Tuscarora in 1722,

1424-552: The Neutral Nation (1651), Erie Tribe (1657), and Susquehannock (1680). The traditional view is that these wars were a way to control the lucrative fur trade to purchase European goods on which they had become dependent. Starna questions this view. Recent scholarship has elaborated on this view, arguing that the Beaver Wars were an escalation of the Iroquoian tradition of "Mourning Wars". This view suggests that

1513-453: The North 's history regarding Native nations within their claimed territory. Jackson stated that "progress requires moving forward." Humanity has often wept over the fate of the aborigines of this country and philanthropy has long been busily employed in devising means to avert it, but its progress never has for a moment been arrested, and one by one have many powerful tribes disappeared from

1602-690: The Ohio Valley . From east to west, the League was composed of the Mohawk , Oneida , Onondaga , Cayuga , and Seneca nations . In about 1722, the Iroquoian -speaking Tuscarora joined the League, having migrated northwards from the Carolinas after a bloody conflict with white settlers. A shared cultural background with the Five Nations of the Iroquois (and a sponsorship from the Oneida) led

1691-713: The Onontio [the Iroquois term for the French governor-general] and the French leadership in Montreal, but only hint at the real influence wielded by these women. Eighteenth-century English historiography focuses on the diplomatic relations with the Iroquois, supplemented by such images as John Verelst 's Four Mohawk Kings , and publications such as the Anglo-Iroquoian treaty proceedings printed by Benjamin Franklin . A persistent 19th and 20th century narrative casts

1780-735: The Petun , Erie, and Susquehannock. Trying to control access to game for the lucrative fur trade, they invaded the Algonquian peoples of the Atlantic coast (the Lenape , or Delaware ), the Anishinaabe of the boreal Canadian Shield region, and not infrequently the English colonies as well. During the Beaver Wars, they were said to have defeated and assimilated the Huron (1649), Petun (1650),

1869-559: The Seneca language : Hodínöhšö:ni:h , meaning "those of the extended house", and Hodínöhsö:ni:h , meaning "house builders". The name "Haudenosaunee" first appears in English in Lewis Henry Morgan 's work (1851), where he writes it as Ho-dé-no-sau-nee . The spelling "Hotinnonsionni" is also attested from later in the nineteenth century. An alternative designation, Ganonsyoni , is occasionally encountered as well, from

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1958-485: The Shawnee , and the Lenape . The Indian Removal Act was controversial. Many Americans during this time favored its passage, but there was also significant opposition. Many Christian missionaries protested against it, most notably missionary organizer Jeremiah Evarts . In Congress, New Jersey Senator Theodore Frelinghuysen , Kentucky Senator Henry Clay , and Tennessee Congressman Davy Crockett spoke out against

2047-478: The Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the endonym Haudenosaunee ( / ˌ h oʊ d ɪ n oʊ ˈ ʃ oʊ n i / HOH -din-oh- SHOH -nee ; lit.   ' people who are building the longhouse ' ) are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of Native Americans and First Nations peoples in northeast North America. They were known by the French during the colonial years as

2136-627: The United States Supreme Court handed down a decision stating that Indians could occupy and control lands within the United States but could not hold title to those lands. Jackson viewed the union as a federation of highly esteemed states , as was common before the American Civil War . He opposed Washington's policy of establishing treaties with Indian tribes as if they were sovereign foreign nations. Thus,

2225-644: The Wilmot Proviso would have banned slavery in territories won from Mexico ... the Kansas-Nebraska bill would have failed." The Removal Act paved the way for the forced expulsion of tens of thousands of American Indians from their land into the West in an event widely known as the " Trail of Tears ," a forced resettlement of the Indian population. This forced resettlement has been characterized as

2314-465: The corn/beans/squash agricultural complex enabled them to support a large population. They made war primarily against neighboring Algonquian peoples . Muir uses archaeological data to argue that the Iroquois expansion onto Algonquian lands was checked by the Algonquian adoption of agriculture. This enabled them to support their own populations large enough to resist Iroquois conquest. The People of

