A Glimpse of the 19th Century: The Indian Removal Act Seen Through Archives and Historical Context

By: Isabella Koeut-Futch

Figure 1: Native Americans of the Choctaw Tribe wearing both Native and European clothing in the early 19th century. The Choctaw were the first of the five ‘Civilized’ Tribes — the Chicksaw, Choctaw, Muscogee-Creek, Seminole, and Cherokee — to relocate. [1]

The story my chosen photographs are attempting to convey is the story of the forced migration of Native American tribes in the 19th century –beginning in the 1830s — coined the Trail of Tears for the suffering and devastation during these times. For many generations, the Native Americans have lived upon the lands of the Southeastern United States region, continuously cultivating the land and carrying on their respective customs and traditions. Once European white settlers began seeking more land, the land occupied by the Native Americans sparked their interest and drove their ambition towards obtaining such land. For years there were campaigns to ‘civilize’, convert, and push Native Americans out of their homelands; it was not until President Andrew Jackson enacted the “Indian Removal Act”, which forcibly removed Native American tribes from their Southeastern lands, that the Trail of Tears begun.

Figure 2: Portrait of President Andrew Jackson taken between the years 1844–1845. Jackson was the President that enacted the “Indian Removal Act” from the 1830s-1850s. [2]

Before serving as president, Andrew Jackson was a major general who led brutal crusades against Native American tribes and was a leading advocate for the Indian removal campaign, playing a main factor in nine out of eleven removal treaties.[3] During his presidency Jackson carried on with his removal campaigns, and one year into his presidency signed what is known as the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which allowed the government ‘granted’ land and federal assistance to Native American tribes that signed removal treaties and gave up their land. This gave the government the power to coerce tribes into signing these treaties under the guise of federal protection during their migration to the Midwest. Of course, many Native Americans were reluctant to leave their land, thus those that do not comply with the government are in turn targeted by them, with the US government taking extreme measures to secure their land. The Choctaw tribe were the first nation to be removed from their land by signing the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek on September 27, 1830, the first account of a Native American tribe moving west without any noted incident appeared to give the Indian Removal Act a good start. [4]

Figure 3 : The Shoshone Tribe at Fort Washakie, an Indian reservation in Wyoming. Members of the tribe are dancing as soldiers observe them.[5]

On the other hand, nations such as the Cherokee tribe were divided between those that wanted to sign a treaty in exchange for federal benefits, and those that wanted to resist this coerced migration. Though the Cherokee fought for their land with legal and armed resistance, the force of the US authorities was stronger, and by 1838 the remaining Cherokee members’ homes were looted and destroyed, resulting in the Cherokees beginning the extensive journey known as the Trail of Tears.[6] With the Removal Act of 1830, an estimate of 50,000 Native Americans were removed from their homelands and relocated west, in reservations deemed ‘Indian Territory’.[7] This forced migration — which was painted to be voluntary — spread across a multitude of states, and was an often difficult and deadly journey. Many tribes suffered from treacherous weather, starvation, and fatal diseases, leading to the deaths of thousands of Native Americans during their trek; it was a Choctaw leader who stated in an Alabama newspaper that this migration was “a trail of tears and death.”[8]

Figure 4 : A group of Native American students posing for a photo at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School located in Pennsylvania, 1900. Towards the end of the 19th century the United States government relocated Native American children into boarding schools that work to assimilate them in Euro-American culture. [9]

While the Removal Act was deemed a success by Jackson’s administration and white settlers who were eager to take Native American land, it displays an act of forced relocation and suffering imposed upon Native Americans for the benefit of the government. During the 19th century, President Jackson and his followers completely disregarded the destruction and devastation the Native Americans endured, reducing the population of the tribes and pushing them out of their ancestors’ lands for the economic and territorial gains of the white settlers. Nowadays members of the United States recognize the Trail of Tears as a devastating journey fueled by abuse of power and greed for land, a legacy forever tainting Andrew Jackson’s presidency. And for the remaining Native American nations, the Trail of Tears functions as a reminder of the pain and suffering their people faced, with the knowledge that the land they occupy today was met with resistance, assimilation, and the loss of their homelands.

Figure 5: Portrait of Chief Abram B. Burnett of the Pottawatomi Chief; during his tribe’s forced move to a reservation in Kansas, the march was plagued by typhoid fever, giving it the name ‘Pottawatomie Trail of Death.’ [10]

The first photograph I would like to examine is figure 3 of the Shoshone Indians at Fort Washakie, a Wyoming Indian Reservation. With a first glance the image is easily recognized as a black and white photo, but it took some research to discover that the media type of this photo is a negative. With the knowledge that this image is a negative in mind, one can see how the background of the fort and natural landscape look very light and seems like they are fading in a sense. On the other hand, areas of the grass and around the Shoshone tribe appear quite dark, even making some of the faces indiscernible. This technique allows for the Shoshone tribe to be the focal point of the image and drawing the audience’s attention to the moment the photographer specifically wanted to capture.

