Black Resettlement on Indigenous Land

          During the first half of the nineteenth century, any white elite that held political and economic power made strengthening American progress their top priority. The idea that god left Americans to spread democracy and capitalism while expanding its dominance across North America soon became a widely held cultural belief that was tainted with  Indigenous and black inferiority. The early nineteenth century became  the time of “manifesting destiny” but this concept later allowed white Americans to argue that they had the divine right to conquer any land or group of people. Black and Indigenous people were able to address and recognize  these claims of false superiority  on a public scale and bring forth change. Even when countless systems, policies, and practices were implemented to disadvantage Black and Indigenous people, they still found ways to deconstruct these systems of oppression. Even though all marginalized communities were subjected to violence, the disproportionate rates of brutality towards these groups created a gap between the U.S government, enslaved, and Indigenous people. This gap does not only serve as an introduction to the historical oppression and trauma these groups have undergone, but it also has shaped how we progressed as a nation. Furthermore, this gap continues to play a huge role in perpetuation of oppressive systems that allow these inequities to continue.  As our country's earlier leaders' craving for power grew, captive Africans were enslaved while Indigenous land was stolen. The annexation of black bodies and the taking of Indigenous land and lives are eerily similar historical realities that are often overshadowed by American mythology. 

          The westward expansion of white Americans provided economic elites with a vast amount of natural resources and allowed our nation to become the “superpower” we know today. The Louisiana purchase of 1803 nearly doubled the size of our nation and strengthened  a powerful desire to manifest destiny from “sea to shining sea”. However, this increase in our nation's size is directly related to the dispossession and death of Indigenous people in the masses. People in positions of power believed that they could reach unprecedented amounts of prosperity and wealth as a country by widely spreading the idea of Indigenous inferiority. In Andrew Jackson's 1830 State of the Union speech, he suggests that “[h]umanity has often wept over the fate of aborigines of this country” and that “[p]hilanthropy has been long busily employed in devising means to avert it” (11). Andrew Jackson was very vocal about his aspiration to fix the “Indian problem” and he made this clear when he signed the Indian Removal Act seven months before his State of the Union speech. The Indian Removal Act 1830 states that, “the United States are bound to the state within which it lies to extinguish the Indian claim thereto” (The Removal Act 1). The passing of this act allowed white Americans to disregard the ancestral homes of Indigenous people and force them west. Between 1838 and 1839 approximately 4,000 Cheeroke people died at the hands of the United States government due to this forced removal. The laws that Andrew Jackson passed allowed racism to become an integral part of American progress. The unnecessary attempts to civilize Indigenous people (that President Jackson spoke so highly about) were a part of a racist campaign that sought to destroy and erase Indigenous cultural identities. The “American progress Movement” wanted to remake the west in the image of the agrarian east by forcing Indigenous people to resemble and assume the values, behaviors, and beliefs of white Americans. 

          Some Indigenous people embraced these traditionally European customs and became known as the “Five Civilized Tribes''. Even amongst the tribes that had broadly assimilated into settler culture Indigenous people still stood their ground. They stated the rights they knew they deserved and rejected white rule over them at a federal level.  In Worcester V. Georgia (1832), the U.S Supreme Court affirmed that it was unconstitutional to invade Indigenous land without a license from the state. The court ruling declared that “[t]he Cherokee Nation [was its own] distinct community, occupying its own territory… [which meant that] the citizens of Georgia [had] no right to enter but with the permission of the Cherokees themselves or in conformity with treaties'' (Worcester v. Georgia  1). This court ruling was highly significant because it was a way for Indigenous people to regain control of their land, welfare, and diplomacy. In response to this court ruling, the U.S government chose violence in order to get the land they felt so entitled to. Andrew Jackson deliberately ignored the law and used his presidential authority in order to coerce Indigenous people into giving up their land. This massive forced relocation more commonly known as the “Trail of Tears' ' carried out by the U.S government in the name of progress led to disrupted cultural patterns and economic inequality in the present day. 