2403-417: The federal government concerning the possibility of such an act. Ethan Davis states that "the federal government had promised Georgia that it would extinguish Indian title within the state's borders by purchase 'as soon as the such purchase could be made upon reasonable terms'". As time passed, Southern states began to speed up the expulsions by claiming that the deal between Georgia and the federal government

2492-537: The 19th century. The historiography of the Iroquois peoples is a topic of much debate, especially regarding the American colonial period. French Jesuit accounts of the Iroquois portrayed them as savages lacking government, law, letters, and religion. But the Jesuits made considerable effort to study their languages and cultures, and some came to respect them. A source of confusion for European sources, coming from

2581-480: The Algonquian names for their Iroquois competitors. The Iroquois Confederacy is believed to have been founded by the Great Peacemaker at an unknown date estimated between 1450 and 1660, bringing together five distinct nations in the southern Great Lakes area into "The Great League of Peace". Other research, however, suggests the founding occurred in 1142. Each nation within this Iroquoian confederacy had

2670-796: The Atlantic Ocean; from the St. Lawrence River to the Chesapeake Bay . Michael O. Varhola has argued their success in conquering and subduing surrounding nations had paradoxically weakened a Native response to European growth, thereby becoming victims of their own success. The Five Nations of the League established a trading relationship with the Dutch at Fort Orange (modern Albany, New York), trading furs for European goods, an economic relationship that profoundly changed their way of life and led to much over-hunting of beavers. Between 1665 and 1670,

2759-685: The Confederacy dispute this historical interpretation, regarding the League of the Great Peace as the foundation of their heritage. The Iroquois may be the Kwedech described in the oral legends of the Mi'kmaq nation of Eastern Canada. These legends relate that the Mi'kmaq in the late pre-contact period had gradually driven their enemies – the Kwedech – westward across New Brunswick , and finally out of

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2848-666: The European colonists, also spoke Iroquoian languages . They are considered Iroquoian in a larger cultural sense, all being descended from the Proto-Iroquoian people and language. Historically, however, they were competitors and enemies of the Iroquois Confederacy nations. In 2010, more than 45,000 enrolled Six Nations people lived in Canada, and over 81,000 in the United States. Haudenosaunee ("People of

2937-619: The Five Nations). The word is Rotinonshón:ni in the Mohawk language . The origins of the name Iroquois are somewhat obscure, although the term has historically been more common among English texts than Haudenosaunee. Its first written appearance as "Irocois" is in Samuel de Champlain 's account of his journey to Tadoussac in 1603. Other early French spellings include "Erocoise", "Hiroquois", "Hyroquoise", "Irecoies", "Iriquois", "Iroquaes", "Irroquois", and "Yroquois", pronounced at

3026-542: The French as the Antouhonoron . They were said to come from the north, beyond the Susquehannock territory. Historians have often identified the Massawomeck / Antouhonoron as the Haudenosaunee. In 1649, an Iroquois war party, consisting mostly of Senecas and Mohawks, destroyed the Huron village of Wendake . In turn, this ultimately resulted in the breakup of the Huron nation. With no northern enemy remaining,

3115-604: The Grand Council, which still exists. The Iroquois Confederacy was the decentralized political and diplomatic entity that emerged in response to European colonization, which was dissolved after the British defeat in the American Revolutionary War . Today's Iroquois/Six Nations people do not make any such distinction, use the terms interchangeably, but prefer the name Haudenosaunee Confederacy. After

3204-465: The Great Lakes. Many archaeologists and anthropologists believe that the League was formed about 1450, though arguments have been made for an earlier date. One theory argues that the League formed shortly after a solar eclipse on August 31, 1142, an event thought to be expressed in oral tradition about the League's origins. Some sources link an early origin of the Iroquois confederacy to

3293-805: The Haudenosaunee League. Those on the borders of Haudenosaunee territory in the Great Lakes region competed and warred with the nations of the League. French, Dutch, and English colonists, both in New France (Canada) and what became the Thirteen Colonies , recognized a need to gain favor with the Iroquois people, who occupied a significant portion of lands west of the colonial settlements. Their first relations were for fur trading , which became highly lucrative for both sides. The colonists also sought to establish friendly relations to secure their settlement borders. For nearly 200 years,

3382-425: The House of Representatives passed the Act by a vote of 101 to 97. On May 28, 1830, the Indian Removal Act was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson. Historian Garry Wills has speculated that without the additional slave state votes in the House of Representatives due to the Three-Fifths Compromise , "slavery would have been excluded from Missouri ... Jackson's Indian removal policy would have failed ...

