Excerpt from Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father of Indian Removal
By Mark Hirsch (historian in the Research Unit of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.)

http://westgatehouse.com/art263.html

"As Lewis and Clark explored the West, Jeffers...on began hammering out a policy for acquiring lands from tribes living east of the Mississippi. The plan rested on alternately encouraging, cajoling, bribing, tricking and pressuring Indians into signing treaties that ceded tribal lands to the United States.

Jefferson first instructed his agents to persuade Indians to adopt agriculture. That new way of life, the agents explained, would require less land than hunting. With no need for their vast forests, the Indians were encouraged to sell their uncultivated territories for 25 cents per acre, the profits of which Indian farmers could use to purchase agricultural tools and manufactured goods. To stimulate Indian consumerism, Jefferson increased the number of government trading houses located near Native villages, arguing publicly that the establishments enabled Indians to share in the fruits of white "civilization." But it was a ploy. His real motive, he confided in 1803, was to lure Indians into spending themselves into debt, obligations that would be paid off through the sale of tribal lands. "

"Jefferson suggested that if the various Indian nations could be encouraged to purchase goods on credit, they would likely fall into debt, which they could relieve through the sale of lands to the government."

"To promote this disposition to exchange lands, which they have to spare and we want, for necessaries, which we have to spare and they want, we shall push our trading uses, and be glad to see the good and influential individuals among them run in debt, because we observe that when these debts get beyond what the individuals can pay, they become willing to lop them off by a cession of lands." - Thomas Jefferson

Ghostwarrior, i know what you mean, the first Declaration of Indepence came out of Charlotte,N.C., i read in some history somewhere that people in this state and others didnt trust those folks fully. I am of the opinion that the appropriate technology and respect for Creation in all catagories will set things right. That is my hope and intent.

Mark Hirsch states in his article that “Unlike many of his contemporaries, Jefferson considered the Indian to be by nature equal to the white man.” Proof of this exists in a letter written by Jefferson to Marquis de Chastellux, a French military officer who acted as a liaison between the French chief commander and George Washington. In 1785 he wrote: "And I am safe in affirming that the proofs of genius given by the Indians of N. America, place them on a level with Whites in the same uncultivated state. I believe the Indian then to be in body & mind equal to the white man.”

To Edward Carrington, Jefferson wrote in 1787: “I am convinced that those societies [as the Indians] which live without government enjoy in their general mass an infinitely greater degree of happiness than those who live under European governments.

Mark Hirsch state in his article: “Jefferson admired Native "character" and often expressed concern for Native people. Yet, as president from 1801 to 1809, he pursued policies that eroded tribal homelands and cultures, and laid the foundation for the devastating Indian removals of the 1830s.”

Why did Jefferson initiate such atrocities on a people he seemingly held in high regard? Greed. Or maybe he was trying to impress Sally Hemings. Thomas Jefferson, wherever you are, you are a hypocrite, a double-dealer, liar and as Ghost Warrior states, founding father of american Genocide. Historian David E. Stannard reasons that Jefferson’s biographers tend to overlook certain views and instead glorify him in typical american iconic fashion. He believes historians would have viewed Jefferson and his opinions quite differently if they would have “been enunciated by a German leader in 1939.”

In 1785 Jefferson wrote his nephew Peter Carr: “Make these then your first object. Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give up the earth itself and all it contains, rather than do an immoral act. And never suppose, that in any possible situation, or under any circumstances, it is best for you to do a dishonorable thing, however slightly so it may appear to you… He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him. This falsehood of tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions.”

It has caused immeasurable grief to First Nations people that he did not heed his own advice.

With all due respect to Mr. Hirsch, his article contains a typo in paragraph 8; the "Louisiana territories" were again stolen in 1803, not 1893.

In the 1791 Treaty of Holston with Cherokees, Article 14,It states that the Cherokee Nation may be led to a greater degree of civilization and to become herdsman and cultivators instead of remaining in a state of hunters,the United States will time to time furnish gratuitously husbandry,and further to assist the said Nation in so desirable a pursuit,and at the same time to establish a mode of communication,the United States will send such,and so many persons to reside in such Nation as they may judge proper,not exceeding four in number,who shall qualify themselves to act as interpreters.These persons shall have lands assigned by the Cherokees for cultivation for themselves and their successors in office; but they shall be precluded exercising any kind of traffic........The Chicamaugan Cherokees signed this treaty under the idea that they would get their leader Dragging Canoe's wife and daughter back from being kidnapped by the white people.Dragging Canoe never signed this treaty or dare to sign any treaty.It is written in one of the articles of this treaty about people returning their captives.After signing this treaty the Cherokees was given an American flag.When they got home and Dragging Canoe saw the American flag he shot it full of holes.Dragging Canoe got his wife back but he never got his daughter back.She was sold to a white preacher the last they heard. Jennifer

The only thing Indians needed, Jefferson insisted, was the civilizing influence of agriculture. (Like English theorists since John Locke, Jefferson willfully ignored extensive and highly productive Native farming which did not use European implements.) By abandoning hunting and adopting farming, he counseled, Indians would rise from "savagery" to "civilization" and eventually be absorbed into American society. As president, he extolled the virtues of agriculture in meetings with Native leaders, in correspondence and in speeches. "In leading [Indians] to agriculture," he told Congress in 1803, "I trust and believe that we are acting for their greatest good."

I sure am glad that the first european invaders came here with the knowledge and seed stock to grow corn, squash and beans.

Let"s not forget tomatoes (pizza just wouldn't be pizza w/o them) and potatoes.

Thomas Jefferson was probably jealous of the Indians great planting knowledge.That is why he was fascinated with them.He considered botany as the most useful of the sciences.Thomas Jefferson foresaw a day when the US might stretch from coast to coast.When Jefferson organized the Lewis and Clark expedition he sent Lewis to train with the leading botanists of that time(probably Indians) to prepare him to collect plant specimens on the expedition.Jennifer