The Removal of the Muscogee Nation

The Muscogee (Creek) Nation was one of many American Indian Nations to lose its lands to the United States.

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Introduction

“I came here to remember and to walk the footsteps of my ancestors…”

In the early 1800s, the United States was hungry for new lands for its growing population and economy.

Encouraged by President Andrew Jackson, the U.S. Congress passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830. The act called for Indian Nations to give up their lands in the East and move west of the Mississippi.

President Andrew Jackson to Congress, “On Indian Removal,” December 6, 1830. National Archives, Washington, DC, Record Group 46.

Many in Congress opposed the Indian Removal Act, but it passed by a slim margin.

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Andrew Jackson, 1845, by Thomas Sully. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1942.8.34.

President Jackson fought hard to pass a law to remove American Indians. In an 1830 speech to Congress he used misleading statements about Indians to argue for removal, saying “it will place a dense and civilized population in large tracts of country now occupied by a few savage hunters”.

“…he was not the leader of our nation.”

The Muscogee people and their leaders tried everything in their power to avoid removal, but in the end, they had to move.
What did removal mean to Muscogee people?

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Opothleyaholo, 1834, lithograph by Childs & Inman Lithography Company after a painting by Charles Bird King. Courtesy National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Betty A. and Lloyd G. Schermer. Menawa, 1837, lithograph by Alfred M. Hoffy after a painting by Charles Bird King. Courtesy National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Betty A. and Lloyd G. Schermer.

(L) Opothleyaholo, 1834, lithograph by Childs & Inman Lithography Company after a painting by Charles Bird King. Courtesy National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Betty A. and Lloyd G. Schermer.

(R) Menawa, 1837, lithograph by Alfred M. Hoffy after a painting by Charles Bird King. Courtesy National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Betty A. and Lloyd G. Schermer.

Opothleyaholo and Menewa were Muscogee leaders who opposed removal and fought in a war against the United States to try to keep their homelands.

“Being ripped from that land is very much
like being ripped from a mother’s womb…”

Discussion Questions • Introduction

Why do you think the United States so desperately
wanted American Indian lands east of the Mississippi River?
Lillian Thomas stated in the video, “It was all because of Andrew Jackson.
I know you’re supposed to respect and honor the leaders of your nation,
but at that time, he was not the leader of our nation.”
What does she mean by “not the leader of our nation”?

Before