3471-453: The Iroquois League. The explorer Robert La Salle in the 17th century identified the Mosopelea as among the Ohio Valley peoples defeated by the Iroquois in the early 1670s. The Erie and peoples of the upper Allegheny valley declined earlier during the Beaver Wars . By 1676 the power of the Susquehannock was broken from the effects of three years of epidemic disease, war with the Iroquois, and frontier battles, as settlers took advantage of

3560-473: The Iroquois as "an expansive military and political power ... [who] subjugated their enemies by violent force and for almost two centuries acted as the fulcrum in the balance of power in colonial North America". Historian Scott Stevens noted that the Iroquois themselves began to influence the writing of their history in the 19th century, including Joseph Brant (Mohawk), and David Cusick (Tuscarora, c. 1780–1840). John Arthur Gibson (Seneca, 1850–1912)

3649-408: The Iroquois established seven villages on the northern shores of Lake Ontario in present-day Ontario , collectively known as the "Iroquois du Nord" villages . The villages were all abandoned by 1701. Over the years 1670–1710, the Five Nations achieved political dominance of much of Virginia west of the Fall Line and extending to the Ohio River valley in present-day West Virginia and Kentucky. As

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3738-529: The Iroquois had "such absolute Notions of Liberty that they allow no Kind of Superiority of one over another, and banish all Servitude from their Territories". As raids between the member tribes ended and they directed warfare against competitors, the Iroquois increased in numbers while their rivals declined. The political cohesion of the Iroquois rapidly became one of the strongest forces in 17th- and 18th-century northeastern North America. The League's Council of Fifty ruled on disputes and sought consensus. However,

3827-416: The Iroquois had lost control of considerable territory. Knowledge of Iroquois history stem from Haudenosaunee oral tradition , archaeological evidence, accounts from Jesuit missionaries, and subsequent European historians. Historian Scott Stevens credits the early modern European value of written sources over oral tradition as contributing to a racialized, prejudiced perspective about the Iroquois through

3916-459: The Iroquois just as much as Europeans used them. At its peak around 1700, Iroquois power extended from what is today New York State, north into present-day Ontario and Quebec along the lower Great Lakes – upper St. Lawrence , and south on both sides of the Allegheny mountains into present-day Virginia and Kentucky and into the Ohio Valley . The St. Lawrence Iroquoians , Wendat (Huron), Erie , and Susquehannock , all independent peoples known to

4005-442: The Iroquois launched large-scale attacks against neighboring tribes to avenge or replace the many dead from battles and smallpox epidemics. In 1628, the Mohawk defeated the Mahican to gain a monopoly in the fur trade with the Dutch at Fort Orange (present-day Albany), New Netherland . The Mohawk would not allow northern native peoples to trade with the Dutch. By 1640, there were almost no beavers left on their lands, reducing

4094-402: The Iroquois resisted attacking their own peoples. The Iroquois remained a large politically united Native American polity until the American Revolution , when the League was divided by their conflicting views on how to respond to requests for aid from the British Crown. After their defeat, the British ceded Iroquois territory without consultation, and many Iroquois had to abandon their lands in

4183-403: The Iroquois to middlemen in the fur trade between Indian peoples to the west and north, and Europeans eager for the valuable thick beaver pelts. In 1645, a tentative peace was forged between the Iroquois and the Huron, Algonquin, and French. In 1646, Jesuit missionaries at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons went as envoys to the Mohawk lands to protect the precarious peace. Mohawk attitudes toward

