The Expanding Republic Term Paper

The hard times have come. Our people are forced to abandon the lands of their fathers. We, Cherokee, have always been a serious power, which not a single tribe could ignore, but, now, the whites have come and we have to desert our lands and move westward to the unknown, to nowhere. I remember how I hunted in our forests with my father; I remember all my childhood I spent in the land of my ancestors, but now as many other Indians I have to move because the whites decided so. They call it the Indian Removal Act (1830). They argue this act will appease us but, as the matter of fact, it will move us away from our land, which the whites will conquer and plunder, building their cities on the graves of our ancestors. It seems as if there is no place for us in our own land.

After the implementation of the Indian Removal Act, our happy life in our land has come to end. I cannot say we live in peace with the whites or that I really liked them constantly threatening us, cheating and deceiving us, but the decision taken by the white rulers is unimaginable, it is a disgrace to their entire race. I can hardly imagine the situation when we would leave our land. Even the most terrible disaster or disease would not force us to abandon our land, but the whites proved to be even more dangerous than any disaster or disease.

Their army is undefeatable and we cannot resist. So we have to obey. But what the removal turned out to be for us, Cherokee and other Indians. It turned out to be a slaughter, where our people die from disease and starvation, being deprived of any hope for salvation and better life. Americans have no pity to Cherokee, neither men nor women. Basically, in the course of the forced removal of Cherokee from their native land to the West thousands of Indians died, including older people, children and women, who were the weakest in the tribe.

Nevertheless, those deaths had never stopped Americans from the removal of Cherokee.

In this respect, the position of the American authorities seems to be particularly cynical because in the context of the proclamation of equality of all people and protection of civil rights, the American authorities easily forgot their principles when they got the perspective to get richer. We have got used to the numerous violations of the existing treaties with Cherokee and the violation of existing laws by the American authorities. However, the corruption affected political leaders and the authorities on all levels who could resist to the offers of Americans who counted for the gold they could find in the lands of Cherokee. This is why we cannot deal with Americans because they are dishonest and deceitful people. Buy we cannot resist to them because they are too powerful for us to struggle against them. However, frankly speaking, I would readily die, while struggling for my land and my people, than move westward where I would die from a disease or I would starve to death.

In such a situation, it seems to me highly hypocritical the declarations of the American authorities that they take care of the security of people and attempt to avoid the outbreak of a bloodshed between Americans and Cherokee. Instead, they preferred to slaughter thousands of Indians during their forced removal from their lands to the West and simply occupy the territories that historically belonged to Cherokee.

I know that the white will never respect us or view us as equal. At the same time, they have been always concerned with the expansion of their own lands. They always envied us because they believed we had better lands, where they would cultivate their strange plants and collect crops, though these crops would be watered by our blood which slowly runs out of our people as we move westward in search of new lands where we can settle and start a new life.

In general, Indians turned to be hostages of the gold that whites expected to find in their lands. As a result, Indians became the victims of the gold rush and their removal was basically determined by the economic interests of white people, who ignored the interests of Cherokee.

Cherokee were simply removed from their lands as soon as whites decided that Indian lands should belong to them. The whites treated us like animals. They did not care whether Indians would survive or would they die. The only thing they needed was the gold and the gold apparently outweighed all humanism if Americans had any. Basically, the violence and cruelty of Americans in relation to Indians became a norm. There was nothing extraordinary if a white man kills an Indian because the life of an Indian did not worth a penny. I am not surprised that the whites have swept us away, but I hope someday we will return and revenge on them.



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