Indian Removal

Dear Katie,

It's not easy being a Native American in the United States right now. Native Americans have been living on these lands longer than your ancestors, yet we are considered "domestic foreigners" (p.21). There has even been recent talk that a man named Thomas McKenney is trying to remove us from our lands now and force us to move west of the Mississippi River for our "civilization" (p.23). My Tribe is very angry with the United States government right now because we all feel like we should not have to move. We have been on this land the longest and have made our homes here.

The Anglo-Saxon culture wants all Native Americans to become literate. Most tribes are accepting of this. However, we do not care to learn about religious conversion because our tribe does not plan on converting (p. 25). The government is trying to push religious conversion on us. I can't sleep that well anymore because I am in constant fear of being forced to leave tomorrow. I have grown up here, my family and tribe has made their living here. We have cultivated the earth, grown our food and I've done a lot of cooking for the tribe. I'm accustomed to living here and I don't want to start over. I don't want to travel across the Mississippi and risk having members of the tribe die. Tribes that have caved in and made the journey had cases of cholera, contaminated foods and more (p.28).

I just pray that our Tribe will be able to stay where we are.

Your Friend,
Pocahantas