Station 7: Excerpt from the closing paragraphs of an address made by a council of Cherokee people to the United States in July 1830. 1 We are aware, that some persons suppose it will be for our advantage to remove beyond the Mississippi. We think otherwise. Our 2 people universally think otherwise…. there is probably not an adult person in the Cherokee nation, who would think it best to remove… 3 4 We are not willing to remove; and if we could be brought to this extremity, it would be not by argument, not because our judgment was 5 satisfied, not because our condition will be improved; but only because we cannot endure to be deprived of our national and individual 6 rights and subjected to a process of intolerable oppression. 7 8 We wish to remain on the land of our fathers...we see nothing but ruin before us. The country west of the Arkansas territory is unknown 9 to us. From what we can of it, we have no prepossessions in its favor. All the inviting parts of it, as we believe, are preoccupied by 10 various Indian nations...They would regard us as intruders, and look upon us with an evil eye... All our neighbors, in case of our 11 removal, though crowded into our near vicinity, would speak a language totally different from ours, and practice different 12 customs…Were the country to which we are urged much better than it is represented to be and were it free from the objections which 13 we have made to it, still it is not the land of our birth, nor of our affections. It contains neither the scenes of our childhood, nor the graves 14 of our fathers. 15
Station 7: Excerpt from the closing paragraphs of an address made by a council of Cherokee people to the United States in July 1830. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 We are aware, that some persons suppose it will be for our advantage to remove beyond the Mississippi. We think otherwise. Our people universally think otherwise…. there is probably not an adult person in the Cherokee nation, who would think it best to remove… We are not willing to remove; and if we could be brought to this extremity, it would be not by argument, not because our judgment was satisfied, not because our condition will be improved; but only because we cannot endure to be deprived of our national and individual rights and subjected to a process of intolerable oppression. We wish to remain on the land of our fathers...we see nothing but ruin before us. The country west of the Arkansas territory is unknown to us. From what we can of it, we have no prepossessions in its favor. All the inviting parts of it, as we believe, are preoccupied by various Indian nations...They would regard us as intruders, and look upon us with an evil eye... All our neighbors, in case of our removal, though crowded into our near vicinity, would speak a language totally different from ours, and practice different customs…Were the country to which we are urged much better than it is represented to be and were it free from the objections which we have made to it, still it is not the land of our birth, nor of our affections. It contains neither the scenes of our childhood, nor the graves of our fathers.
copy_of_unit_3a_indian_removal_act_stations_version_a.docx