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Mach · 06-16-08, 03:39 PM

Wow, in that context it looks just like U.S. law. I wonder if this means anything.

Native Americans in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Quote:

Removal, reservations, and forced assimilation

Shoshoni tipis, c.1900.See also: List of Indian reservations in the United States
In the nineteenth century, the incessant westward expansion of the United States incrementally compelled large numbers of Native Americans to resettle further west, often by force, almost always reluctantly. Under President Andrew Jackson, United States Congress passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which authorized the President to conduct treaties to exchange Native American land east of the Mississippi River for lands west of the river. As many as 100,000 Native Americans eventually relocated in the West as a result of this Indian Removal policy. In theory, relocation was supposed to be voluntary and many Native Americans did remain in the East such as the Choctaw who were first to be removed. In practice great pressure was put on Native American leaders to sign removal treaties.

The most egregious violation of the stated intention of the removal policy took place under the Treaty of New Echota, which was signed by a dissident faction of Cherokees but not the elected leadership. President Jackson rigidly enforced the treaty, which resulted in the deaths of an estimated 4,000 Cherokees on the Trail of Tears. About 17,000 Cherokees — along with approximately 2,000 black slaves held by Cherokees — were removed from their homes.[24]

A Choctaw Belle (1850)Indian Removal forced or coerced the relocation of major Native American groups in the Eastern United States, resulting directly and indirectly in the deaths of tens of thousands. The subsequent process of assimilations was no less devastating to Native American peoples. Tribes were generally located to reservations on which they could more easily be separated from traditional life and pushed into European-American society. Some southern states additionally enacted laws in the 19th century forbidding non-Indian settlement on Indian lands, with the intention to prevent sympathetic white missionaries from aiding the scattered Indian resistance.[25]

Little Turtle, defeated American forces at the Battle of the Wabash in 1791.At one point, President Jackson told people to kill as many American Bison as possible in order to cut out the Plains Indian's main source of food.[citation needed] There was enough greed in hunting without his encouragement. From overhunting due to trophy hunters and people hunting from trains, by 1885 there were fewer than 500 bison left in the Great Plains.[26]

Conflicts generally known as "Indian Wars" broke out between U.S. forces and many different tribes. U.S. government authorities entered into numerous treaties during this period but later abrogated many for various reasons. Military engagements included Native American victories at the Battle of the Wabash in 1791 and the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. Massacres included the Minnesota Massacre in 1862,[27] the Sand Creek Massacre in 1864 and the Wounded Knee in 1890.[28] These events, together with the near-extinction of the bison which many tribes had lived on, were catalysts to the decline of Prairie Culture that had developed around the use of the horse for hunting, travel and trading.

“ The Indian (was thought) as less than human and worthy only of extermination. We did shoot down defenseless men, and women and children at places like Camp Grant, Sand Creek, and Wounded Knee. We did feed strychnine to red warriors. We did set whole villages of people out naked to freeze in the iron cold of Montana winters. And we did confine thousands in what amounted to concentration camps.