Thomas Jefferson and Native Americans

This article is part of a series about Thomas Jefferson
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Thomas Jefferson believed Native American peoples to be a noble race^[1] who were "in body and mind equal to the whiteman"^[2] and were endowed with an innate moral sense and a marked capacity for reason. Nevertheless, he believed that Native Americans were culturally and technologically inferior. Like many contemporaries, he believed that Indian lands should be taken over by white people^[1] and made the taking of tribal lands a priority, with a four step plan to “(1) run the hunters into debt, then threaten to cut off their supplies unless the debts are paid out of the proceeds of a land cession; (2) bribe influential chiefs with money and private reservations; (3) select and invite friendly leaders to Washington to visit and negotiate with the President, after being overawed by the evident power of the United States; and (4) threaten trade embargo or war.”^[3]

Before and during his presidency, Jefferson discussed the need for respect, brotherhood, and trade with the Native Americans, and he initially believed that forcing them to adopt European-style agriculture and modes of living would allow them to quickly "progress" from "savagery" to "civilization".^[2] Beginning in 1803, Jefferson's private letters show increasing support for the idea of removal,^[1] and he suggested various ideas for removing tribes from enclaves in the East to their own new lands in lands west of the Mississippi River. Jefferson maintained that Indians had land "to spare" and, he thought, would willingly exchange it for guaranteed supplies of food and equipment.^[4] Starting in 1808, Jefferson initiated a programme of removing various Indian nations from lands east of the Mississippi River to the newly created Arkansas Territory,^[5] representing a prelude to the more formal and institutionalised policy of Indian removal to what is now Oklahoma that was passed by Congress in 1831 and implemented by Andrew Jackson.