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111-505: He was an advocate of saving the dwindling tribes from decades of ongoing American abuse, by leading their charitable removal from the eastern United States into their own homesteading. He serially established successful tribal missions at the remote western American frontiers , hundreds of miles beyond any white settlements, repeatedly relocating westward due to encroachment and exploitation . He wrote books and made many trips to Washington, D.C. to solicit funds, create programs, and propose

222-416: A benign U.S. government and missionaries, with whiskey dealers and dishonest merchants banned. McCoy could not foresee that the frontier of white settlement was expanding so rapidly that his Indian Canaan would be overrun by settlers before Indians could enjoy "unmolested, the fruits of their labours". Moreover, he overestimated the good will and capacity of the government. During the tragic removals forced on

333-561: A bill. The Missouri Senator, Alexander Buckner , said to him about the Indians, "if they were all dead it would be a blessing for our country". Partially due to his efforts, Congress eventually passed a modest bill to finance Indian vaccinations. In 1833, McCoy was reportedly armed and involved with a company of "ruffians", a mob in Independence, Missouri who attacked Mormon families at gunpoint and expelled them from their homes onto

444-684: A commonly held view at the time by the colonists in the United States. In a draft "Proposed Articles of Confederation" presented to the Continental Congress on May 10, 1775, Benjamin Franklin called for a "perpetual Alliance" with the Indians in the nation about to be born, particularly with the six nations of the Iroquois Confederacy: Article XI. A perpetual alliance offensive and defensive

555-628: A far-reaching Indian policy with two primary goals. He wanted to assure that the Native nations (not foreign nations) were tightly bound to the new United States, as he considered the security of the nation to be paramount. He also wanted to "civilize" them into adopting an agricultural, rather than a hunter-gatherer , lifestyle. These goals would be achieved through treaties and the development of trade. Jefferson initially promoted an American policy which encouraged Native Americans to become assimilated , or " civilized ". He made sustained efforts to win

666-552: A female slave named Chainy. He was opposed to slavery, saying that he had bought her to prevent her separation from her husband and children by being sold through a slave market. It appears he already owned her husband and children. In his will, he provided for her to be manumitted, on the condition that she pay his estate (or descendants) her purchase price of US$ 415 (equivalent to about $ 12,000 in 2023) plus interest. He also provided for her children (also his property) to be freed when each reached age 24. In 1840, McCoy wrote one of

777-470: A hypothetical conquest of the modern Washington, DC by Chinese invaders who could similarly see America as alien, uncivilized, and inferior. Again, it has been asserted that "the Indians have no idea of a title to the soil itself". This is an assumption without the shadow of reason; indeed, it is at variance with the recurrence of positive and well known facts. It has been the misfortune of the Indian that he

888-548: A lot of public controversy before his enactment, but virtually none among historians and biographers of the 19th and early 20th century. However, his recent reputation has been negatively affected by his treatment of the Indians. Historians who admire Jackson's strong presidential leadership, such as Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. , would gloss over the Indian Removal in a footnote. In 1969, Francis Paul Prucha defended Jackson's Indian policy and wrote that Jackson's removal of

999-489: A millwright. Carey Mission was called the "point from which the American frontier was extended". Carey Mission often suffered a subsistence diet . McCoy once wrote, "Blessed be God, we have not yet suffered for lack of food; for parched corn is an excellent substitute for bread. [...] But, now having eaten our last grain of corn, we cannot avoid some anxiety about our next meal." In 1826, McCoy moved his family deeper into

1110-647: A more somber perspective. Historians have often described the removal of American Indians as paternalism , ethnic cleansing , or genocide . American leaders in the Revolutionary and early US eras debated about whether Native Americans should be treated as individuals or as nations. In the indictment section of the Declaration of Independence , the Indigenous inhabitants of the United States are referred to as "merciless Indian Savages", reflecting

1221-769: A permanent sovereign tribal colony within Indian Territory , which instead became the states of Kansas, Nebraska , and Oklahoma . He pioneered the areas that became Grand Rapids, Michigan and Kansas City, Missouri . McCoy was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania , on June 13, 1784, to William and Elizabeth Royce McCoy. Five years later, the McCoy family rafted down the Ohio River to Kentucky, settling first near Louisville and in 1792 in Shelby County . When he

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1332-487: A political issue, urging President Martin Van Buren to prevent the enforcement of Cherokee removal. Other individual settlers and settler social organizations throughout the United States also opposed removal. Native groups reshaped their governments, made constitutions and legal codes, and sent delegates to Washington to negotiate policies and treaties to uphold their autonomy and ensure federally-promised protection from

1443-527: A scale equal to their wants, and under regulations calculated to protect them from imposition and extortion, its influence in cementing their interests with our's [sic] could not but be considerable. In his seventh annual message to Congress in 1795, Washington intimated that if the US government wanted peace with the Indians it must behave peacefully; if the US wanted raids by Indians to stop, raids by American "frontier inhabitants" must also stop. In his Notes on

