Carson Bonner, Campus Carrier news editor

Eric Zuniga, Campus Carrier deputy news editor

Berry’s history department, in collaboration with Rome’s Chieftains Museum, hosted Michael Morris, a professor of history at College of Coastal Georgia, for a lecture on the history of Cherokee removal in Georgia last Thursday. The talk was part of a new lecture series stemming from a partnership between the history department and the Chieftains Museum. 

According to Associate Professor of History Christy Snider, the museum approached Berry’s history department after receiving a grant to host scholars in Native American history. Snider agreed to offer the space needed to hold these lectures. 

“They asked us if we’d be interested and I thought it was a great opportunity for us to provide space, they’re bringing these lecturers,” Snider said. “I think it is a topic that is of interest to not only the Rome community but to our students given our location on Cherokee land.” 

Olivia Cawood, the Chieftains Museum’s executive director, said that Morris has conducted research on the political aspects of Cherokee removal in the 1830s. He has also worked on resources for schools.

“He’s done a lot of research and published several articles and a couple of books on Chreokee history, mostly concentrating on those legal and political issues,” Cawood said. “He’s also done work on the Muscogee or the Creek tribes around here and done a lot of K-12 education resources for the state of Georgia.”

Morris primarily spoke on the history surrounding the removal of the Cherokee and the context surrounding President Andrew Jackson’s desire for removal. According to Morris, Jackson and southerners at the time viewed Native Americans as subhuman, which heavily influenced the justification behind their removal from the land. The concept of removal also became a North versus South conflict and was thought of in a similar way to the concept of slavery, in which slaves were seen as subhuman and not capable of utilizing freedom. 

“Most people–especially white people at the time–would have been just like [the politicians] and say, the Indians need to go, this is their time to go. The government promised to remove them,” Morris said. “They wanted gun-toting, Indian-fighting, British-hating people.”

During the lecture, Morris said that missionaries’ relationship with Native American Tribal Nations was another point of contention in the Native American removal. Missionaries attempted to bring European farming, legal and religious practices to the tribal groups and in doing so, became close to these groups. As a result, missionary groups opposed Jackson and argued against removal. One missionary, Samuel Worcester, defended Cherokee sovereignty before the Supreme Court.

“The missionaries fought back,” Morris said during the lecture. “Worcester called a meeting of all the missionaries at his home in late December 1830, and they signed a pledge that they would not budge, they would not leave the Indians and they would not counsel them to sign [the removal document].” 

Despite the opposition, the American government proceeded with removal during the 1830s. According to Morris, the military began to round up Cherokee who had not gone to detainment camps after a voluntary removal deadline. An estimated 4,000 people died during the forced migration to Indian Territory in Oklahoma, which Morris said can be considered an act of ethnic cleansing.

“I would consider it ethnic cleansing, maybe not to the extermination point, because most people thought they were going to become extinct by the end of the century,” Morris said. “They had enough scientific knowledge to think it was predestined and just going to happen.”

The events of Cherokee removal, which took place in northwest Georgia, are immediately relevant to Berry’s campus and the Rome community. Snider said that it is important to acknowledge that Berry sits on what was once Cherokee land. She added that Chief of Staff Casee Gilbert has been working on a land acknowledgement for the college.

“I talked to Casee before and it sounds like she would also like to put some of that online so that we acknowledge that yes, we’re sitting on this land that other people were dispossessed of before,” Snider said. “It wasn’t like Berry moved in right after the Cherokee were dispossessed, but it’s still an acknowledgment that this occurred where we are and we should be cognizant of that.”

Native Americans still face significant disadvantages today. Members of tribes were the last group in the United States to receive citizenship, with Congress only granting native citizenship in 1924. The legal rights of tribes have become more recognized in the courts since the 1970s, but many tribes still struggle with unemployment and poverty.

“What the government can’t quite solve is unemployment, gangs, drug problems out in some of the western tribes,” Morris said. “Tribes like the Cherokees are finding creative solutions like the casino, and if you know anything about the casino, enrolled tribal members get two checks a year from the tribal proceeds. It’s not enough to live upon per se, but $10,000 can help pay for a car; it can help pay for college.”

Morris finds parallels between the conflict over native removal and the current political situation. In his talk, he compared the controversy over removal to current debates over reproductive and religious rights. He said that natives faced prejudice similar to what the LGBTQ community faces today.

“I always think of the LGBTQ community as the new group that people are saying don’t belong, don’t fit in,” Morris said. “People that believe those things almost act like a fear of contamination–if you touch my child, they’ll suddenly want to paint their fingernails. It’s like it’s something that can be caught, so it’s different groups.”

According to Cawood, it is important to acknowledge and remember Cherokee history because it is a difficult part of history in the region that is easily overlooked.

“I think it’s important because it is often an area of our history that we don’t like to talk about,” Cawood said. “It’s difficult and it’s hard to reconcile, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not important or that it shouldn’t be shared. It just means that we have to take that hard look at it and learn from it so that we’re not in danger of repeating those same mistakes, and so that we have a full picture of history instead of just a one-sided version.”

One way that students can involve themselves in preserving Cherokee history is by interning or working at the Chieftain’s Museum. There are often summer internships open for history majors that provide an opportunity to engage with the museum and its history. In years past there has also been a Cherokee Heritage Day, where people have gathered in Ridge Ferry Park to celebrate and acknowledge Cherokee history and culture.

“They’re hiring six interns over at the Chieftains Museum for the summer,” Snider said. “I just sent our history majors those internship opportunities. I’d love to have more of these kind of connections open to students”

Assuming that there is continued interest and continued speaker availability for this series of Cultural Event credits, it will continue into next school year. According to Snider, there has been high student attendance, and it seems as though there will be speakers able and willing to lead discussions at Berry events.

“They’re going to bring some speakers in, so we’re going to meet and talk about whether any of those would be applicable with interest to Berry students as well,” Snider said. “And if so, we’ll do something similar again. I’d really love it if it interests more students.”