          This idea of progress was built on the belief of white racial superiority and it also marked enslaved people as second-class citizens. A highly ignored and forced migration of enslaved people from the tobacco South to the cotton South gave America the racist character it retains today; historians have dubbed this migration as “Slavery’s Trail of Tears”. This forced relocation  during the 1850s was twenty times larger than any of Andrew Jackson’s “Indian Removal” campaigns of the 1830s. The genocidal aftermath of Andrew Jackson’s ignorance caused a multitude of deaths from the travel of enslaved people and their owners into Indigenous land. Even after his departure from office, he has left nothing but a legacy of family separation. Historian Edward Ball shows the connection between enslaved and Indigenous groups when he reveals that, “[t]he gang headed down the Great Wagon Road, a route that … [was]—’ made by the Indians,’ in the euphemism. Along the way, the coffee met other slave gangs [and] construction crews rebuilding the Wagon Road… The marchers and the roadwork gangs, slaves all, traded long looks” (5). This quote highlights the idea of black resettlement on Indigenous land as it showcases how the cultures and existence of both groups have been diluted by people under the law of white America. 

          At the core of American society, was the use of slave labor in order to produce wealth. Nonetheless, the institution of slavery was continuously challenged by its survivors and those who found it immoral. Black nineteenth-century activists never failed to rise in opposition to the systems that enabled white dominance in the political and economic sphere. On August 31, 1831, Nat Turner led the only effective and most famous slave rebellion in American history.  His rebellion points out the hypocrisy of this country since “Nat Turner destroyed the white Southern myth that slaves were … happy with their lives [and] too docile to undertake a violent rebellion. His revolt hardened proslavery attitudes … and led to … oppressive legislation prohibiting the education, movement, and assembly of slaves” (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica 1). When black and brown people show a desire to advance themselves, they are reminded of a social hierarchy that is unalterable and only ensures the progression of the white race. 

          Even after the nineteenth century, the stories of Indigenous people were ignored and discredited but Indigenous culture has somehow become the mascot of numerous sports teams, a go-to Halloween costume, and the logo of several companies. A 2016 study reported in The Journal of Social Psychology revealed that “When exposed to Native mascots, people with a prejudiced attitude rated a Native American individual more stereotypically aggressive than those with a non-prejudiced attitude” (Burkley 1). The finding that these mascots facilitate and reinforce the application of negative stereotypes is not surprising since Indigenous people have only been greeted with violence since the beginning of colonialism. When analyzing black historical realities in America a similar pattern is formed. Even after the bonds of slavery were broken the movements and practices of black people were still heavily policed. We see many fashion trends that are deemed “ghetto” until they become fashionable. Mikeisha Vaughn conceptualizes the hood to the runway pipeline by explaining that “trends [that have been] created by Black women, [and are] usually deemed ghetto” have been “co-opted by white women, and filtered into the mainstream” (1). Vaughn also explains this phenomenon by stating, “White women have been able to adopt these trends as their own without acknowledging the true tastemakers, all while maintaining their distance from Blackness and the very environments that birthed these trends'' (1). When looking at who is allowed to thrive and earn profit from black culture, the pioneers are left behind. Similarly, the advocates of American progress continuously denied people of color the same opportunities they granted white citizens and left them in the dust while the white citizens advanced. 

As the centuries have continued to turn, Indigenous and black people have been forced to take a back seat and watch the things they’ve been scrutinized for becoming trendy among white Americans. White Americans began to declare their culture to be the default that everyone should practice and they began to undermine exclusivity. These forms of social separation and suppression that both enslaved and Indigenous people were subjected to bring forth a unique kind of frustration, pain, and oppression. The forced removal from your ancestral land is a tale that both groups know all too well. They were either forced to assimilate or segregate while being trivialized and labeled as primitive for their long-standing cultural identities. In retrospect, the idea of “progress” and spreading  American customs from sea to sea has caused more problems rather than offering solutions.

Works cited 

Andrew Jackson's Case for the Removal of Indians. https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/andrew.htm

Ghetto Until Proven Fashionable. Essence. https://www.essence.com/fashion/black-culture-ghetto-until-proven-fashionable/ 

John Gast, American Progress, 1872, chromolithograph, Library of Congress  

Nat Turner. Encyclopædia Britannica.https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nat-Turner 

Retracing Slavery's Trail of Tears. Smithsonian.com. November 01, 2015. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/slavery-trail-of-tears-180956968/ 

Symbols of pride or prejudice? Examining the impact of Native American sports mascots on stereotype application. The Journal of social psychology. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27383071/ 

Worcester v. Georgia, 31 U.S. 515 (1832). Justia Law. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/31/515/