Question answered by Sarah Houston, Managing Director of Student Programs at PTPI.
3. In the book, the acquisition of land and territory is a central theme. The Moravians explained it best in the book when they said, “Land, the prime need of the white man. It always starts with land…” Why do you think land is the source of such great conflict and intense emotion?
For the white settlers, land meant instant wealth (especially after the discovery of gold) and they were determined to acquire as much of it as they could from the Cherokees. The white settlers and the government gradually and eventually pushed the Cherokees from their homes and land, forcing them to move west. I think they felt that even though countless of generations of Cherokees were born and raised on the land, that because they were “uncivilized”, they had no right to it.
President Andrew Jackson even said in a letter outlining a treaty for removal of the Cherokees, “You cannot remain where you now are. Circumstances that cannot be controlled and which are beyond the reach of human laws, render it impossible that you can flourish in the midst of a civilized community. You have but one remedy within your reach. And that is, to remove to the West and join your countrymen…”
Land is a source of great conflict and emotion because it represents home, culture, identity, and, as I mention above, prosperity. When this is threatened as it was in Trail of Tears– to exploit natural resources or build and develop the land –people do anything they can to protect it and to safeguard their homeland. The Trail of Tears is tragic because the Cherokees lost everything in their forced march away from their homes, including thousands of lives.
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Tags: Global Book Club, John Ehle, Trail of Tears
I agree with Ms. Houston’s answer to this question on several different levels. Looking back throughout our history we can see that when something becomes the “norm” it is easily justified by society. In the case of the Cherokees and the acquisition of their land, society attempted to justify these actions by creating a condition of “uncivilized” people. However, it seems to me that the white settlers were the “uncivilized” people by condemning something that was new to them and they did not understand. Also, with powerful political officials pushing these views the “norm” I mentioned above only becomes more widely accepted.
Yes, for the settlers to acquire the land was important because it signified not only wealth but gave political strength and ease to settle and call this as their country.
For Cherokees the LAND signified more than wealth. It was their spiritual and emotional entity. They identified it with their mother. They wanted to protect her at all cost. Unfortunately they were very naieve, uneducated and had no clue how to deal or understand civilized way of CHEATING. They were simple and trusting. I had tears flowing through when I was reading through their move to the west. It was a tragic and inhuman. It is scary to realize that so called humans can be that greedy as to ruin another human race in that cruel fashion.
This book was an education to me. I do not know much about the history of American Indians. This question might show my ignorance on the subject. As I understand ‘The Indians’ were natives of this country. So were they not automatically become citizens of USA? Why do they talk about ‘ Their Nation, Their constitution etc.’ US govt at the time also treated them as if they were separate from US. Is that just because Cherokees were uneducated and uncivilized, gave power to white settlers to do what they did to create a nation in a nation? or this was Cherokee’s doing? Why would or did they wanted to be separate nation when the share lands here in this country. I kept thinking about this all through my reading.