4272-404: The Iroquois turned their forces on the Neutral Nations on the north shore of Lakes Erie and Ontario, the Susquehannocks, their southern neighbor. Then they destroyed other Iroquoian-language tribes, including the Erie , to the west, in 1654, over competition for the fur trade. Then they destroyed the Mohicans . After their victories, they reigned supreme in an area from the Mississippi River to

4361-485: The Iroquois were a powerful factor in North American colonial policy. Alliance with the Iroquois offered political and strategic advantages to the European powers, but the Iroquois preserved considerable independence. Some of their people settled in mission villages along the St. Lawrence River , becoming more closely tied to the French. While they participated in French-led raids on Dutch and English colonial settlements, where some Mohawk and other Iroquois settled, in general

4450-457: The League, giving rise to the many historic references to "Five Nations of the Iroquois". With the addition of the southern Tuscarora in the 18th century, these original five tribes still compose the Haudenosaunee in the early 21st century: the Mohawk , Onondaga , Oneida , Cayuga , and Seneca . According to legend, an evil Onondaga chieftain named Tadodaho was the last converted to the ways of peace by The Great Peacemaker and Hiawatha. He

4539-493: The Longhouse") is the autonym by which the Six Nations refer to themselves. While its exact etymology is debated, the term Iroquois is of colonial origin. Some scholars of Native American history consider "Iroquois" a derogatory name adopted from the traditional enemies of the Haudenosaunee. A less common, older autonym for the confederation is Ongweh’onweh , meaning "original people". Haudenosaunee derives from two phonetically similar but etymologically distinct words in

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4628-428: The Lower St. Lawrence River region. The Mi'kmaq named the last-conquered land Gespedeg or "last land", from which the French derived Gaspé . The "Kwedech" are generally considered to have been Iroquois, specifically the Mohawk ; their expulsion from Gaspé by the Mi'kmaq has been estimated as occurring c. 1535–1600. Around 1535, Jacques Cartier reported Iroquoian-speaking groups on the Gaspé peninsula and along

4717-399: The Mississippi River. The Removal Act was strongly supported in the South, especially in Georgia , which was the largest state in 1802 and was involved in a jurisdictional dispute with the Cherokee. President Jackson hoped that removal would resolve the Georgia crisis. Besides the Five Civilized Tribes , additional people affected included the Wyandot , the Kickapoo , the Potowatomi ,

4806-440: The Mohawk Valley and elsewhere and relocate to the northern lands retained by the British. The Crown gave them land in compensation for the five million acres they had lost in the south, but it was not equivalent to earlier territory. Modern scholars of the Iroquois distinguish between the League and the Confederacy. According to this interpretation, the Iroquois League refers to the ceremonial and cultural institution embodied in

4895-399: The St. Lawrence River, east to Montreal and the Hudson River , and south into what is today northwestern Pennsylvania. At its peak around 1700, Iroquois power extended from what is today New York State, north into present-day Ontario and Quebec along the lower Great Lakes – upper St. Lawrence , and south on both sides of the Allegheny Mountains into present-day Virginia and Kentucky and into

4984-412: The St. Lawrence River. Archeologists and anthropologists have defined the St. Lawrence Iroquoians as a distinct and separate group (and possibly several discrete groups), living in the villages of Hochelaga and others nearby (near present-day Montreal), which had been visited by Cartier. By 1608, when Samuel de Champlain visited the area, that part of the St. Lawrence River valley had no settlements, but

5073-509: The Tuscarora to becoming accepted as the sixth nation in the confederacy in 1722; the Iroquois become known afterwards as the Six Nations. Other independent Iroquoian-speaking peoples, such as the Erie , Susquehannock , Huron (Wendat) and Wyandot , lived at various times along the St. Lawrence River , and around the Great Lakes . In the American Southeast, the Cherokee were an Iroquoian-language people who had migrated to that area centuries before European contact. None of these were part of