1554-672: A small faction of twenty Cherokee tribal members (not the tribal leadership) on December 29, 1835. Most of the Cherokee later blamed the faction and the treaty for the tribe's forced relocation in 1838. An estimated 4,000 Cherokee died in the march, which is known as the Trail of Tears . Missionary organizer Jeremiah Evarts urged the Cherokee Nation to take its case to the US Supreme Court . The Marshall court heard

1665-548: A teacher at McCoy's school at Raccoon Creek, worked together as missionaries to the Shawnee and Lenape (Delaware), following them to what is now the Kansas City metropolitan area , on the eastern border of Indian Territory and near their reservations. John McCoy established a trading post at Westport, Missouri and was a co-founder of the town of Kansas, Missouri —which combined to become Kansas City, Missouri . Lykins

1776-635: Is to be entered into as soon as may be with the Six Nations; their Limits to be ascertained and secured to them; their Land not to be encroached on, nor any private or Colony Purchases made of them hereafter to be held good, nor any Contract for Lands to be made but between the Great Council of the Indians at Onondaga and the General Congress. The Boundaries and Lands of all the other Indians shall also be ascertained and secured to them in

1887-422: The American settlers and Indigenous tribes since the 17th century and were escalating into the early 19th century (as settlers pushed westward in accordance with the cultural belief of manifest destiny ). Historical views of Indian removal have been reevaluated since that time. Widespread contemporary acceptance of the policy, due in part to the popular embrace of the concept of manifest destiny , has given way to

1998-602: The Carey Mission , named after the English missionary to India, William Carey (1761–1834). It was 100 miles (160 km) west of the nearest White settlement. The Pottawatomi gave McCoy a relatively warm welcome and helped feed his large family and Indian students through their early seasons in the hostile territory. This became his most successful missio yet, and his school expanded to have 76 Indian children, four Indian employees, five missionaries, six white children, and

2109-602: The Indian Removal Act of 1830. Dazney died in Kansas in 1848. In May 1820, the McCoy family moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana to set up a mission to the Miami tribe . His school at Fort Wayne attracted 40 Miami, Potawatomi , and mixed-blood children, several whites, and one African American. The Miami and Potawatomi tribes at this time had many members of mixed race, who were fully accepted when growing up their mothers in

2220-459: The Indian Removal Act , which formally authorized the removal of eastern Indians to the West. For the next ten years, McCoy was engaged in surveying boundaries of reservations for more than twenty tribes who moved west to present-day Kansas. Often they comprised small remnants of formerly powerful peoples. McCoy had hoped to be one of the three commissioners appointed to oversee Indian Territory, but he

2331-539: The Mississippi River . In an 1803 letter to William Henry Harrison , Jefferson wrote: Should any tribe be foolhardy enough to take up the hatchet at any time, the seizing the whole country of that tribe, and driving them across the Mississippi, as the only condition of peace, would be an example to others, and a furtherance of our final consolidation. In that letter, Jefferson spoke about protecting

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2442-674: The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (a precedent for US territorial expansion would occur for years to come), calling for the protection of Native American "property, rights, and liberty"; the US Constitution of 1787 (Article I, Section 8) made Congress responsible for regulating commerce with the Indian tribes. In 1790, the new US Congress passed the Indian Nonintercourse Act (renewed and amended in 1793, 1796, 1799, 1802, and 1834) to protect and codify

2553-758: The Osage and the Kaw ceded large portions of their lands in Kansas and Oklahoma to the United States. In 1828, Congress authorized McCoy to lead an expedition to survey lands to which the Chickasaw , Choctaw , and Creek of the Southeast could be relocated. McCoy also invited representatives of the Potawatomi and Odawa to join the expedition. With the unenthusiastic Indians, McCoy traveled through Kansas and Oklahoma laying out potential reservations and devising in his mind

2664-591: The Second Seminole War . Osceola was a Seminole leader of the people's fight against removal. Based in the Everglades , Osceola and his band used surprise attacks to defeat the US Army in a number of battles. In 1837, Osceola was duplicitously captured by order of US General Thomas Jesup when Osceola came under a flag of truce to negotiate peace near Fort Peyton . Osceola died in prison of illness;

2775-575: The Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino . Historical views of Indian removal have been reevaluated since that time. Widespread contemporary acceptance of the policy, due in part to the popular embrace of the concept of manifest destiny , has given way to a more somber perspective. Historians have often described the removal of Native Americans as paternalism , ethnic cleansing , or genocide . Historian David Stannard has called it genocide. Andrew Jackson's Indian policy stirred

2886-712: The Senecas transferred all their land in New York (except for one small reservation) in exchange for 200,000 acres (810 km ) of land in Indian Territory. The federal government would be responsible for the removal of the Senecas who opted to go west, and the Ogden Land Company would acquire their New York lands. The lands were sold by government officials, however, and the proceeds were deposited in

2997-644: The Trail of Tears . Indian removal, a popular policy among incoming settlers, was a consequence of actions first by the European colonists and then later on by the American settlers in the nation during the thirteen colonies and then after the revolution , in the United States of America also until the mid-20th century. The origins of the policy date back to the administration of James Monroe , but it addressed conflicts which had occurred between

