Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Pre-Investigation

       The two primary sources I am investigating both involve John Ross and the topic of resistance to Indian removal.  The first is a speech he makes in the Supreme Court, and the second is a protest that he makes in Congress regarding the issue.  Ross was a leading opponent of Indian removal.



      The speech seems to be about the Indian frusteration with the white people coming over to America and forcing them to move out of their homeland.  The Indians felt like they could not live as distinct communities within the rest of America because of the way they were treated by white people.  The protest seems to be about the fact that treaties that allowed and made  Indian, in this case Cherokee, removal right had been recieved illegally and by fraud.

       Both of these primary sources were obviously written by John Ross, as he created and presented the speech and protest to the Supreme Court and Congress, respectively.  It is possible and more than likely that many other people have recoreded these two sources, but John Ross wrote the original primary sources.  His motivation for writing these was to express his frusteration on behalf of the Cherokee Indians, and Indians in general, stating that they were being treated both poorly and unfairly.  He was a leader, so he did the best he could to speak out on his peoples' behalves and to support them the best he could.  He was fighting for them and did his best to stand up against what he felt was wrong.  Defense for Indians was his prime motivation for creating these two works.





       The context of these primary sources seems to obviously be during times of negative relations between the white people and the Indians.  The Indians were being forced out of their lands by white settlers and either had to leave and move farther west, or adapt to the customs of the whites who settled in their land.  The Indians had made great advances in their society, but were being forced to give that all up and act like savages again.  The justifications the white people and the government were giving for Indian removal were not legitimate according to Ross, which created the need for his protest.





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