5162-480: The adoption of corn as a staple crop. Archaeologist Dean Snow argues that the archaeological evidence does not support a date earlier than 1450. He has said that recent claims for a much earlier date "may be for contemporary political purposes". Other scholars note that anthropological researchers consulted only male informants, thus losing the half of the historical story told in the distinct oral traditions of women. For this reason, origin tales tend to emphasize

5251-436: The belief in European cultural and racial superiority was generally widespread among high ranking colonial officials and clergymen in this period. During American colonial times , many colonialists and particularly the English felt their civilization to be superior: they were Christians , and they believed their notions of private property to be a superior system of land tenure . Colonial and frontier encroachers inflicted

5340-404: The circumstances dictated, creating a measured instability that only they could navigate. Their guiding principle was to avoid becoming attached to any single colony, which would restrict their options and risk exposure to external manipulation." Beginning in 1609, the League engaged in the decades-long Beaver Wars against the French, their Huron allies, and other neighboring tribes, including

5429-528: The condition in which it was found by our forefathers. What good man would prefer a country covered with forests and ranged by a few thousand savages to our extensive Republic, studded with cities, towns, and prosperous farms, embellished with all the improvements which art can devise or industry execute, occupied by more than 12,000,000 happy people, and filled with all the blessings of liberty, civilization, and religion? According to historian H. W. Brands , Jackson sincerely believed that his population transfer

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5518-499: The confederacy did not speak for all five tribes, which continued to act independently and form their own war bands. Around 1678, the council began to exert more power in negotiations with the colonial governments of Pennsylvania and New York, and the Iroquois became very adroit at diplomacy, playing off the French against the British as individual tribes had earlier played the Swedes, Dutch, and English. Iroquoian-language peoples were involved in warfare and trading with nearby members of

5607-493: The creation of Indian jurisdictions was a violation of state sovereignty under Article IV, Section 3 of the Constitution. As Jackson saw it, either Indians comprised sovereign states (which violated the Constitution) or were subject to the laws of existing states of the Union. Jackson urged Indians to assimilate and obey state laws. Further, he believed he could only accommodate the desire for Native self-rule in federal territories, which required resettlement on Federal lands west of

5696-450: The earth... But true philanthropy reconciles the mind to these vicissitudes as it does to the extinction of one generation to make room for another... In the monuments and fortresses of an unknown people, spread over the extensive regions of the West, we behold the memorials of a once powerful race, which was exterminated or has disappeared to make room for the existing savage tribes… Philanthropy could not wish to see this continent restored to

5785-611: The eastern U.S. failed. Most famously, the Cherokee (excluding the Treaty Party ) challenged their relocation, but were unsuccessful in the courts; they were forcibly removed by the United States government in a march to the west that later became known as the Trail of Tears . Since the 21st century, scholars have cited the act and subsequent removals as an early example of state-sanctioned ethnic cleansing or genocide or settler colonialism ; some view it as all three. Many European colonists saw Native Americans as savages. However, euro-native relations varied, particularly between

5874-405: The greatest number of and most powerful tribes tended to side with the French, though other tribes such as the Iroquois supported the English for various strategic reasons. For strategic economic and military purposes, the French also had a practice of building forts and trading posts within Native villages, such as that of Fort Miami in Indiana within the Miami village of Kekionga . However,

5963-480: The historical comparisons between the United States concept of manifest destiny and Nazi Germany 's concept of Lebensraum and how American removal policy served as a model for racial policy during Generalplan Ost . An alternative view posits that the Indian Removal Act, despite the deaths and forced relocation, it benefitted those peoples by saving their societies from a worse fate that likely awaited them were they to remain in their home territories to face

6052-467: The indigenous nations sometimes tried to remain neutral in the various colonial frontier wars, some also allied with Europeans, as in the French and Indian War , the North American front of the Seven Years' War. The Six Nations were split in their alliances between the French and British in that war. In Reflections in Bullough's Pond , historian Diana Muir argues that the pre-contact Iroquois were an imperialist, expansionist culture whose cultivation of

6141-411: The intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Indian_Relocation_Act&oldid=932890126 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Indian Removal Act The U.S. Congress approved the Act by a narrow majority in

