History 3010

Resistance/Sovereignty

Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa

http://mapoftheunitedstates.wordpress.com/2008/04/08/trail-of-tears-map/

Readings:

• Calloway: Chapter 4
• Clara Sue Kidwell, Indian Removal
• Cherokee Land Cessions  1884
• Episode 2, "Tecumseh's Vision," and Episode 3 "Trail of Tears" of We Shall Remain

  From the PBS site are discussion questions for Episode 2:

  1. What do you think might have happened if the British army had backed Tecumseh and his followers adequately?
  2. Even though General Harrison lost three times as many men as Tecumseh, what was the U.S. Army's symbolic victory at the Battle of Tippecanoe? How did General Harrison use this battle to further his political career in 1840?
  3. In the film, what does historian R. David Edmunds mean when he says tribal people of Tecumseh's time would say, "Tecumseh is a man of very, very strong medicine"? Can you think of any 21st-century figures that you could describe as being a person of “strong medicine"?
  4. What conditions inspired religious visionaries like Tenskwatawa, the Prophet, to preach a return to traditional ways? What did he forbid Native people to do? How did his message revitalize Indian culture? What are some other examples of Native American religious leaders attempting to revitalize tribal people at other times in American history?
  5. What options did Tenskwatawa have when General Harrison marched on Prophetstown? Should he have fought? Would he have abandoned the village, with all its stored corn, ammunition, etc.?
  6. What are some of the ways Indian culture is being revitalized today?

  From the PBS site are discussion questions for Episode 3:

  1. Why did John Ross identify himself as Cherokee?
  2. How did the concept of land ownership differ on Cherokee land from white settlers’ lands?
  3. Why do you think Major Ridge sent “optimistic” reports to U.S. government agents? What were his motives?
  4. New Englanders were willing to educate Native Americans and quick to condemn the South for Slavery. Why, then, were they so upset by the marriage between John Ridge and Sarah Bird Northrup, while John Ross was able to marry a Cherokee woman without causing controversy?
  5. From 1830 to 1838, John Ross made repeated trips to Washington, D.C. to try to forestall Indian removal. He met many times with members of Congress and even with President Jackson, with whom he had served in the Creek War. Why was this task so difficult?
  6. What actions taken by the Georgia legislature following the Indian Removal Bill caused dissension and division among the Cherokee?
  7. Were there alternatives to the removal policy?
  8. Why was it more difficult for Native Americans to move from their traditional homelands than for many other Americans who regularly moved west looking for opportunity? Did the Cherokees have any particular or special ties with their homelands that discouraged their removal? What were these ties?
  9. Why didn’t the Cherokee people leave when they were told they had to?
  10. The conflict between Chief Justice Marshall and Andrew Jackson over Worcester v Georgia and its enforcement illustrates one of the unique characteristics (separation of powers) about the structure of the federal government in the U.S. What is that characteristic and how does this court case exemplify it?