Five Civilized Nations

The 5 Civilized Nations was a group on indian tribes that conformed to the anglo-saxon ways of education, religion, science, and various othe social constructs that made the white man comfortable. The 5 tribes involved were the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole.
==How it All Began==
The inititive to start modernizing the native american tribes was started by George Washington and Henry Knox. Washington believed that the indians were equal, but their society was inferior, and by helping them to adopt ideas of private property, homes, proper education, and embracing christianity will help them to be accpeted by the white americans. This also included preferential treatment to the indians which included impartial justice towards the indians, regulation of buying their lands, presidential authority to give presents to indians, improve indian society, commerce, and harsh punishment of people who violated indian rights. Thomas Jefferson pushed for the practice to continue and it did until the forced relocations started.
==Nations in American History==
The civilized nations all hailed from the southeast of the United States and were equally divided amongst themselves during the civil war. The Coctaw and Chickasaw fought for the Confederacy while the Creek and Seminole fougt for the Union. The Cherokee were divided on who they should fight for and instead had their own civil war trying to decide who to fight for during the civil war.
==Forced Relocations==
On June 30, 1830 Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law which abandoned the previous policies inacted by Washington and Jefferson and moved many tribes from their ancestral homes and into various parts of Oklahoma and Kansas. The law stated that the removals would be voluntary, but many state governments forced unfair treaties on many tribes as evidenced by the Seminole resistance. The Seminoles fought harshly against American troops and refused to listen to any more "deals" for their land. The rest of the tribes were given land in the west and forced to walk there. The tribes called this forced relocation the "Trail of Tears" after the amount of death and suffering that they had been put through during the treaty siginings and forced relocations.
==Where are they Now?==
The land that was given to the 5 nations was promised to belong to them, but after the gold rush, the previous promises were broken and eventually the tribal nations were disolved and forced to become part of the United States. With the enactment of Indian Reservations many people were able to move back to parts of their homelands and open casinos.
Category:Indian Nations