Description |
In doing so the paper will evaluate the thesis that the systematic Indian migration policy initiated by the Jackson administration represented the logical culmination of an Indian land absorption policy formulated and developed from early American Indian diplomacy. Furthermore, the paper will also analyze the contention that execution of Jackson's coercive removal policy sanctioned violation of legal treaty provisions and represented a significant deviation from the principle of voluntariness, formerly employed to effectuate absorption of Indian land claims. Among American minorities the Indian enjoyed a relatively unique position, until the latter quarter of the nineteenth century, because their relations were formalzied and governed by a treaty process specifically authorized in the Constitution. Due, therefore, to the sheer magnitude of treaties and official correspondence of the various Indian tribes with the federal government, the work will be confined to examination of boad policy objectives as they pertained to diplomacy with the Cherokee nation. |