The Cambridge History of American Literature

Chief Joseph's words in the nation's capital are a simple reminder that American literature of the frontier was always a literature of political and cultural conflict, one in which language itself was a weapon of subjugation and an agent of transformation. The War of 1812 marked important defeats for American Indians in both the North and the Southeast and elevated to national fame General William Henry Harrison and General Andrew Jackson. Both were vociferous on the subject of removing Indians from territories coveted by whites. By the policy of Removal, the population of American Indians east of the Mississippi was reduced from the 1820s through the 1840s to a quarter of its original size, In both political and psychological terms, American Indians perform a crucial role in situating Euro-American conquest within an epic pattern that was claimed to be at once providential and natural, unfolding according to observable laws of national purpose.