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The Long, Bitter Trail: Andrew Jackson and the Indians (Critical Issue)

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An Indian activist or just an amature historian, everyone should read this book. Though short, it gives an excellent narrative of the removal of Indians and their trama from the East by the American government. This book is amazingly well written and is for both students (like myself who read it in a class) or for casual readers. Please concider this book to find out more about the emerging stories of what really happened to Native Americans.

Few events in American history are as shameful as the removal of the Indians from the American Southeast in the 1830s. Despite prior treaties and remarkable success in assimilating American culture, the tribes in the region - Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles - were driven west by the voracious demand of Americans for land. In this book, Anthony Wallace provides a survey of the development of federal policy towards the tribes in the early 19th century and its impact upon them.

For much of the early 19th century, Indian policy was mired in a conflict between people advocating Indian "reform" (who saw Indians as capable of being taught the ways of white civilization) and proponents of a policy of removing Indians from land slated for settlement. The election of Andrew Jackson to the presidency in 1828 decided this conflict. A westerner with a reputation as an Indian fighter, Jackson sided with removal advocates, endorsing a bill that made removal to lands west of the Mississippi River federal policy.

Though supporters of removal argued that the policy was necessary given the unredeemable savagery of the Indians, as Wallace points out, the success of the tribes in the region undermined this justification. More dependent on agriculture than other tribes, the Indians of the Southeast had an easier time adapting to American cultural standards than their counterparts in other regions, with some tribal members even owning slaves. This didn't save them from removal however, and the Cherokees discovered just how hollow the promise of assimilation was when Jackson ignored a Supreme Court ruling that rejected Georgia's claim of state sovereignty over the Indians, thus depriving the tribes of the only hope of protection from expulsion. The result was the "Trail of Tears," the forced migration to Indian Territory that resulted in the deaths of thousands of Indians.

Wallace provides a summary of Jackson's Indian policy that is both balanced and readable. His coverage of white attitudes, which runs across the spectrum from the hostility of settlers to the sympathy of white missionaries, is refreshingly nuanced. His coverage of the Indians is equally good, and he pulls no punches in demonstrating the extent to which the tribal leadership was complicit in removal. Readers seeking to learn more about the "Trail of Tears" and the policies that brought it about would do well to start with this book.

In this brief work, The Long, Bitter Trail by Anthony F.C. Wallace provides a new perspective to American Indian policy in the 19th century. Wallace is a well-known historian and a professor of history and anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. In this piece, Wallace argues against the claims of many historians who believe the Indians were either a threat or needed to be civilized. The focus of this book, as the author states, is "looking at both the land-hungry white Americans and their Native American victims" (13). Moreover, Wallace argues that white self-interest determined the fate of the Indians. The Long, Bitter Trail is a brief work that is well organized, but fails to be objective.

Wallace divides his book into an introduction, four chapters, and an "aftermath (epilogue)." This book effectively organizes its chapters in chronological order with each chapter setting up the next. In his introduction, Wallace provides background about Andrew Jackson's life and politics with Indians. He argues that Andrew Jackson like many other politicians had his own financial interest in some of the land acquired from Native Americans.

The first chapter examines a brief history of the Indians and their contacts with Europeans and American settlers. This chapter is effectively titled, "The Changing Worlds of the Native Americans." The world of the Native Americans in the southeast was changed for the worse as settlers spread diseases such as small pox. The northeast Indian relations started out peacefully because Native Indians and European settlers were interested in exchanging goods with one another, but interests changed when a series of wars between France and Britain occurred in colonial America, which placed the Indians in the middle of the conflict. These wars were fought over land and became the new interest of Europeans living in colonial America. The United States continued these wars over land with the Native Americans and eventually defeated the northeastern Indians. He concludes in this chapter that after the United States defeated the northeastern Indians, the United States turned its interest to the "more civilized" southeastern Indians, which leads to the next chapter that dealt with these tribes (28-29).

The second chapter deals with Federal policy and the Indians. This chapter focuses on the reasons and financial interests of politicians who would determine the fate of the southeastern Indians. Wallace claims, "And now, when the policy of civilizing and assimilating the Indians was accused of being a failure, if not a mistake to begin with, the idea of colonizing the Indians west of the Mississippi gained favor" (39). Wallace believes that moving the Indians west of the Mississippi allowed the United States to acquire more territory by American settlers moving westward.

The third and fourth chapter focuses on how the Indians were relocated off their land. The third chapter is properly titled "Removal Act" as the author examines the different policies that dealt with removing the Indians from their lands. In particular, this chapter focuses on Andrew Jackson's policies to relocate the Cherokees, Creaks, Chickasaws, and Choctaws west of the Mississippi. The author also discusses how Politicians and missionaries had different interests of the Indians. The eastern politicians wanted the Indians land while the missionaries wanted to "Christianized" the Indians. Chapter four focuses on the Trail of Tears, which relocated the Cherokees west of the Mississippi. The author discussed how the Native Americans were forced off their lands by the Federal government through the use of the military.