3108-464: The U.S. state of Indiana . The population was 1,022 at the 2010 census. It is located approximately 66 miles west of the state capital Indianapolis . Montezuma was laid out in about 1824. The town was named for Moctezuma II , ruler of the Aztec Empire . A post office has been in operation at Montezuma since 1825. On June 17, 2021, Montezuma experienced an earthquake that measured 3.8 on

3219-402: The forced displacement of self-governing tribes of American Indians from their ancestral homelands in the eastern United States to lands west of the Mississippi River —specifically, to a designated Indian Territory (roughly, present-day Oklahoma ), which many scholars have labeled a genocide . The Indian Removal Act of 1830 , the key law which authorized the removal of Native tribes,

3330-581: The moment magnitude scale . Montezuma lies along the Wabash River on the western border of Parke County, where U.S. Route 36 crosses the river. Most of the town is in Reserve Township , but the south edge extends into Wabash Township . According to the 2010 census, Montezuma has a total area of 0.6 square miles (1.55 km ), all land. As of the census of 2010, there were 1,022 people, 417 households, and 274 families living in

3441-577: The Chactas were leaving their country. "To be free," he answered, could never get any other reason out of him. We ... watch the expulsion ... of one of the most celebrated and ancient American peoples. While the Indian Removal Act made the move of the tribes voluntary, it was often abused by government officials. The best-known example is the Treaty of New Echota , which was signed by

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3552-576: The Creek population to leave voluntarily, Creeks who had not participated in the war were not forced west (as others were). The Creek population was placed into camps and told that they would be relocated soon. Many Creek leaders were surprised by the quick departure but could do little to challenge it. The 16,000 Creeks were organized into five detachments who were to be sent to Fort Gibson. The Creek leaders did their best to negotiate better conditions, and succeeded in obtaining wagons and medicine. To prepare for

3663-541: The Five Civilized Tribes from the hostile political environment of the Old South to Oklahoma probably saved them. Jackson was sharply attacked by political scientist Michael Rogin and historian Howard Zinn during the 1970s, primarily on this issue; Zinn called him an "exterminator of Indians". According to historians Paul R. Bartrop and Steven L. Jacobs , however, Jackson's policies do not meet

3774-639: The House of Representatives by the Georgia delegation. President John Quincy Adams assumed the Calhoun–Monroe policy, and was determined to remove the Indians by non-forceful means; Georgia refused to consent to Adams' request, forcing the president to forge a treaty with the Cherokees granting Georgia the Cherokee lands. On July 26, 1827, the Cherokee Nation adopted a written constitution (modeled on that of

3885-666: The Indian Territory. In 1832, the Sauk leader Black Hawk led a band of Sauk and Fox back to their lands in Illinois; the US Army and Illinois militia defeated Black Hawk and his warriors in the Black Hawk War , and the Sauk and Fox were relocated to present-day Iowa . The Miami were split, with many of the tribe resettled west of the Mississippi River during the 1840s. In the Second Treaty of Buffalo Creek (1838),

3996-481: The Indian mission decline." He died a few days later on June 21, 1846, and was buried in Western Cemetery. McCoy was much more of a social reformer than a missionary, hardly being concerned in his later years with converting Indians to Christianity. He "attacked the system of law and custom by which Indians had been kept in bondage" and "his object was to free the Indians from those restraints". His solution

4107-432: The Indian tribes is gaining strength daily... and will amply requite us for the justice and friendship practiced towards them ... [O]ne of the two great divisions of the Cherokee nation have now under consideration to solicit the citizenship of the United States, and to be identified with us in-laws and government, in such progressive manner as we shall think best. As some of Jefferson's other writings illustrate, however, he

4218-468: The Indians by the U.S. government in the 1830s and later, thousands died of neglect and arrived in Kansas and Oklahoma impoverished and starving. McCoy's well-intentioned conversion programs and philosophy of relocation, were coopted by others to culminate in the 1838 Potawatomi Trail of Death . The possibility of removing eastern Indians west of the Mississippi River was enhanced in 1825 when

4329-483: The Indians from injustices perpetrated by settlers: Our system is to live in perpetual peace with the Indians, to cultivate an affectionate attachment from them, by everything just and liberal which we can do for them within ... reason, and by giving them effectual protection against wrongs from our own people. According to the treaty of February 27, 1819, the US government would offer citizenship and 640 acres (260 ha) of land per family to Cherokees who lived east of

4440-595: The Mississippi (present-day Oklahoma ), where they could exist without state interference. At Jackson's request, Congress began a debate on an Indian-removal bill. After fierce disagreement, the Senate passed the bill by a 28–19 vote; the House had narrowly passed it, 102–97. Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law on May 30, 1830. That year, most of the Five Civilized Tribes —the Chickasaw , Choctaw , Creek , Seminole , and Cherokee —lived east of

4551-473: The Mississippi River. Friends and Brothers – By permission of the Great Spirit above, and the voice of the people, I have been made President of the United States, and now speak to you as your Father and friend, and request you to listen. Your warriors have known me long. You know I love my white and red children, and always speak with a straight, and not with a forked tongue; that I have always told you

