Peter N. Herndon
The new republic realized the danger to the Native Americans, and tried to formulate policy that would protect the Indians. Early laws and treaties existed that attempted to safeguard Indian lands from encroachment by whites.
In 1791, the Treaty of Holston between the United States and the Cherokees warned that if any non-Indian should "settle on any of the Cherokees' lands, such person shall forfeit the protection of the United States, and the Cherokees may punish him, or not, as they please." (Bordewich, page 37) Secretary of War Henry Knox proposed criminal action against violators. But the flood of settlers was unrelenting. The central government was too distant; the hunger for land too great. So, despite treaties and government warnings, American settlers streamed into Indian lands with little regard for the law.
Indians sometimes responded to the situation with an eye toward the future, realizing it was in their best interest to adapt to the changing times. In 1791, the Seneca chief Cornplanter wrote to Quakers in Philadelphia for financial help so that he could provide his people with the technical skills they would need in order for them to become more "Americanized" and less dependent on the "old ways." (Bordewich, page 38)
According to Thomas Jefferson and many early Christian missionaries, the way of the future was to teach the Native Americans the principles of property ownership, farming and cattle raising. In the early nineteenth century, government policy toward pacifying the Indians was to attempt to incorporate them into the American culture. Quakers, Methodists, Moravians and Baptists established "model settlements" along the frontier intended to attract Native Americans to a life-style in keeping with Protestant values. Along with Bibles, church groups supplied the Indians with plows, looms, spinning wheels and livestock, often courtesy of federal funds. Christian missionaries trekked into the wilderness hand-in-hand with government-paid carpenters and blacksmiths. The whites gave religious instruction along with house-building and tool-forging skills. David Zeisberger, who committed his life to working among the Delawares, and believed that all people had the right to a place in God's family, welcomed the Native Americans into the Christian community as equal members. He noted that "Those who come to Christ and join the church turn to agriculture and raising stock, keeping cattle, hogs and fowls." (Bordewich, page 39) There seemed to be a definite link between church and state policies of the time, since both intended to assimilate Native Americans into the Euro-American way of life. The government's task, then, was to convince the Indians to reject their old identity as antiquated and impractical and embrace new ways and skills that would better equip them to survive in a land that was rapidly changing its identity. Among questions many Native Americans must have been asking themselves were: will it be worth it? Will the gains outweigh the losses? Is becoming a white-Indian and adopting white ways a good deal, or one that should be rejected on moral and other grounds? Will it work?