Right off the bat I could tell this photo was not one that asked for still, blank poses of its subject, but instead one that attempted to display an act of community. In the middle-ground of the photo, several members of the Shoshone tribe are captured dancing in-motion as the others sit around and watch, with the image’s caption even drawing attention to Chief Washakie on the far left extending his arm. To me, the photographer is putting much more emphasis on the activities of the Native Americans than anything else, and having them take up the majority of the photograph’s frame strengthens the focus on their community and dancing traditions. Though, the striking contrast that stands out to me is the line of poised soldiers observing the Shoshones dancing and engaging with each other. While the Shoshone are portrayed as lively and in groups, the soldiers behind them are standing still in a line, keeping up a military attitude and composure. Not only does this photograph capture a clear separation between the Shoshone Native Americans and the American soldiers, but it highlights the political environment surrounding Native American nations and US government. Considering this photo was taken in 1892, by this time most — if not all — Native Americans have been relocated to reservations labelled “Indian Territory” to open up land for white settlers. The appearance of modern housing instead of tepees in the background points to the idea that this was not the Shoshone tribe’s homeland, and the presence of the white soldiers shows that after the Indian Removal Act and Trail of Tears, Native Americans were not granted peace and privacy from the government.

The second photo I would like to discuss is figure 5, a photograph of Pottawatomie Chief Abram Burnett taken in 1869. In contrast to black and white photo I analyzed, this image has a warm, sepia color to it like many other photos by Knight J. Lee. Finding out that photographer Knight J. Lee tended to capture important figures and things of the Kansas region, this provides insight on his decision to photograph the Pottawatomie Chief Abram Burnett, who led his tribe on their forced journey through the Trail of Tears to a reservation in Kansas.

Chief Abram Burnett was perceived as a large and powerful man, and I believe Knight J. Lee attempts to portray that with the way he frames the Pottawatomi chief.[11] Chief Abram Burnett takes up the majority of the frame, sitting right in the middle-ground of the photograph, demanding all the attention to be on him. Likewise, something that appears interesting to me is how the label of “large” more than likely refers to Chief Burnett’s weight, and the back of the photograph features the description, “Abraham Burnett, Chief of Pottawatomie, weight #446.” To me, this further proves how Chief Abram Burnett’s physique was a focal point for Lee and the positioning of the Pottawatomi chief was an attempt to display his major presence. Additionally, photographer Knight J. Lee conveys Chief Abram Burnett’s sheer power by his entrancing stare and powerful grip. Honestly, it looks like Chief Abram Burnett is staring right into my soul, and his fierce yet calm demeanor exudes power even through a photograph. Also, the presence of his cane and hat can be seen as props to emphasis his dominant nature. Chief Abram Burnett seems to be gripping — with his knuckles clearly clenched — his accessories, and with him showing strength even in terms of holding a hat, the Pottawatomi chief’s power is clearly convey through Lee’s photograph.

From the moment I started collecting my mini-archive, I immediately connected these photographs to the image and analysis Teju Cole provides in his article, “When the Camera Was a Weapon of Imperialism. (And When It Still Is.)”[12] Exploring the topic of the Trail of Tears means I needed to remind myself that there is probably not any photographs of Native Americans actually marching the treacherous journey, thus I had to find images that surround the devastation of the Trail of Tears. Much like the photo of Ijebu tribe members surrounding the European colonizers that took control of Lagos, most of my photos have underlying themes of the oppressor vs. the oppressed.

In his article Teju Cole highlights the dangers of photography in colonialized societies where images subtly display everyday inequalities, and they are subsequently only seen at surface level. For example, the photograph of Chief Abram Burnett looks like a typical portrait, but a second glance at his appearance and you notice his hair is cut — Native Americans usually keep it long — and he is entirely dressed in Euro-American attire. Beyond the photo we do not just see a chief, we see a powerful Native American leader stripped of his culture to appease the same men that took his land. Similarly, the cult-like photo of the Native American students is more jarring than anything; the forlorn looks of the children as they forcibly attend a school that works to assimilate them entirely into Euro-American culture, erasing their past and ruining their future. It is a hard pill to swallow that one cannot just look at a photo and know all of its context, but it is even harder to grasp that most photographs encompass a dark part of history, and we must continue to raise questions on how we can allow injustices to fly under the radar as awareness.

Endnotes:

1. Mark Raymond Harrington, Group of Choctaw men, a young woman, and a young girl posed outdoors, 1908, photograph, 1,000 x 789, National Museum of the American Indian, Mississippi Choctaw Collection, https://sova.si.edu/record/NMAI.AC.001.035?s=0&n=10&t=C&q=Mississippi+Choctaw&i=5
2. Edward Anthony, Andrew Jackson, head-and-shoulders portrait, nearly in profile to left, leaning against pillow of which ticking appears in lower left corner, 1844–1845, gold-toned half plate daguerreotype, Library of Congress, Daguerreotype collection, https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004664006/
3. “Indian Removal,” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, Accessed June 4, 2021, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2959.html.
4. Andrei Tapalaga, “Trail of Tears: The Genocide of Native Americans,” Medium, History of Yesterday, September 3, 2020, https://historyofyesterday.com/trail-of-tears-the-genocide-of-native-americans-84be43d66b9c.
5. Shoshone Indians at Fort Washakie, Wyoming, 1892, negative print, National Archives, 530919, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/530919.
6. History.com Editors, “Trail of Tears,” History, November 9, 2009, https://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/trail-of-tears
7. “Indian Removal,” PBS.
8. History.com Editors, “Trail of Tears.”
9. Pupils at Carlisle Indian Industrial School, 1900, photograph, 800 x 462 pixels, Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carlisle_pupils.jpg.
10. Knight J. Lee, Chief Abram B. Burnett, 1869, photograph, Kansas Historical Society, Kansas Memory, https://www.kshs.org/archives/227243.
11. Lee, Chief Abram B. Burnett, Kansas Memory.
12. Teju Cole, ““When the Camera Was a Weapon of Imperialism. (And When It Still Is,)” The New York Times, The New York Times, February 6, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/06/magazine/when-the-camera-was-a-weapon-of-imperialism-and-when-it-still-is.html