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4662-573: The Mississippi. Native American land was sometimes purchased, by treaty or under duress . The idea of land exchange, that Native Americans would give up their land east of the Mississippi in exchange for a similar amount of territory west of the river, was first proposed by Jefferson in 1803 and first incorporated into treaties in 1817 (years after the Jefferson presidency). The Indian Removal Act of 1830 included this concept. Under President James Monroe , Secretary of War John C. Calhoun devised

4773-478: The Mississippi. The Indian Removal Act implemented federal-government policy towards its Indian populations, moving Native American tribes east of the Mississippi to lands west of the river. Although the act did not authorize the forced removal of indigenous tribes, it enabled the president to negotiate land-exchange treaties. On September 27, 1830, the Choctaw signed the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek and became

4884-653: The Mormon publication The Joseph Smith Papers , Edward Partridge recalled the same incident, when the Mormons were disarmed at Independence: "Wednesday Nov 6th. The arms being taken from the Saints the mob now felt safe and were no longer militia. They formed themselves into companies and went forth on horseback armed to harass the saints and pick up all the arms they could find. Two of these companies were headed by Baptist priests. The Rev. Isaac McCoy headed one of about 60 or 70,

4995-565: The Muscogee were confined to a small strip of land in present-day east central Alabama . The Creek national council signed the Treaty of Cusseta in 1832, ceding their remaining lands east of the Mississippi to the US and accepting relocation to the Indian Territory. Most Muscogee were removed to the territory during the Trail of Tears in 1834, although some remained behind. Although the Creek War of 1836 ended government attempts to convince

5106-504: The Rev. Isaac McCoy (a noted Baptist missionary to the tribes), with gun in hand, ordering the people to leave their homes immediately and surrender everything in the shape of arms. Other pretended preachers of the Gospel took part in the persecution - speaking of the [Mormon] Church as the common enemies of mankind, and exulting in their afflictions." In a letter c.  1839 , included in

5217-769: The Seminole Tribe of Florida, and the Creeks in Alabama (including the Poarch Band ). Tribes in the Old Northwest were smaller and more fragmented than the Five Civilized Tribes, so the treaty and emigration process was more piecemeal. Following the Northwest Indian War , most of the modern state of Ohio was taken from native nations in the 1795 Treaty of Greenville . Tribes such as

5328-668: The Senecas and the Tonawanda Senecas in 1842 and 1857, respectively. Under the treaty of 1857, the Tonawandas renounced all claim to lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for the right to buy back the Tonawanda Reservation from the Ogden Land Company. Over a century later, the Senecas purchased a 9-acre (3.6 ha) plot (part of their original reservation) in downtown Buffalo to build

5439-560: The State of Virginia (1785), Thomas Jefferson defended Native American culture and marveled at how the tribes of Virginia "never submitted themselves to any laws, any coercive power, any shadow of government" due to their "moral sense of right and wrong". He wrote to the Marquis de Chastellux later that year, "I believe the Indian then to be in body and mind equal to the whiteman". Jefferson's desire, as interpreted by Francis Paul Prucha ,

5550-428: The US Treasury. Maris Bryant Pierce , a "young chief" served as a lawyer representing four territories of the Seneca tribe, starting in 1838. The Senecas asserted that they had been defrauded, and sued for redress in the Court of Claims . The case was not resolved until 1898, when the United States awarded $ 1,998,714.46 (~$ 62.5 million in 2023) in compensation to "the New York Indians". The US signed treaties with

5661-476: The US. or remove beyond the Missisipi. The former is certainly the termination of their history most happy for themselves. But in the whole course of this, it is essential to cultivate their love. As to their fear, we presume that our strength & their weakness is now so visible that they must see we have only to shut our hand to crush them, & that all our liberalities to them proceed from motives of pure humanity only. As president, Thomas Jefferson developed

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5772-433: The United States for their lands east of the Mississippi River. They reached an agreement to purchase of land from the previously-removed Choctaw in 1836 after a bitter five-year debate, paying the Chocktaw $ 530,000 for the westernmost Choctaw land. Most of the Chickasaw moved in 1837 and 1838. The $ 3 million owed to the Chickasaw by the US went unpaid for nearly 30 years. The Five Civilized Tribes were resettled in

5883-540: The United States) which declared that they were an independent nation with jurisdiction over their own lands. Georgia contended that it would not countenance a sovereign state within its own territory, and asserted its authority over Cherokee territory. When Andrew Jackson became president as the candidate of the newly-organized Democratic Party , he agreed that the Indians should be forced to exchange their eastern lands for western lands (including relocation) and vigorously enforced Indian removal. Although Indian removal

5994-431: The United States, and on the sincerity and zeal with which I am myself animated in the furthering of this humane work. You are our brethren of the same land; we wish your prosperity as brethren should do. Farewell. When a delegation from the Cherokee Nation's Upper Towns lobbied Jefferson for the full and equal citizenship promised to Indians living in American territory by George Washington, his response indicated that he

6105-426: The age of 18 living with them, 42.4% were married couples living together, 15.1% had a female householder with no husband present, 8.2% had a male householder with no wife present, and 34.3% were non-families. 28.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.45 and the average family size was 2.95. The median age in

