Treats and Tricks
After the War of 1812, the turning point in the history of treating with the Indians, the nation " acted from a position of assured dominance". What this meant was that the United States was operating from a position of power. Even though the Indians had previously enjoyed some power, they now had to face the fact that they were "under the protection of the federal government". (24) Due to republican principles of the United States, the Indian communities were not the recipients of crushing destruction. However, while the treaty procedures were retained, the councils became less and less a matter of sovereign nations negotiating on terms of rough equality. (25) Therefore, the federal government used the treaties as a convenient way to fulfill their constitutional duties of managing Indian affairs. (26)
Due to increasing tensions with Great Britain, which led up to the War of 1812, negotiations with the Old Northwestern tribes after the Fort Wayne Treaty in 1809 had stopped. "The next treaties grew out of the war itself." (27) Now the Wynadots, Shawnees and Delawares, among others, had been loyal to the United States. So their treaties were about cementing friendship and, if necessary, military aid to the United States. (28) The Treaty of Fort Jackson, August, 1814, granted a huge cession of their land in Alabama and Georgia and "marked the end of any immediate resistance south of Ohio". (29) Jackson himself assembled the Creeks and dictated a treaty with them over which they voiced strong objections but nonetheless were forced to sign. This treaty basically made them pay " an equivalent for all expenses incurred in prosecuting the war to its termination". They had to cede "more than twenty million acres of their land running through what is now central Alabama and southern Georgia. It also required the Creeks to abandon all communication with the British or Spanish posts and not admit as traders any persons not licensed by the United States". (30) The United States received the right to establish posts, both for trade and military purposes, roads in their lands and the right to navigate freely in all of their waters. The Indians also had to surrender any prophets and instigators of the war. What did they get in return? The U.S. guaranteed them their remaining land and provided reservations for friendly chiefs, a humanitarian move. And, if any were destitute, then they would receive a means of subsistence until new crops could suffice. (31) The Indians knew that this was a punitive move against them for the "sins of the hostiles" (32) but "Old Hickory" paid them no mind at all. "He was determined that the Indians would be crushed, that national security be assured by cessions of land along the Florida/Spanish border, and that lands be opened from Tennessee to the Gulf". (33)
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