John Ross
John Ross's Response to Jackson's Message to Congress In my nearly forty years as a Cherokee and an American, my eyes have seen much. I witnessed much brutality in the early years of the American frontier, as constant raids raged between the American Armies and Cherokees. I have had the benefit of an education comparable to that of my white counterparts in Washington, yet I have still kept a firm grasp on my native roots and heritage. In the long memory of my tribe, there has been pestilence, famine, oppression, loss of land, and war all due to the emergence of settlers and colonies. While these men and their ways have again and again mistreated our people, we have maintained a diplomatic stance and made many compromises with the peoples who brought such strife. President Jackson has typified us as savages and uncivilized, it is unfortunate that such a misjudgment of our society has occurred. As I have lived and experienced both worlds, that of the tribes and that of cities and towns, I am a witness that we are not savages. It is a simple difficulty of perspective. As a culture based heavily on tradition and tribal life, Americans view us as a people without culture or civilization. This assumption is easy to make for outsiders,
I personally am a plantation owner, and I own quite a few of my own slaves. The formation of our Cherokee Nation within the United Hovis 2States of Alabama and Georgia, was made necessary by the increasing erosion and oppression of our culture and land. Once again, I do not believe Jackson is being fully truthful with me about the removal. But once again, our movements towards a strong civilization only upset the United States government, and they claimed that the states had supreme power over our Cherokee Nation and Constitution. Although our civilization looks "very much like white rural communities" (60), the Americans have not shown any appreciation, and I fear that we are still facing removal. The growth of our civilization has been very rapid, and each day we work to improve our way of life so that we will not have to leave our homes. Andrew Jackson told Congress in 1829 that the removal of Indians in Hovis 3the east would help us "from a wandering way of life" (121), but I am confused because he later told Congress that the Southern Tribes have "made some progress in the arts of civilized life" (121). I was very pleased to hear that the court's ruling "set aside Georgia's assertion of state sovereignty over the Cherokees and [our] missionaries" (76). If we reflected savagery in anyway, I see no reason to apologize, for it is only natural for a man to stand strong and protect his home, family, and people when they are threatened. So my people and I appealed to the United Hovis 5States Supreme Court. The man has the audacity to call us savages and makes other untrue remarks, but he often speaks "in a tone of friendship and concern" (74) towards my people. Our actions did not begin to reflect savagery until the rise in "the white man's desire to acquire Indian land" (6). We have tried to transform our culture into the civilization Americans desire us to reflect; we have developed "a dining hall and kitchen, a laundry, a lumberyard, a meat house, a grist mill, a sawmill, and smiths' and carpenters' shops" (59). While it may appear to be a misjudgment to form such a state, it is in even poorer judgment to emigrate the entire Native population of the Southeastern United States west of the Mississippi. He boldly stated that "Justice Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it" (76).
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