6216-482: The already-displaced Lenape (Delaware tribe), Kickapoo and Shawnee , were removed from Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio during the 1820s. The Potawatomi were forced out of Wisconsin and Michigan in late 1838, and were resettled in Kansas Territory . Communities remaining in present-day Ohio were forced to move to Louisiana, which was then controlled by Spain. Bands of Shawnee , Ottawa , Potawatomi , Sauk , and Meskwaki (Fox) signed treaties and relocated to

6327-430: The best interest of Indians, McCoy was nearly destitute during much of the 1830s, taking in boarders and working as bookkeeper in a neighboring store. He hoped to be appointed as the government overseer of Indians. He lobbied in Washington and on the frontier seeking, unsuccessfully, for U.S. government recognition of the Indian lands as an official U.S. Territory. While in Missouri, a slave state, in 1835 McCoy purchased

6438-429: The case in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831), but declined to rule on its merits; the court declaring that the Native American tribes were not sovereign nations, and could not "maintain an action" in US courts. In an opinion written by Chief Justice Marshall in Worcester v. Georgia (1832), individual states had no authority in American Indian affairs. The state of Georgia defied the Supreme Court ruling, and

6549-454: The commission of outrages upon the Indians; without which all pacific plans must prove nugatory. To enable, by competent rewards, the employment of qualified and trusty persons to reside among them, as agents, would also contribute to the preservation of peace and good neighbourhood. If, in addition to these expedients, an eligible plan could be devised for promoting civilization among the friendly tribes, and for carrying on trade with them, upon

6660-405: The criteria for physical or cultural genocide . Historian Sean Wilentz describes the view of Jacksonian "infantilization" and "genocide" of the Indians, as a historical caricature, which "turns tragedy into melodrama, exaggerates parts at the expense of the whole, and sacrifices nuance for sharpness". Montezuma, Indiana Montezuma is a town in Reserve Township , Parke County , in

6771-446: The date stipulated in the treaty. When Andrew Jackson became president of the United States in 1829, his government took a hard line on Indian removal; Jackson abandoned his predecessors' policy of treating Indian tribes as separate nations, aggressively pursuing all Indians east of the Mississippi who claimed constitutional sovereignty and independence from state laws. They were to be removed to reservations in Indian Territory, west of

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6882-423: The desire of settlers and land speculators for Indian lands continued unabated; some whites claimed that Indians threatened peace and security. The Georgia legislature passed a law forbidding settlers from living on Indian territory after March 31, 1831, without a license from the state; this excluded missionaries who opposed Indian removal. The Seminole refused to leave their Florida lands in 1835, leading to

6993-518: The detachments faced bad roads, worse weather, and a lack of drinkable water. When all five detachments reached their destination, they recorded their death toll. The first detachment, with 2,318 Creeks, had 78 deaths; the second had 3,095 Creeks, with 37 deaths. The third had 2,818 Creeks, and 12 deaths; the fourth, 2,330 Creeks and 36 deaths. The fifth detachment, with 2,087 Creeks, had 25 deaths. In 1837 outside of Baton Rouge, Louisiana over 300 Creeks being forcibly removed to Western prairies drowned in

7104-442: The earliest, most personally informed reports on the Midwestern Native American tribes, The History of Baptist Indian Missions . After its publication, he was expelled from the Board of Missions and his work with the Secretary of War. In 1842, he returned to Louisville, Kentucky , where he was the founding secretary and the director of the Baptist American Indian Mission Association. He wrote additional works on tribes and missions. He

7215-431: The early history of the Kansas and Missouri frontiers. McCoy's wife, Christiana, died in Kansas City in 1851. A stream in Elkhart County, Indiana and a lake in Cass County, Michigan are named for her. Soon after their marriage, the young couple departed Kentucky for Vincennes, Indiana . Although he had no training and no formal education, McCoy became a part-time preacher. In 1808, the Silver Creek Baptist Church,

7326-399: The encroachment of states. They thought that acclimating, as the US wanted them to, would stem removal policy and create a better relationship with the federal government and surrounding states. Native American nations had differing views about removal. Although most wanted to remain on their native lands and do anything possible to ensure that, others believed that removal to a nonwhite area

7437-437: The federal government as an interpreter, Dazney filed a land claim between the mouths of Sugar Creek and Big Raccoon Creek north and east of present-day Montezuma and established a Wea-Miami reservation there. This was the first reservation that came about as a result of a connection with Isaac McCoy, though McCoy had left the area by then. Dazney was eventually instrumental in leading bands of Indiana Indians west to Kansas after

7548-446: The first Baptist Church in Indiana, granted McCoy a license "to preach the Gospel wherever God in His providence might cast his lot". The Silver Creek church was located near what became Sellersburg in Clark County . In 1809, McCoy became pastor of Maria Creek Church near Vincennes. In 1810, the Church ordained him as a minister. He was the town jailor at Vincennes. Through illness and poverty, McCoy traveled widely, if unsuccessfully, on