6230-455: The legislation. The Removal Act passed only after a bitter debate in Congress. Clay extensively campaigned against it on the National Republican Party ticket in the 1832 United States presidential election . Jackson viewed the demise of Native nations as inevitable, pointing to the steady expansion of European-based lifestyles and the decimation of Native nations in the U.S.'s northeast region. He called his Northern critics hypocrites, given

6319-403: The migration of a majority to Canada, the Iroquois remaining in New York were required to live mostly on reservations. In 1784, a total of 6,000 Iroquois faced 240,000 New Yorkers, with land-hungry New Englanders poised to migrate west. "Oneidas alone, who were only 600 strong, owned six million acres, or about 2.4 million hectares. Iroquoia was a land rush waiting to happen." By the War of 1812 ,

6408-490: The newspaper he edited, The Cherokee Phoenix . Despite the adoption of white cultural values by many natives and tribes, the United States government began a systematic effort to remove Native peoples from the Southeast. The Chickasaw , Choctaw , Muscogee-Creek , Seminole , and original Cherokee nations had been established as autonomous nations in the southeastern United States. Andrew Jackson sought to renew

6497-512: The origin. A more modern etymology was advocated by Gordon M. Day in 1968, elaborating upon Charles Arnaud from 1880. Arnaud had claimed that the word came from Montagnais irnokué , meaning "terrible man", via the reduced form irokue . Day proposed a hypothetical Montagnais phrase irno kwédač , meaning "a man, an Iroquois", as the origin of this term. For the first element irno , Day cites cognates from other attested Montagnais dialects: irinou , iriniȣ , and ilnu ; and for

6586-484: The peace soured while the Jesuits were traveling, and their warriors attacked the party en route. The missionaries were taken to Ossernenon village, Kanienkeh (Mohawk Nation) (near present-day Auriesville , New York), where the moderate Turtle and Wolf clans recommended setting them free, but angry members of the Bear clan killed Jean de Lalande and Isaac Jogues on October 18, 1646. The Catholic Church has commemorated

6675-635: The region. These tribes migrated to regions around the Mississippi River and the Piedmont regions of the east coast. Other Iroquoian-language peoples, including the populous Wyandot (Huron) , with related social organization and cultures, became extinct as tribes as a result of disease and war. They did not join the League when invited and were much reduced after the Beaver Wars and high mortality from Eurasian infectious diseases. While

6764-694: The removal along with fugitive slaves . The Second Seminole War lasted from 1835 to 1842 and resulted in the government allowing them to remain in south Florida swampland. Only a small number remained, and around 3,000 were removed in the war. In the 21st century, scholars have cited the act and subsequent removals as an early example of state sanctioned ethnic cleansing or genocide or settler colonialism or as all three Forms of these. Historian Richard White wrote that because of "claimed parallels between ethnic cleansing and Indian removal, any examination of Indian removal will inevitably involve discussions of ethnic cleansing." Other scholarship has focused on

6853-501: The second element kwédač , he suggests a relation to kouetakiou , kȣetat-chiȣin , and goéṭètjg – names used by neighboring Algonquian tribes to refer to the Iroquois, Huron, and Laurentian peoples. The Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America attests the origin of Iroquois to Iroqu , Algonquian for "rattlesnake". The French encountered the Algonquian-speaking tribes first, and would have learned

6942-422: The time as [irokwe] or [irokwɛ]. Competing theories have been proposed for this term's origin, but none have gained widespread acceptance. By 1978 Ives Goddard wrote: "No such form is attested in any Indian language as a name for any Iroquoian group, and the ultimate origin and meaning of the name are unknown." Jesuit priest and missionary Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix wrote in 1744: The name Iroquois

7031-582: The two cultures. Many of the missionaries were also known to teach the tribes how to use iron tools, build European-style homes, and improve farming techniques; teachings the Wyandot , who maintained a century long friendship with French Canadians , would spread on to other tribes as they relocated to the Maumee Valley . Throughout the 17th and 18th century during the Beaver and French and Indian Wars ,

