Thomas Jefferson and Native Americans

           

Thomas Jefferson

When studying Thomas Jefferson and his Native American relations, it is clear that there are similarities between Jefferson’s views on slavery and his views on Native Americans. Like his views on slavery, Jefferson would at times seem to have a positive attitude towards the Native Americans and at other times have a negative attitude. These attitudes correlated with whether or not Jefferson viewed the Native Americans as being beneficial or a nuisance to him and the future of the United States. Jefferson viewed Native Americans from scientific and political view points and treated them accordingly. Jefferson portrayed a positive attitude towards Native Americans when he was using them to learn more about the land, the different types of agriculture, and their culture in hopes of bettering the United States. Jefferson portrayed a negative attitude towards Native Americans when tensions strengthened between them and Americans and when Jefferson saw them as a potential threat to the betterment and expansion of the new country. These different attitudes towards the Native Americans helped shape Jefferson’s presidency and affected the country long after Jefferson left office.

Lewis and Clark expedition 

In Andrea Wulfs’ book, Founding Gardeners, she briefly discusses Jefferson’s relations with Native Americans during the Lewis and Clark expedition. During this expedition, Jefferson requested that Lewis and his men investigate and question the Native Americans and learn from them. He specifically asked for records on Native American vocabulary, information learned from the Native Americans on different plants, crops, and animals, their culture, and much more (Wulf, 2011). During this expedition Jefferson’s attitude towards Native Americans was positive because he saw them as necessary tools to help him learn and study new land and crops. His hopes were to learn as much from them as possible so that he could effectively help the United States grow and prosper. Jefferson was able to learn a large amount from the Native Americans on this expedition and he continued to learn from them once it was over. One important thing that Jefferson learned from this experience was about the existence of new crops that could be cultivated. Jefferson wanted America to be an agricultural country, so finding new crops was important in being able to accomplish this goal. A few of the crops Jefferson discovered from the Native Americans were corn, lima beans, and cymlins. These crops were important because Jefferson was able to experiment with them and find the best ways to cultivate them to produce higher yields. Producing higher yields was important because it was able to provide sufficient food to the citizens and enabled the United State to have crops for trade. These crops, and the numerous others the Native Americans introduced to Jefferson, are still affecting the country today. Today, the United States continues to cultivate and eats these crops as well as sells them to make a profit. If Jefferson had not reached out to the Native Americans, many of the crops we have today that are influenced by their culture may not have been discovered until much later (or not at all) and this could have impacted agriculture in the United States.

Routes that Native Americans took during relocation

As the article, American Indians states, Jefferson’s fascination with Native Americans began when he was boy in Virginia (American Indians). Although he found them fascinating, he never viewed them as being equal to white men and referred to them as the “Noble Savage” (Jewett, 2013). Once Jefferson felt that he had learned all he could from the Native Americans, he began to bend to the political will of the people. Many Americans feared and distrusted the Native Americans because of the stories of massacres occurring across the Appalachians. This distrust that many people felt worked well with Jefferson’s plan to try and force the Native Americans to pick up a European life style. Jefferson wanted the United States to become a thriving agricultural country, and the nomadic way of life that the Native Americans lived would hinder that. In order to accomplish his goal, Jefferson negotiated treaties to tie the Native Americans to the United States that would ensure their loyalty as well as initiating a “civilization program” (American Indians). Jefferson had a desire to expand the United States, but he had promised the Native Americans they could keep their land for as long as they wished. In order to take the land from them, Jefferson encouraged his agents to sell goods to them on credit, forcing them into debt. His hopes were that the Native Americans would then give their lands to the United States in order to pay off these debts, which is what would inevitably occur. Jefferson also began to formulate a plan to remove all Native Americans to the west of the Mississippi River (Ojibwa, 2010). Although this plan failed to take affect, it did set the basis for the eventual removal of Native Americans to reservations. Jefferson wanted the Native American lands to expand hunting grounds, to provide more space for homes, and for new lands to grow crops. Jefferson felt that he had learned all he could from the Native Americans, so now he saw them as a hindrance to the emerging country and formulated plans to remove them in order to gain their land. If Jefferson had never set into motion Indian removal, the United States could be a very different country today because of the lack of land the country was able to acquire for expansion.

                                    Jefferson pictured with Native Americans

Jefferson had conflicting attitudes when it came to Native Americans, and if each of these views had been different, it could have had a profound impact on the United States during his time as well as on the current United States. If Jefferson had never been interested in Native Americans and wished to learn from them, then the country could have fallen behind. By working with the Native Americans, Jefferson was able to quickly learn about the West, find new crops, and was able to learn how to cultivate these crops. If this had not happened it could have been years before another person set out to explore and understand the West, which would have meant the United States would have expanded at a much slower rate. Jefferson also learned much about crops and cultivation, and if he had never found these new crops and experimented with them then many major crops we have today could have been developed at a slower rate and could have possibly never been found. This would have impacted the United States because Americans cultivated these crops for food and trade during Jefferson’s time, and they remain a major part of our economy. Jefferson also had a negative attitude, which caused him to want to civilize and eventually remove the Native Americans from their land so the new country could expand on to it. If Jefferson had never set these plans into action, Indian removal may have happened at a much later time or not at all. This would have impacted America because it would have caused expansion to be slow (or nonexistent) and would have caused there to be much less land for cultivation. If there was less land for cultivation this could have caused the United States to have a smaller economy because they would not be producing as much commodities for trade. This could have slowed down the rate at which America was developing and could have caused it to fall behind other countries in terms of economic and political power. Also, if Native American removal had never taken place, the United States could be much smaller today because the lands that America currently possesses could still belong to the Native Americans. This could cause problems because America would be smaller in terms of land size, which affects its economic and political strength.  It could potentially cause the U.S. to have a smaller economy due to less land to provide space for agriculture, factories, plants, and other means of production as well. We can never truly know what the United States would have been like if Jefferson would have taken different approaches towards Native Americans, but it can be safely assumed that his attitudes towards them has had a lasting impact on America.

Native American lands throughout the years. Relocation was prompted by Jefferson.

Although Jefferson has two conflicting views on Native Americans, both of these views have proven important to the history of the United States. Jefferson had both a positive attitude and a negative attitude towards Native Americans and these two differences led to important developments in the early years of the new country. With Jefferson’s positive attitude, he was able to learn about crops, the land, and cultivation methods that still affect the country today. Jefferson’s negative attitude led to the eventual removal of Native Americans from their lands and led to the United States being able to acquire more land to help expand the country. The effects of these two attitudes are still seen today, and they leave the country wondering what the United States would be today if these views had been different.

  

 References

“American Indians”. Th. Jefferson Monticello. 1987. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.

Jewett, Tom. “Thomas Jefferson’s Views Concerning Native Americans”. Achieving Early
           America, 1995.Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
Ojibwa. “Thomas Jefferson and American Indians”. Native America Netroots. 2010. Web. 18
           Nov. 2013.
Wulf, Andrea. Founding Gardeners. New York: Vintage Books, 2011. Print.