What would it be like to have everything common and normal in life taken away within a moments notice? The film Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee explores this question through the historical events that took place during the Indian removal era. Furthermore, the film reveals the motives of the U.S. government through the many scenes in which they attempt to negotiate for land with the Sioux Indians. The Sioux refuse to sell their land, so the United States forces the Sioux to pay for the western expansion with life, land, and freedom. The Sioux Indians had lived on the Dakota Territory for longer than the white men had been in North America, and they would rather die than allow the United States to take their land.
There is a saying in Africa, “Don’t make decisions about us, without us!” Andrew Jackson did not talk to the Indians before he made a bad decision which cost the lives of 4,000 Indians and dislocated 46,000 others. At the same time, the settlers weren’t happy with the Indian Removal Act process, it was too slow for them. “The policy was enacted with remarkable speed, but not fast enough to satisfy whites in the South and Southwest.” (p.331) Jackson's Democracy was always cast for the benefit of white men, it didn't even include white
Document 5 shows the trail of tears. The Trail of Tears was when Andrew Jackson made the Indian Removal Law in 1830 which forced all of the Native Americans move to Oklahoma, which was the most undesirable land. As seen in this document, there are many native americans who are doing different things. All of the native americans are walking to the Oklahoma but many are sad. One is wiping his eyes with a handkerchief and others are helping the sick and burying the dead.
In the proposals prior to the journey, officials made people believe it would be an easy journey. The language of the Indian Removal Act foreshadowed the horrific treatment of the Native Americans referring to them as savages and barbarians. The actions towards Native Americans were humiliating and degrading including being dragged from their homes and buried in unmarked graves. These Native Americans were forced to leave their entire livelihood behind only to support the white cause, which did not benefit them in any
This event is more commonly known as The Trail of Tears. The original purpose of the act was to negotiate with the Indians, not to forcefully remove them. Andrew Jackson, on the other hand, disregarded this and began to remove the Native Americans forcefully and irrationally. Andrew Jackson and his armies made the natives walk countless miles, more specifically 1,200 miles. The government made them walk without provisions and rest.
Andrew Jackson thought these Indians were in the way of eastern development, using the Indian Removal Act which the congress had approved he decided to kick them out and send them west. In 1831 the Supreme Court ruled that the Cherokee Indians had the right to self government and the United States could not interfere with that. Jackson ignored the Supreme Court. He continued forcing indians out the west. This journey is known as the Trail of Tears.
President Andrew Jackson passed a law that stated the removal of the Cherokee Indians. They were forced to migrate elsewhere and leave their land. Their migration was called “The Trail of Tears” because of the negative effects it had on the Cherokees. It should not have happened and the U.S. should not have allowed it because it split apart people that were unified. They already had their own laws, and every clan was recognized.
Great intentions don’t always reflect in the actions. If the great intentions aren’t reflected in the actions they are not received by those being effected by them. This was the case with the Indian Removal Act of 1830. At the beginning of the 1830s, nearly 125,000 Indian tribes lived on millions of acres of land that their ancestors had occupied and cultivated for generations located in the south of east coast. By the end of the decade, very few Native Americans remained anywhere in the southeastern United States, the federal militias came to Georgia to force them to leave their homelands and walk thousands miles westward to a specific designated " Indian territory " across the Mississippi River.
This helps us to understand the motives for Indian Removal.Wallace explains the different reasons why the Indians were removed from their land without blaming it on Jackson. He does this by pointing out the growth of the Industrial Revolution, the high demand for more cotton, and the promise that was made to purchase the Native American land in Georgia by the federal government. This all adds to the historical period by show different points of view of topics we thought for sure were only one way. All of them show how it’s not just one factor that makes things happen, but multiple factors that influence events. This
Due to these attitudes toward the Native Americans the settlers set out to acquire their lands. The land that were not taken through the Indian wars and perplexing deeds of sale which were unfair for the Native Americans were coveted by the