Us Government Policy Toward Native Americans Dbq

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Though the United States government’s policy toward Native Americans from 1810 to 1840 changed in terms of purpose, the policy was negative as Native Americans were continually seen as inferior and their rights ignored, with the ultimate goal being to displace the Native Americans from their homelands in search of profit. Many Native Americans confronted the U.S. government about their attempts to migrate tribes off their homeland, only to be ignored due to the Natives’ inferior status to whites at the time, despite there being laws and treaties that stated their rights. Though the relations of Native Americans and whites had changed over the years, there still was a prejudice against the former. Felix Grundy referred to Natives as “savage …show more content…

government’s main goal was to displace them from their lands for the sole profit and benefit of the American people. This notion was achieved upon the Indian Removal Act of 1830, issued by President Andrew Jackson himself. Jackson admitted that though the general policy was to civilize the Natives, the government was also keen to “purchase their lands and thrust them farther into the wilderness” (Doc 4). The wilderness, in this case, would be the designated Indian Territory west of Missouri and the Arkansas Territory (Doc 7). This territory was leagues away from the various tribes’ homelands, one tribe even being removed from the southern tip of Florida. Furthermore, Natives occupied only a small portion of the territory as evident by the concentration of migrants in the southern most area (Doc 7). Naturally, this transition wasn’t seamless as some tribes refused to leave their sacred homeland. The Cherokees were a prominent opposer, having been forcibly removed and subjected to the infamous Trail of Tears in 1838. Despite being known as the tribe most assimilated to American society, the Cherokees were still forced to leave their ancestral home. Jackson and other politicians reasoned that the removal was for the Native Americans’ own safety and the preservation of their culture, but the removal only tore tribes away from the origins of their culture and

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