American Studies: week 2 Indians

Date: week of September 15, 2014

The thing that was most interesting to me this week in class was the discussion on the Chief Justice John Marshall reading. When I read it for homework the opinions that I saw really stood out and made me ask some questions about why he had these thought and if this was the normal thought on the Indians at the time. While I read I circled the words in the text that stood out the most. I took a quite sarcastic voice as I read it in my head, what he wrote was completely the opposite of what I know actually took place with the Indians. The main point struck me hard at how someone would think the way he wrote. The statement, "discovery gave exclusive title to those who made it" which was a nicer way of saying that the founders had control and power over everything (Marshall). Then, when the class had a group discussion on the reading and on the very reasons the Indians were taken advantage of. There was arguments on the concept on the Indian Removal Act in 1830. The two sides to the disagreement were based on if the Europeans moved the Indians out of compassion or selfishness. My thoughts were that the Europeans only had concerns about obtaining more land to increase the economy and they removed the Indians because they were in the way of what the settlers wanted. The Indians were no more then a seer annoyance and were pushed aside. I really do not believe that the Europeans had anything else in mind other than for their own personal gain and prosperity. The class came to an agreement in the end about how John Marshall's writing was so convenient to acquiring the ultimate goal of more land. Also that there was definitely some Puritan ideals found. The main ideal was the thought that it was impossible to mix races. These very details that came from the reading will help in moving forward to understand why other events regarding the Indians occurred.