7659-568: The first Native American tribe to be removed. The agreement was one of the largest transfers of land between the US government and Native Americans which was not the result of war. The Choctaw signed away their remaining traditional homelands, opening them up for European–American settlement in Mississippi Territory . When the tribe reached Little Rock , a chief called its trek a "trail of tears and death". In 1831, French historian and political scientist Alexis de Tocqueville witnessed an exhausted group of Choctaw men, women and children emerging from

7770-404: The first plans for Indian removal. Monroe approved Calhoun's plans by late 1824 and, in a special message to the Senate on January 27, 1825, requested the creation of the Arkansaw and Indian Territories ; the Indians east of the Mississippi would voluntarily exchange their lands for lands west of the river. The Senate accepted Monroe's request, and asked Calhoun to draft a bill which was killed in

7881-433: The forest during an exceptionally cold winter near Memphis, Tennessee , on their way to the Mississippi to be loaded onto a steamboat. He wrote, In the whole scene there was an air of ruin and destruction, something which betrayed a final and irrevocable adieu; one couldn't watch without feeling one's heart wrung. The Indians were tranquil but sombre and taciturn. There was one who could speak English and of whom I asked why

7992-423: The friendship and cooperation of many Native American tribes as president, repeatedly articulating his desire for a united nation of whites and Indians as in his November 3, 1802, letter to Seneca spiritual leader Handsome Lake : Go on then, brother, in the great reformation you have undertaken ... In all your enterprises for the good of your people, you may count with confidence on the aid and protection of

8103-423: The friendship between them and the United States. Later that year, in his fourth annual message to Congress, Washington stressed the need to build peace, trust, and commerce with Native Americans: I cannot dismiss the subject of Indian affairs without again recommending to your consideration the expediency of more adequate provision for giving energy to the laws throughout our interior frontier, and for restraining

8214-700: The frontier promoting the Baptist church. In 1817, the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions appointed him as a missionary to the settlers and Indians in Indiana and Illinois territories. Though his original intention was to preach to frontiersmen, his interests and concern for Indians quickly began to dominate his work. McCoy founded his first "religious station" and school in October 1818 in what became Parke County, Indiana , on Big Raccoon Creek upstream from

8325-418: The just rights of man". Rather, he placed his faith in the government to create for the Indians "a country of their own" where they could "feel their importance, where they can hope to enjoy, unmolested, the fruits of their labours, and their national recovery need not be doubted". His proposed Indian colony, to become subsequently a Territory and then a State within the United States, was intended to be guided by

8436-411: The land area of what is now Kansas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska. McCoy thought of himself as the future leader of what he called "Indian Canaan", but he had little confidence in his fellow missionaries. They never accomplished more than "to soften the pillows of the dying" and had "too recently been transplanted from the sterile plains of religious bigotry, to expand with liberal views of the character, and of

8547-586: The land rights of recognized tribes. President George Washington , in his 1790 address to the Seneca Nation which called the pre-Constitutional Indian land-sale difficulties "evils", said that the case was now altered and pledged to uphold Native American "just rights". In March and April 1792, Washington met with 50 tribal chiefs in Philadelphia—including the Iroquois—to discuss strengthening

8658-488: The land, and you can live upon it you and all your children, as long as the grass grows or the water runs, in peace and plenty. It will be yours forever. For the improvements in the country where you now live, and for all the stock which you cannot take with you, your Father will pay you a fair price ... Unlike other tribes, who exchanged lands, the Chickasaw were to receive financial compensation of $ 3 million from

8769-562: The later Wea Indian reservation at Armiesburg . The mission was said to be situated between Rosedale and Bridgeton . The Wea showed little interest in the school, and it failed. McCoy at that time was likely the only white settler in Parke County. In February 1819, he performed the first marriage in the county, between two métis , Christmas Dazney (Noel Dagenet) and Mary Ann Isaacs, a Brotherton or Mohegan from upstate New York. In 1821, in compensation for his work with McCoy and for

8880-612: The new Indian Territory. The Cherokee occupied the northeast corner of the territory and a 70-mile-wide (110 km) strip of land in Kansas on its border with the territory. Some indigenous nations resisted the forced migration more strongly. The few who stayed behind eventually formed tribal groups, including the Eastern Band of Cherokee (based in North Carolina), the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians ,

8991-525: The organization of an Indian State. In June 1829, McCoy moved his family to Fayette, Missouri . Late that year, at his own expense, he carried out a survey on the Kaw lands. In 1830, with Kaw "mixed blood" Joseph James as his guide, he surveyed and established the boundaries of a reservation for the Delaware tribe who were persuaded to move there from their territories in southern Missouri. In 1829, his book

9102-409: The other's was about 30 or 40. They went through the different settlement[s] of the Saints threatening them with death and destruction if they were not off immediately... The mobs whipped and shot at some and others they hunted, for as they said to kill them. Such mobs well lined with whiskey were acting worse than savages." Although he was involved in numerous projects on behalf of what he perceived as

9213-484: The prairie, where they nearly starved. The Mormon publication Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt recalls: "While we thus made our escape the companies of ruffians were ranging in every direction; bursting into homes without fear, knowing that the people [the Mormons] were disarmed; frightening women and children, and threatening to kill them if they did not flee immediately. At the head of one of these parties appeared