The aftermath chapter focuses on the legacy of the Indian Removal Act and its consequences. The author believes this had a dramatic effect on the lives of Native Americans. Indians continually became victims of the Federal government's policy. The Federal government's allotment system had negative effects on the Native Americans, which included poverty, reduced health, and poor education (119). The author concludes, "Two hundred years of national indecision about how the United States should deal with its Native Americans have not come to an end" (120). The Long, Bitter Trail does an effective job organizing its content through chronological order, which makes this book easily read and understood.
Wallace is not objective in this book because he is portrays whites as always being the aggressors with the Indians always being the victims. There are other books that are more objective because they demonstrate that atrocities were committed on both sides. For example, The First Frontier by R.V. Coleman argues whites and Indians constantly broke treaties with one another. Wallace, on the other hand, did not deny any wrong doing of the Indians.

Wallace should have expanded on some of his controversial arguments. For instance, Wallace argues, "It was not the `savagery' of the Indians that land-hungry whites dreaded; it was their `civilization'" (11). He fails to follow up on this claim and instead he writes about the consequences of the trans-Mississippi removal of the Southern Indians after this bold statement. The author also wrote that Jackson believed that "The Indians were savage, cruel, bloodthirsty, cannibalistic butchers of innocent white women and children, and should be driven into submission or extinction" (54). Yet Wallace neglects to explain this bold statement or state the source. After this, Wallace went on to write, "But Jackson's relationships with individual Indians could be warm, even intimate" (54). Wallace did not attempt to explain why this differed from Jackson's general belief of Indians. Wallace's failure to explain his controversial statements weakens his argument.

Other historians such as Robert Remini would disagree with how Wallace portrayed Jackson. Andrew Jackson and His Indian Wars by Robert Remini portrays Andrew Jackson as being friendlier and cooperative to Indians who wanted to preserve their culture. Remini also argues that Jackson enforced treaties between whites and the Indians with equal treatment to those who broke them. Wallace should have addressed such viewpoints from Robert Remini along with the other historians who he has criticized. Wallace's controversial statements express a lack of objectivity and leave these ideas open for debate because he failed to be convincing.

Overall, The Long, Bitter Trail is well organized and well written, but this book has several weaknesses. Wallace's arguments are not convincing enough because he does not provide enough evidence nor does he explain all of his statements. Although the author tries to cover an abundance of material in a short amount of pages, the author clearly states his arguments. This book would provide a good introduction and counter points for high school students who are being introduced to this topic, but for an expert, this book provides a lack of new information except criticism on other works on Indian policy.

I cannot say enough about the value of this book to me. I just finished it today and wish it had been MY first book in the subject. My topic of interest is 1832 and the settlement of West Tennessee. I have had scant real knowledge of the era or the place, but long harbored a yearning to know the actual facts as well as sentiment, national and local, of the early days of my home in Alabama and my adult home in West Tennessee. I have skirted the topic of the "Old Southwest," land grants, what effect statehood in Tennessee (1796)--the sixteenth state--had on anything, how were roads built and mail transferred. Now I'm getting closer to the subject and am very glad to know that time better...and be justly grateful.

I kinda sorta knew some of this story of settlement, so selected the topic of West Tennessee settlement for a creative writing project. And was it a winning subject!

Wallace is an accomplished writer with scores of books. It seems he has dedicated himself to the Indian topic; he is also an anthropologist. His short book portrays the essential characteristics of the colonial presidents and the Indians, then brings us up through Jackson's two administrations and the Indian Removal Act of Congress, 1830. The final chapter dips into all the other eastern tribal history and includes briefly 20th century changes with the Indians.

Other fine books of research have more recently been brought forward, specifically my other favorite, Waselkov, Gregory A., "A Conquering Spirit: Fort Mims and the Redstick War of 1813-1814." But Wallace's book, had I read it first, would have plugged me into the era from the start of my research and oriented my knowledge of history, inadequate though it has been. His mastery of style allowed me to read fluently and fast, and touched my heart, too, even to Old Hickory, whom we see by his actions as a compassionate man (sometimes) who had some really tough assignments, to say the least.

I look forward to reading other of Mr. Wallace's volumes. I also wholeheartedly recommend the book to good juvenile readers.

Robin S. Davis
Memphis, Tennessee

What a l33t book. But really, this has incredible information. I've used this book as a part of an extensive essay. Very well written.

Simply the best work available on Indian Removal, in my opinion. It is highly regarded among academic historians. Wallace did a tremendous job of writing clearly and making the plight of the Indians understandable to anyone. It is short, it is lucid, it is interesting reading. Plus, it is balanced. This is not a work that treats Indians as childlike, passive victims, but it does convey the injustice and unnecessary hardships to which they were subjected. It also does not portray the government and non-Indian Americans simply as aggressors. It's an important work for understanding what happened to the tribes. It won't take a lot of your time, so do yourself a favor and read it.

I purchased this book for a US history class I am taking for which I had to write an essay highlighting the theme of the book.
The book itself is fairly well written, being very informative and well structured, and although it is a quick read (you'll be surprised how fast the pages go flying by), it is not a page turner. I, along with my fellow colleagues, found myself having to re-read sections of the book because the text didn't grab my interest very well.
Wallace however, does do an excellent job of providing a good history and description of Indian removal. He also does a good job in re-analyzing history and debunking many myths believed at the time.
Overall, this is not a "leisure read" but any history major or anyone wanting to inform themselves on Indian removal need look no further.