Early Indian Emigration

When President Thomas Jefferson acquired the Louisiana Territory in 1803, he established a new Indian policy. He wanted to move all eastern Indians west of the Mississippi River. He wanted them to live on "One Big Reservation" on the Great Plains (an area that white Americans thought was a worthless desert-like place). Jefferson may have had humanitarian motives when he established this Indian policy. He probably wanted to save the Indians from destruction at the hands of aggressive whites who wanted Indian land. 

From the arrival of the first Europeans in North America to the opening of the 19th century, Indians were negatively effected by white contact. Cultural differences and the struggle for control of the land and control of the fur trade caused many Indian wars. Europeans and white Americans also spread killing diseases like cholera, smallpox and measles among the Native Americans. The Native Americans had no immunity from such diseases. Over the course of America’s westward expansion, a large part of the Native American population died from wars and disease, and the rest were removed from their ancestral lands.

From 1803 to the early 1830s, removal of the eastern Indians across the Mississippi was a gradual process. The government negotiated treaties with individual tribes for tracts of land. But as more and more whites wanted land, they strongly pressured the government to find them places to settle. In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act. It gave President Andrew Jackson the right to use force to speed up the removal process. Most important to the later history of Oklahoma, the Five Civilized Tribes had to leave their homes in the Southeast. The army forced them to move to Oklahoma. 

The Five Civilized Tribes are the Cherokees, the Choctaws, the Chickasaws, the Creeks and the Seminoles. They were called "civilized" because they tried to adapt their societies to the ways of European colonists and then white Americans. Each tribe had a population of at least 20,000 to 25,000 people. By the 1830s, each tribe had a small "Treaty Party," made up mostly of mix-bloods (people who were part white and part Indian). Treaty party leaders were willing to cooperate with the government and move west voluntarily in return for money. However, the majority of the Indians (including almost all full-bloods) in all five tribes refused to cooperate. 

Cherokee Chief John Ross took a petition to Washington signed by 90% of the Cherokee members protesting the actions of the treaty party. The petition was rejected by the United States government and the removal of the Eastern Indian tribes from the ancestral lands proceeded. From 1830 to 1839, the U.S. army, assisted by state militias, forcibly removed them. The Cherokee's "Trail of Tears" saw approximately one-fourth of the tribe's total population die. They died from starvation, exposure to harsh winter weather, inadequate medical care and broken hearts after leaving their native lands.

Once they were settled in Oklahoma, the Indians had to reestablish their entire way of life. Nothing was easy for them, but a majority in each tribe survived. Their economy generally consisted of farming, raising livestock and the fur trade. They reestablished their tribal governments, their schools and their social lives, including their religious practices. 

White missionaries had worked among the tribes before removal. Afterward, many of those missionaries followed the Indians to Oklahoma to continue their work. The missionaries wanted to Christianize and to educate the Indians to help them survive in the white world. Each tribe made great progress in educating their children. Earlier, in the 1820s, the famous Cherokee Sequoyah had given his tribe a system of writing by creating his syllabary, which was like an alphabet. Then missionaries invented a system of writing for the other Civilized Tribes. The writing systems allowed all members of the tribes to become better educated and they could read newspapers, books and magazines.

The most famous missionary in Oklahoma was Samuel Worcester. He established Park Hill Mission just southwest of Tahelquah. He had worked among the Cherokees before their removal. He joined them in Oklahoma and continued his efforts to educate and to Christianize them. Park Hill Mission had a classroom building, a library, dormitories for students, a big vegetable garden, a saw mill and a corn mill, along with cattle, pigs and chickens. Park Hill was most noted for its printing press and book bindery. Over the years, Worcester translated and published 14 million pages of material into the Cherokee language and 11 million more for the other civilized tribes.

The tribes established such successful societies in Oklahoma that the era from 1840 to 1860 is known as their "Golden Years." However, the Civil War would change all that and would bring much death and destruction to the Indians in Oklahoma.

Additional Resources

Study Guide Questions

1. How were Native Americans affected by the arrival of Europeans?
2. What was the "One Big Reservation" policy?
3. What was the Indian Removal Act?
4. What treaty resulted in the Choctaw Indians moving to Oklahoma?
5. To what does the term "Trail of Tears" refer?
6. What town became the capital of the Cherokee Nation after the Trail of Tears?
7. For what is the Cherokee Chief Seqouyah well known?
8. Describe the Park Hill Mission. For what was it noted?

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