9324-439: The reach of whiskey traders and others who were exploiting them, would give them a better chance of surviving and becoming Christianized. McCoy's ideas for removal of the Indians were not new, but he promoted the idea that the U.S. government should fund "civilization programs" to educate the Indians and turn them into farmers and Christians. McCoy expanded his concept later to propose the creation of an Indian state making up most of

9435-580: The relocation, Creeks began to deconstruct their spiritual lives; they burned piles of lightwood over their ancestors' graves to honor their memories, and polished the sacred plates which would travel at the front of each group. They also prepared financially, selling what they could not bring. Many were swindled by local merchants out of valuable possessions (including land), and the military had to intervene. The detachments began moving west in September 1836, facing harsh conditions. Despite their preparations,

9546-548: The removal treaty was illegitimate; it was a "sham treaty", which the US government should not uphold. He describes removal as such a dereliction of all faith and virtues, such a denial of justice...in the dealing of a nation with its own allies and wards since the earth was made...a general expression of despondency, of disbelief, that any goodwill accrues from a remonstrance on an act of fraud and robbery, appeared in those men to whom we naturally turn for aid and counsel. Emerson concludes his letter by saying that it should not be

9657-654: The same manner; and Persons appointed to reside among them in proper Districts, who shall take care to prevent Injustice in the Trade with them, and be enabled at our general Expense by occasional small Supplies, to relieve their personal Wants and Distresses. And all Purchases from them shall be by the Congress for the General Advantage and Benefit of the United Colonies. The Confederation Congress passed

9768-411: The settlement of whites on the continent, and an united voice, as of many waters, will tell you. Or, visit the Indians in their tents, and they will tell you themselves, and that too, in expressions of grief and despair, that, unless your heart be cased in adamant, will make you both sigh and weep. Indians are actually sitting by me while I pen this paragraph: I cannot be mistaken. In 1830, Congress passed

9879-559: The town was 38.5 years. 26.8% of residents were under the age of 18; 8.5% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 23.5% were from 25 to 44; 26.2% were from 45 to 64; and 15% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the town was 50.5% male and 49.5% female. As of the census of 2000, there were 1,179 people, 476 households, and 343 families living in the town. The population density was 1,908.1 inhabitants per square mile (736.7/km ). There were 527 housing units at an average density of 852.9 per square mile (329.3/km ). The racial makeup of

9990-515: The town was 96.95% White , 1.95% African American , 0.17% Native American , 0.17% Asian , and 0.76% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.76% of the population. There were 476 households, out of which 30.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.3% were married couples living together, 14.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.9% were non-families. 23.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.6% had someone living alone who

10101-473: The town. The population density was 1,703.3 inhabitants per square mile (657.6/km ). There were 514 housing units at an average density of 856.7 per square mile (330.8/km ). The racial makeup of the town was 96.1% White , 0.2% African American , 0.4% Native American , 0.5% Asian , 1.6% from other races , and 1.3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.3% of the population. There were 417 households, of which 32.6% had children under

10212-491: The tribes. In 1821, McCoy made the first of many visits to Washington, DC, seeking approval by the federal government, unsuccessfully on this occasion, for him to appoint teachers, blacksmiths, and other "agents of civilization" to be provided the Indians under newly ratified treaties. In 1821, Chief Little Turtle of the Miami, along with 16 other Indians and the captive William Wells, also traveled to Washington, DC seeking aid. It

10323-446: The truth ... Where you now are, you and my white children are too near to each other to live in harmony and peace. Your game is destroyed, and many of your people will not work and till the earth. Beyond the great River Mississippi, where a part of your nation has gone, your Father has provided a country large enough for all of you, and he advises you to remove to it. There your white brothers will not trouble you; they will have no claim to

10434-636: The war resulted in over 1,500 US deaths, and cost the government $ 20 million. Some Seminole traveled deeper into the Everglades, and others moved west. The removal continued, and a number of wars broke out over land. In 1823, the Seminole signed the Treaty of Moultrie Creek , which reduced their 34 million to 4 millions acres. In the aftermath of the Treaties of Fort Jackson , and the Washington ,

10545-654: The western frontier, where he established the Thomas Mission to the Odawa people , at what later became Grand Rapids, Michigan . McCoy and his missionaries were the first European-American pioneers of Niles and Grand Rapids. McCoy began in 1823 to advocate that the Indian nations of the East be moved west "beyond the frontiers of the White settlement". He believed that getting the tribes to their own, isolated places, away from

10656-449: Was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.46 and the average family size was 2.83. In the town, the population was spread out, with 26.0% under the age of 18, 8.3% from 18 to 24, 25.4% from 25 to 44, 24.4% from 45 to 64, and 15.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 99.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.9 males. The median income for

10767-512: Was Little Turtle's second visit to a President. He gained approval of a government-funded Quaker agricultural mission to the Miami. In December 1822, McCoy left Fort Wayne and moved his family and 18 Indian students to a site on the St. Joseph River near Lake Michigan and the present-day city of Niles in southwestern Michigan . He opened a mission to the Pottawatomi, which came to be known as

