The Indian Removal Act

Under influence of president Andrew Jackson, the congress was urged in 1830 to pass the Indian Removal Act, with the goal of relocated many Native Americans in the East territory, the west of Mississippi river.

Could you imagine being moved from your home and march hundreds of miles at gunpoint! It sounds like a nightmare but it was a reality for many innocent people they were forced to move to a whole different place and try to survive.

Andrew Jackson has been remembered as a ground breaking president, even being put on the $20. President Jackson was a controversial figure, doing many popular and unpopular things in his time. Although he is remembered as a hero from the war of 1812, he also caused the Trail of Tears and tried to destroy the National Bank. As a result, Jackson should not be put on the $20 bill. His actions have caused many misfortune showing that villains do exist.

The Indian Removal Act was signed in 1830 by President Andrew Jackson to remove the Cherokee Indians from their homes and force them to settle west of the Mississippi River. The act was passed in hopes to gain agrarian land that would replenish the cotton industry which had plummeted after the Panic of 1819. Andrew Jackson believed that effectively forcing the Cherokees to become more civilized and to christianize them would be beneficial to them. Therefore, he thought the journey westward was necessary. In late 1838, the Cherokees were removed from their homes and forced into a brutal journey westward in the bitter cold. The hardships of the sufferable journey can be observed by three separate accounts form a Cherokee woman, a Cherokee slave,

One of our presidents defied the Supreme Court, murdered people, and destroyed thousands of lives. This could only be one person in U.S. history, Andrew Jackson. He did many horrible things during his life, some were barbaric and were unprecedented for his time. He forced thousands of Native Americans from their homelands during the Trail of Tears. He had many traits that made him that made him do many bad things.

When the Europeans began colonizing the New World, they had a problematic relationship with the Native Americans. The Europeans sought to control a land that the Natives inhabited all their lives. They came and decided to take whatever they wanted regardless of how it affected the Native Americans. They legislated several laws, such as the Indian Removal Act, to establish their authority. The Indian Removal Act had a negative impact on the Native Americans because they were driven away from their ancestral homes, forced to adopt a different lifestyle, and their journey westwards caused the deaths of many Native Americans.

Andrew Jackson's personal and political values largely reflected those of early American colonists, but he was a man of contradiction. While he professed to be a strong Christian, and seemed to become more so as he got older, he was a strong supporter of slavery and believed that Indians, or native Americans, were "children, who required guidance.

Andrew Jackson supposedly stood for the rights of men, however he treated men like nothing more than a vermin and livestock.The Trail of Tears is “ one of death and dying--for old men, young women, small children, and expectant mothers, all under the bayonets of white troops. The Cherokee were hunted down, herded into stockades, organized in wagon trains, and sent forth under military guard”(Gottesman). They were treated as outsiders, something to get rid of. However, the people were there a lot longer than any of the people taking their own land.This is undemocratic because they had the right as a sovereign nation to their own property Before the Trail of Tears, the Native Americans were “[taken] to enormous stockades built for [them] out in the open, which were growing very cold as November arrived. [The Native Americans] had only the clothes on [their] backs when captured, and the prison camps offered no barrier to the biting elements other than their perimeter walls and [their] own bodies (13 Dwyer). They were treated as vermin, given very little and no care shown as to whether or not they would die. Jackson is shown to be very undemocratic because he did not take into account that these are living people. He instead, acted as though they were nothing but a problem to be dealt with in his eyes. This also challenges his idea of standing for the common man. On the way to Oklahoma, it got worse, they were lied to, they were told they would take boats to the territory and given food. All that came was cold, starvation and diseases, “Cholera, measles, dysentery, tuberculosis, and other diseases we didn't have names for swept through the tribe” (15 Dwye). This led to the deaths of thousands of people, Almost a third of the original people were dead from before the stockade until when they got to Oklahoma. Most people would not allow this to happen to

President Jackson and Congress disagreed on the Indian Removal Policy, but Jackson went forward with it anyway. The Indians had fought with the people since the original colonization, and the U.S citizens were usually the aggrovators. The U.S had only had a couple of good relationship years, the rest of the time, there was a large amount of tension and small “wars” between the people and Natives. The U.S and Natives had been under tension for multiple years when Jackson declared the Indian Removal policy. The authors perspective towards the Indian Removal Act and Trail of Tears helped to shape our current understanding by showing how different people can have different views on a topic.

The Indian Removal Act was passed in the year 1830 and by 1837 46,000 Native Americans were forced from their lands. “Long time we travel on way to new land. People feel bad when we leave old nation. Women cry and make sad wails. Children cry and many men cry, and all look sad like when friends die, but they say nothing and keep on going towards west. Many days pass and people die very much. We bury close by trail.” (Lynn Peppas pg 4) A Trail of Tears survivor described it like this, imagine walking not really knowing when you are going to stop and watching people, your friends and family, die right in front of you.

To begin, Andrew Jackson was the reason that so many Indians had to leave their homes. This was called the Trail of Tears. This, was the time where the government forced the Indians, mostly the Cherokee, to leave their homes immediately. They could not take any of their belongings with them, other than what they were wearing. About 25% of them died, which was roughly 20,000 Native Americans. If they got sick, or couldn’t walk any farther, they would soon die. Most infants, elderly, and children did not survive due to their vulnerability to these problems. This major event happened because of Jackson’s racism to Indians. Many natives suffered

“Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race.”

Jackson shut out the Indians from states that what lead to the event “Trail of Tears”. The Trail of Tears would be his lowest point in the presidency. Even though the Five Civilized Tribe adopted American culture, speaking English, and try to become more “American”, but Andrew Jackson still did not want to accept them as a part of American people. He defended his policy as he proclaimed that Indians were a major problem for state sovereignty and obstacles to white

In 1830 Andrew Jackson passed the “1830 Indian Removal Act” (2) though senate. Out of the five major Native American groups that were affected by this legislation, only the Cherokee decided not to run or give up, but rather fight in the courts. This led to the most referenced court case in the supreme court history. This court case is a mile stone in the United States History due to, the events leading up to the court case, the Supreme Court ruling represents, and what became of the court’s decision.

As I look at the lines on my hands and the color on my skin I know by heart the many lives that were ended, and millions who resisted. My heroes are never discussed, never praised like the presidents. My heroes were the foundation of why America stands today and for the remaining years ahead. In 1492, a forceful resistance to culture invasion erupted in America. As expolorers and settlers entered the America there was no intentions to keep the natives there. The reason why we still have a high percentage of native peoples today is because they resist till their last breath so their stories and teaching would not be forgotten. Today millions of indigenous communities are fighting and protesting for the very same issues that happened centuries