How Shady Land Grabs Stole Territory from Native Americans

Diplomatic Shenanigans

Many native American tribes employed intricate, ceremonial, forms of diplomacy. Leaders met in forums designed to overcome language barriers, where they used a variety of methods to communicate. Although tribes such as the Mohawk, Lenape, and Tuscarora, for example, shared a root language known as Algonquian, most spoke a unique dialect. Translators (limited to speaking only when interpreting) played a crucial role in these meetings, along with gift-giving, feasts, and backroom deals. It was a complicated, but functional, system designed to eliminate miscommunication.

William Penn learned, and respected, native diplomatic customs, but Europeans like Penn were rare throughout the seventeenth and early to mid-eighteenth centuries. Few colonists spent their days in the “untamed” wilderness, and European society tended to look down on those who did. As the decades passed, however, and European populations exploded, colonial leaders learned to value their social outliers, e.g. traders, scouts, and woodsmen, for their knowledge of tribal culture. Many of these men abused their power and position to a degree that even Machiavelli raised his hands and (probably) cried, “Whoa whoa whoa!”

These “go-betweens” worked as ambassadors/translators for both European and Native American groups. Those with few moral compunctions, however, aided colonial interests despite being retained to represent an indigenous tribe. Maps, for example, play an enormous part of any land deal, and “negotiators” assisted colonial officials in designing charts and atlases with territorial names rearranged or reshaped to fool native delegations about their size or location.

The tradition of gift-giving prior to negotiations opened the door for go-betweens to seek out native leaders susceptible to bribery. In 1754, the Susquehanna Land Company (SLC) negotiated the sale of Wyoming Valley, the northern branch of the Susquehanna River, from the Iroquois. It was a huge triumph for the company, and one that was rife with underhanded tactics. Most Europeans believed the territory belonged to the Iroquois Confederacy (comprised primarily by the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora). The valley’s main inhabitants, however, were Lenape displaced by the Walking Purchase in 1737. The SLC, however, overcame this stumbling block by negotiating the land sale in a secret meeting where they’d rigged all the cards in their favor.

The SLC sounded out several Iroquois tribes regarding the land, and found the Mohawk amenable to the idea. The Mohawk did not consider the valley part of their territory, and several of their leaders favored selling land they did not legitimately possess. This was all the SLC needed to hear. The company sent paid native representatives (promised an annual pension) ahead to promote their cause. They employed a Cayuga headman to serve as an advisor for “one hundred pieces of Spanish.” Mohawk leaders received forty dollars on the day they signed, and “two-hundred pieces of eight” when the treaty closed. The secret conference met in early July of 1754, and numerous representatives from Iroquois tribes attended. The conference was a frenzy of gift-giving, and when it ended, the Lenape, who were not invited, found themselves displaced once again.

They employed a Cayuga headman to serve as an advisor for “one hundred pieces of Spanish.” Mohawk leaders received forty dollars on the day they signed, and “two-hundred pieces of eight” when the treaty closed. The secret conference met in early July of 1754, and numerous representatives from Iroquois tribes attended. The conference was a frenzy of gift-giving, and when it ended, the Lenape, who were not invited, found themselves displaced once again.

The Treaty of New Echota

No discussion regarding native Americans and land dispossession is complete without Andrew Jackson. The “Trail of Tears” is not an unknown subject in American discourse, but it neither came about overnight nor without an underhanded deal. Throughout the early 19th century, Cherokee territory (defined by the Treaties of Holston in 1791 and Tellico in 1798) lay primarily in northwestern Georgia but extended into Tennessee, North Carolina, and Alabama. Tensions between the Georgia legislature and the Cherokee Indian nation, however, escalated as the state’s population increased.

Georgian legislators appealed to President John Quincy Adams in 1826, requesting the president to negotiate a removal treaty. Initially, Adams refused but later agreed to open negotiations with the Cherokee following the Georgian’s threat to nullify the existing treaty. Throughout the rest of Adam’s presidency, the status quo remained unchanged, infuriating the Georgia legislature. The presidential election of 1828, however, transformed the political landscape when Jackson defeated Adams.

The Georgians knew Jackson shared their agenda and acted on their nullification threat shortly after the election. The legislature discarded the previous treaties, abolished the Cherokee government, and established state law throughout the territory. The Cherokee protested, but the discovery of gold, and the ensuing Georgia Gold Rush in 1829, devastated their cause. Miners flooded into the mountains throughout the North Georgia Mountains, and the legislature responded forbidding Cherokee from digging for gold, and authorizing a lottery to distribute the land among settlers.

State judges intervened, siding with the Cherokee. Harassment and jurisdictional denials followed. The Supreme Court struck down Georgia’s laws as unconstitutional. The state-enforced them anyway. Factions emerged in the Cherokee community. The “National Party,” represented the legitimate Cherokee government, advocated resistance; the majority opinion.

The “Treaty Party,” advocated the pursuit of a removal treaty with the best possible terms. Jackson’s representative, John F. Schermerhorn, negotiated a deal with members of the Treaty Party; $5,000,000 to be distributed per capita throughout the tribe, $500,000 for educational funds, land in western Indian Territory, and compensation for property left behind. A clause allowing Cherokee to remain on individual allotments of 160 acres and become citizens sealed the deal, and members of the Treaty Party, who had no power or authorization to negotiate on behalf of the nation, signed the document.

The news swept through the Cherokee nation like wildfire. The Cherokee National Council publicly rejected the treaty, and appealed to the US Senate, pointing out the treaties illegitimacy. President Jackson, who had used a similar tactic in the Treaty of 1817 when he reached an agreement with a minority faction, responded by striking out the clause allowing Cherokee to retain land and become citizens. The measure passed by the United States Senate by a single vote.

Sources For Further Reading:

Mental Floss – Was Manhattan Really Bought for $24?

Knowledge Nuts – Native Americans Didn’t Sell Manhattan for $24 Of Beads

Encyclopedia Britannica – Mohawk

Encyclopedia Britannica – Walking Purchase

Wikipedia – Lenape

History Channel – Trail of Tears

University of Tennessee – To the Indian Removal Act, 1814-1830

Khan Academy – The Presidency of John Quincy Adams

Smithsonian American Art & Museum – Manifest Destiny and Indian Removal

Teen Vouge – The Indian Removal Act Was Used by the U.S. Government to Commit Ethnic Cleansing

Office of Historian – Indian Treaties and the Removal Act of 1830

Encyclopedia Britannica – Indian Removal Act

History Collection – The Native American Princess Who Refused to Leave Her Land and Became a Legend