10878-446: Was a co-founder of Kansas and was elected its first legal mayor, remaining a major civic booster of Kansas City for the rest of his life. McCoy's strong views were often at odds with the Baptist mission board and other missionaries. In 1832, a smallpox epidemic was killing thousands of Indians. McCoy traveled to Washington, seeking funds from Congress to support a vaccination program for Indians. He found little enthusiasm for such

10989-712: Was a cousin of the future President James K. Polk . Christiana's family had been at Kincheloe's Station, Nelson County, Kentucky , when it was attacked. Her mother and four siblings were carried into captivity by the Shawnee , and Christiana was born after that time. They were taken to Michigan, where they lived with the Indians for 13 months. They were eventually "bought" or ransomed by the British, who sent them south to return to their people in Kentucky. The McCoys had 14 children, only four of whom survived to adulthood. John Calvin McCoy assisted his father and became prominent in

11100-568: Was a popular policy, it was also opposed on legal and moral grounds; it also ran counter to the formal, customary diplomatic interaction between the federal government and the Native nations. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote the widely-published letter "A Protest Against the Removal of the Cherokee Indians from the State of Georgia" in 1838, shortly before the Cherokee removal. Emerson criticizes the government and its removal policy, saying that

11211-528: Was ambivalent about Indian assimilation and used the words "exterminate" and "extirpate" about tribes who resisted American expansion and were willing to fight for their lands. Jefferson intended to change Indian lifestyles from hunting and gathering to farming, largely through "the decrease of game rendering their subsistence by hunting insufficient". He expected the change to agriculture to make them dependent on white Americans for goods, and more likely to surrender their land or allow themselves to be moved west of

11322-465: Was for Native Americans to intermix with European Americans and become one people. To achieve that end as president, Jefferson offered US citizenship to some Indian nations and proposed offering them credit to facilitate trade. On 27 February 1803, Jefferson wrote in a letter to William Henry Harrison : In this way our settlements will gradually circumbscribe & approach the Indians, & they will in time either incorporate with us as citizens of

11433-478: Was incapable of recording on parchment his views of this subject, or of publishing them to the world, and pleading his own cause. But ask the Commissioners of the United States, who have encountered so many difficulties in negotiating with the natives for cessions of their lands, and they will tell you, that the assumption is untenable. Look to the whole course of Indian conduct relative to the case, ever since

11544-533: Was nine years old, he lost three fingers while chopping wood. When he was nineteen years old, he felt a call from God to go out and preach. His father was a Baptist minister, sharing profound arguments with him about religion. His father, on theological principles shared by many of his congregation, was opposed to evangelizing. McCoy was inspired in childhood to become a missionary to Native Americans and determined on that work. On October 6, 1803, Isaac McCoy married Christiana Polke (1778–1851), age 16, in Kentucky. She

11655-467: Was passed over and his dreams of becoming the government's chief representative to the Indian tribes were dashed. Aware of the fraud, abuse, and neglect involved in the removal of Indians westward, McCoy rationalized that it was for the greater good of having Indian lands secured for them in perpetuity. Such "perpetuity" was to last little more than two decades. McCoy, his son John, his daughter Delilah, and her missionary husband Johnston Lykins , formerly

11766-563: Was published, Remarks on the Practicability of Indian Reform, Embracing Their Colonization . It recounts a four-page, cited, historical summary of the essential justification of the European colonization of the continent since Jamestown —and refutes each essential element. He laments the callous conquest of the native tribes, the disregard of their very concept of government, land rights, and freely chosen lifestyle. He compares this to

11877-657: Was signed into law by United States president Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830. Although Jackson took a hard line on Indian removal, the law was primarily enforced during the Martin Van Buren administration. After the enactment of the Act, approximately 60,000 members of the Cherokee , Muscogee (Creek), Seminole , Chickasaw , and Choctaw nations (including thousands of their black slaves ) were forcibly removed from their ancestral homelands, with thousands dying during

11988-558: Was the sole representative from Kentucky at the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention in Augusta, Georgia , in 1845. His will concluded, "My first care is for my family, my second is for the Indians, for both, I desire to labor while I live and to pray while I am dying." On a trip home to Louisville, he suffered an illness due to a severe rain storm. His final words included, "Tell the brethren, never to let

12099-452: Was their only option to maintain their autonomy and culture. The US used this division to forge removal treaties with (often) minority groups who became convinced that removal was the best option for their people. These treaties were often not acknowledged by most of a nation's people. When Congress ratified the removal treaty, the federal government could use military force to remove Native nations if they had not moved (or had begun moving) by

12210-413: Was to move the Indians beyond where they could be corrupted and exploited by Whites. But the tide of westward expansion in the United States was too strong and his plans failed. His biographer said that the vision of this rude, untutored preacher and pioneer was "somewhat breathtaking". Indian removal The Indian removal was the United States government 's policy of ethnic cleansing through

12321-412: Was willing to grant citizenship to those Indian nations who sought it. In his eighth annual message to Congress on November 8, 1808, he presented a vision of white and Indian unity: With our Indian neighbors the public peace has been steadily maintained ... And, generally, from a conviction that we consider them as part of ourselves, and cherish with sincerity their rights and interests, the attachment of

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