What if no "Trail of Tears"?

Between 1830 and 1938 Eastern Native Americans, most living in the mid and southern United States, were forced off their land and made to move to Oklahoma. Many died along the way from disease, hunger, exposure, and out and out murder.

But lets look at 2 other scenarios:

1. The NA's were never forced off their lands and dealt with the state governments of those new areas who may or may not have respected the indians land rights that they signed with the federal government.
2. They were pushed off but the government did it with greater compassion. Providing more food, shelter, wagons, and allowed travel in safer times of the year.

How do you think each scenario would have affected the tribes today?

Personally I dont see #1 happening because the government at that time already had problems with states rights considering the issue of slavery and tariffs. The newly formed states in areas like Kentucky had no desire or incentive to protect the rights of people whom they didnt even recognize as Americans. However being the fact that even after removal some still refused to leave and therefore carved out there own niche which today would be an even bigger presence.

As for #2, I'm not sure. Less bitterness I'm sure later on.
 
Well if they don't go, then there's likely to be some sort of conflict against settlers that will see many Natives ultimately slaughtered. This will probably push them into the mountains where there already was lots of intermarriage with the Appalachians (which is one reason why this region was greatly ignored in OTL, the area was heavily intermixed with all three of the area's racial groups - more on the white end as we approach the 20th century - and did not factor into the greater south's binary racial world).

This could translate into many of these tribes not being "recognized" in terms of having reservations or treated in theory as sovereign nations by the US government. It could also possibly translate in complicating any ACW scenario since Natives in such a situation will probably not be too crazy about the CSA (or they might not give a shit at all and wait out the storm in the mountains). At the same time, if they are ignored in such an isolated region, you might see them have more of their culture and language intact like many Native-identifying groups in Mexico. Depends if they're still noticed by the government if the boarding schools happen in TTL.

If they are helped more in a more humane Trail of Tears scenario, I don't see too much of a difference outside of the majority of the tribes possibly supporting the Union over the CSA. They were still kicked out of their homeland, and this never leads to happy feelings. However there might be other factors, such as the Union and CSA honoring sovereignty, slave ownership, and continuation of sending payments and honoring treaty rights, which all played a role in what side many of the tribes took in OTL regardless their earlier treatment.
 

katchen

Banned
I think Nat Turner's Rebellion pretty much sealed the fate of Native American tribes in the South. I suspect that Southerners really became up in arms about the presence of Cherokee, Muskogee (Creek) and Choctaw in the South after Nat Turner made Southerners paranoid about "servile rebellion" and fears developed that Native Americans might aid the African-Americans overrriding the fact that Native Americans kept slaves themselves. Though Native American enslavement of African-Americans was nowhere hear as dehumanizing as white enslavement and often resulted in the slave gaining freedom through initiation into the tribe.
 
If they stayed...

There would be many massacres against Indians carried out by white settlers, with varying levels of support from state government (varying, that is, from "we're not going to prosecute the murderers" to "here's your guns and a map to the Indian village!") .

Some native groups that survived IOTL could very well go extinct in this scenario, as they would not be in any way isolated from the bulk of white populations. And as Othersyde pointed out, there may be greater mestizo-ization. This could eventually become a point of pride as Native Americans move from 'bloodthirsty menace' to 'noble savage' in the American popular consciousness. We may see a greater occurrence of the "my great-great grandmother was a Cherokee princess" legend-and ITTL, such folk geneologies would be much more likely to be true!

I think some native populations could eventually thrive. The Cherokee would probably end up pushed off a lot of their good land, but there would definitely be at least an upper class of Cherokee plantation owners who would do very well for themselves in the South. If they stay true to their Cherokee roots, their wealth could trickle down to the lower class and more traditionalist Cherokees who would not get rich in this scenario.

I think katchen's statement about fear of slaves is especially true for the Seminoles. To avoid deportation for them, there would probably have to be mass (re)enslavement of black Seminoles and the maroon communities that were their neighbors.
 
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