7120-744: The two men Deganawidah and Hiawatha , while the woman Jigonsaseh , who plays a prominent role in the female tradition, remains largely unknown. The founders of League are traditionally held to be Dekanawida the Great Peacemaker, Hiawatha, and Jigonhsasee the Mother of Nations, whose home acted as a sort of United Nations. They brought the Peacemaker's Great Law of Peace to the squabbling Iroquoian nations who were fighting, raiding, and feuding with each other and with other tribes, both Algonkian and Iroquoian . Five nations originally joined in

7209-659: The weakened tribe. According to one theory of early Iroquois history, after becoming united in the League, the Iroquois invaded the Ohio River Valley in the territories that would become the eastern Ohio Country down as far as present-day Kentucky to seek additional hunting grounds. They displaced about 1,200 Siouan -speaking tribepeople of the Ohio River valley, such as the Quapaw (Akansea), Ofo ( Mosopelea ), and Tutelo and other closely related tribes out of

7298-754: The years 1450 CE and 1660 CE as a result of the Great Law of Peace , said to have been composed by the Deganawidah the Great Peacemaker, Hiawatha , and Jigonsaseh the Mother of Nations. For nearly 200 years, the Six Nations/Haudenosaunee Confederacy were a powerful factor in North American colonial policy, with some scholars arguing for the concept of the Middle Ground, in that European powers were used by

7387-588: Was a "wise and humane policy" that would save the Native Americans from "utter annihilation". Jackson portrayed the removal as a paternalistic act of mercy. According to Robert M. Keeton, proponents of the bill used biblical narratives to justify the forced resettlement of Native Americans. On April 24, 1830, the Senate passed the Indian Removal Act by a vote of 28 to 19. On May 26, 1830,

7476-508: Was an important figure of his generation in recounting versions of Iroquois history in epics on the Peacemaker . Notable women historians among the Iroquois emerged in the following decades, including Laura "Minnie" Kellogg (Oneida, 1880–1949) and Alice Lee Jemison (Seneca, 1901–1964). The Iroquois League was established prior to European contact , with the banding together of five of the many Iroquoian peoples who had emerged south of

7565-457: Was controlled by the Mohawk as a hunting ground. The fate of the Iroquoian people that Cartier encountered remains a mystery, and all that can be stated for certain is when Champlain arrived, they were gone. On the Gaspé peninsula, Champlain encountered Algonquian-speaking groups. The precise identity of any of these groups is still debated. On July 29, 1609, Champlain assisted his allies in defeating

7654-575: Was interest in creating a writing and printing system for a few Native languages , especially Cherokee , exemplified by Sequoyah's Cherokee syllabary . The Native Americans also had to adopt settler values, such as monogamous marriage and abandon non-marital sex. Finally, they had to accept the concept of individual ownership of land and other property (including, in some instances, African people as slaves). Many Cherokee people adopted all, or some, of these practices, including Cherokee chief John Ross , John Ridge , and Elias Boudinot , as represented by

7743-401: Was invalid and that Southern states could pass laws extinguishing Indian title themselves. In response, the federal government passed the Indian Removal Act on May 28, 1830, in which President Jackson agreed to divide the United States territory west of the Mississippi River into districts for tribes to replace the land from which they were removed. In the 1823 case of Johnson v. McIntosh ,

7832-509: Was offered the position as the titular chair of the League's Council, representing the unity of all nations of the League. This is said to have occurred at Onondaga Lake near present-day Syracuse, New York . The title Tadodaho is still used for the League's chair, the fiftieth chief who sits with the Onondaga in council. The Iroquois subsequently created a highly egalitarian society. One British colonial administrator declared in 1749 that

7921-469: Was the best of the four options that presented themselves, the other three being genocide, assimilation into white culture, and protection of tribal lands against settler encroachment, the last of which Prucha, like Remini, saw as unachievable. Iroquois The Iroquois ( / ˈ ɪr ə k w ɔɪ , - k w ɑː / IRR -ə-kwoy, -⁠kwah ), also known as the Five Nations , and later as

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