The Trail Of Tears: The First Seminole War

In the late 1830’s, where the United States was growing rapidly, whites faced an obstacle while trying to settle in the South. This area of land was home of the Cherokee and other Indian tribes. The Cherokee Indians signed treaties hoping that white settlers would not come for their land. Prompted by the state of Georgia along with the president, Andrew Jackson, whom did not like Indians, expelled the Cherokee Indians from their homeland. Cherokee’s pleas to Georgia and the Supreme Court did little to stop their removal.

The Trail of Tears was an effort by president Andrew Jackson to relocate Native Americans to regions in and around present-day Oklahoma. Jackson claimed this mass migration was beneficial to the american people and helped them to advance civilization; however, many historians today say that this was a cruel injustice. Almost everyone involved in the Trail of Tears felt poorly about the mistreatment, especially the Cherokee people that were being harmed and killed. The conditions were not fit for any human being and the soldiers removing them did serious psychological damage to the men, women, and children they took.

The dispersing of the Indians, particularly the five civilized tribes of the southwest: Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole fairly began before the approval of the Indian Removal Act. As the European-Americans were progressing the procedure of passing the Act was bound to happen. They were once a secluded society and now forced to a loss of war. The Indian Removal Act was signed on 1830 by President Andrew Jackson. The act allowed President Andrew Jackson to provide the states with federal funds to remove the civilized tribes and reject the Indians from letting them to be part of the European-American society.

Before European exploration and colonization, Indians attained a massive population throughout the Americas.  Living mostly in harmony with neighboring tribes, they were self-sufficient by utilizing their lands.   However, the arrival of Europeans greatly altered the lives of American Indians by lessening their population, introducing diseases, and dominating their lands. By the end of the 1400s, Europeans began to take an interest in the world outside their own boundaries.

The cultural differences and control over resources between Native Americans and Americans led to a long journey of Native Americans relocating west due to their land being illegally confiscated from them. The overgrowing population of Americans was the cause of the unjust and inhumane treatment of Native Americans in order for them rapidly expand their culture. Still, Native Americans continued to protect their common title of their land and preserve their existence until thousands of them were forced to move west because Americans didn’t follow through with their agreements, taking away their nation and their spirits. “Both congress and the states were eager to make the lands of western tribes available to American citizens, but none had

Did you ever think about native americans throughout time? How they lived in the past to today? Throughout time Native Americans have faced many difficult obstacles, some that we know about that happened in the past, to recent happenings. From new land being discovered to diseases spread, to conflicts, wars, and to poverty in the modern world. These are the conflicts the The Native Americans faced from the beginning of time, to the modern day.

Jackson’s plans of removal were favored by many Americans as he convinced them that it was practical and for the better good of Native Americans. Jackson stated that he had given them many incentives to leave. Native Americans would be provided with ample supplies and supported for a year after their move to western lands. Jackson believed that this was a practical resolution to the issues developing between the two nations. Jackson acknowledged that the intrusion of Americans onto western land was occurring, but he did not believe that it was a genuine problem.

The Trail of Tears was ignominy in the history of United States. After President Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the United States Military forced many Native American Tribes off their land. About 15,000 Cherokees were forced to leave from their land and this journey became to be known as “The Trail of Tears”. The Cherokees were forced because the greedy Americans wanted the land for agriculture and to grow cotton which would earn them a lot of money. The tribes were forced to moved westward from their ancestral land and settle in Oklahoma Territory.

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.

Throughout history, there have been many events that have washed away the innocents of mankind. The Trail of Tears is a true historical horror scene, targeting one race, the Native Americans, and removing them from civilization in the most “humane” way. Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, wanted land that was already owned. The signing of the Treaty of New Echota ceded Cherokee land to the United States in exchange for compensation. In 1838 and 1839, the Indian removal policy forced the Indians to give up their land and walk to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma).