LITR 5535: American Romanticism

Student Presentation on Reading Selections 2005

Monday 21 February: “The Iroquois Creation Story,” N 17-21; “The Cherokee Memorials,” N 571-581; William Apess, N 476-482. Complete The Last of the Mohicans.

selection reader / discussion leader: Mary Brooks

The Cherokee Memorials

Norton Anthology of American Literature Shorter Sixth Edition (pgs.571 -581)

Cultural Issues

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 made it possible to remove the Cherokee and any other native tribe from their land. In Georgia, once gold was discovered on the Cherokee lands the immediate relocation of the Cherokee became very important to the white citizens. The Cherokee struggled to remain on their land until the winter of 1838-39 when federal troops removed the remaining 12,000 Cherokee and they began the march west. Of those 12,000 that started the journey 4,000 died along the way to the Indian Territory (Oklahoma).

The sentiment of the whites at this time can be summed up in Representative Henry Storrs comment that they could now "break up [the Indians] society, dissolve their institutions, and drive them into the wilderness"(571). The whites at this time felt that the Cherokee were a problem to be solved not a nation to be negotiated with. The Cherokee however felt that they were a nation separate from the United States and had the right to appeal their removal. The Cherokee appealed to the government in the form of memorials showing that they were not the savages that the whites wished them to be but that they were educated and aware of the processes of government.

"They [Cherokee Nation] wish to speak of their wishes and determination in that respect themselves, and to be heard by the representatives of the United States; . . . that their only and best hopes of preservation and advancement in moral and civil improvement is to remain where their Great Father alone placed them."(573)

Nostalgia: For the time of "peace" before the Europeans came to their land.

"… Indians were found here by the white man, in enjoyment of plenty and peace, and all rights of soil and domain, inherited from their ancestors from time immemorial, well furnished with kings, chiefs, and warriors, the bulwarks of liberty, and the pride of their race." (574)

The Cherokee imagine a past that was peaceful before the white man came. This passage is beautifully written and is certainly evidence of the nostalgia they have for their past but is also evidence of their education and advanced civilization.

Nostalgia:

"To the Land, of which we are now in possession, we are attached. It is our fathers gift; it contains their ashes; it is the land of our nativity, and the land of our intellectual birth. We cannot consent to abandon it for another far inferior, and which holds out to us no inducements." (580)

The Cherokee do not wish to loose the land on which all their history has been recorded. The nature that surrounds their past cannot be abandoned because the nature has enabled them to accomplish all that they have.

Questions:

1.      How does this representation of Indians compare to the representation of Indians in The Last of the Mohicans or any of the other readings for this class?

2.      Are there any other examples of Romanticism in the Cherokee Memorials?