Summary Of The Indian Removal Act And Trail Of Tears

The Genocide: Trail of Tears/ The Indian removal act During the 1830s the united states congress and president Andrew Jackson created and passed the “Indian removal act”. Which allowed Jackson to forcibly remove the Indians from their native lands in the southeastern states, such as Florida and Mississippi, and send them to specific “Indian reservations” across the Mississippi river, so the whites could take over their land. From 1830-1839 the five civilized tribes (The Cherokee, Choctaw, Seminole, and Chickasaw) were forced, sometimes by gun point, to march about 1,000 miles to what is present day Oklahoma.

As a part of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, Native American people were forcefully assembled and made to endure one of the longest walks from Georgia to Oklahoma on what has become known as the Trail of Tears. President Andrew Jackson’s motives for movement of the Native people to a new territory was to eliminate the Native race by stripping the victims of their vital resources needed for basic survival. After 178 years of expansion and growth in the United States of America, the circumstances for Native Americans remain unchanged. President Jackson’s sentiments have permeated the present society in issues associated with the physical and emotional fight to decolonize. Decolonization is both the individual and communal effort to regenerate

If this be a spirit of aggrandizement, the undersigned are prepared to admit, in that sense, its existence; but they must deny that it affords the slightest proof of an intention not to respect the boundaries between them and European nations, or of a desire to encroach upon the territories of Great Britain. . . . They will not suppose that that Government will avow, as the basis of their policy towards the United States a system of arresting their natural growth within their own territories, for the sake of preserving a perpetual desert for savages” . This showed that the United States would state firm in their endeavor to not only Christianize the North American continent but remain in control of the lands they had already acquired with

The removal of the Cherokee, or more commonly known as the “Trail of Tears,” was a defining American event that left an incredible historical impact. The Cherokee and other Native American tribes were being moved westward by the American government for various reasons such as disputes with white settlers, the desire for the gold on the Cherokee lands, the desire to civilize them and other reasons. However, it was far from a simplistic dispute between whites and Native Americans. There were many whites, including President Jackson, as well as some Cherokee, who supported the policy to move the Indians west. Opponents of the removal also included both whites and Cherokee.

The Long, Bitter Trail: Andrew Jackson and the Indians written by Anthony F.C. Wallace is the story of the Native Americans being forced to move west in America in the 19th century. Wallace begins by introducing the desire for Native American land in the U.S. and ends with the aftermath of the Removal Policy and the legacy that still lives today. The book is organized into four chapters; The Changing Worlds of the Native Americans, The Conflict over Federal Indian Policy, The Removal Act, and The Trail of Tears.

Andrew Jackson, John Marshall, and The Trail of Tears There have been many dark times in our History as Americans. Among them is the Trail of Tears,brought upon by Andrew Jackson, which exiled the Indians from the American south and resulted in the death of thousands on the way to Oklahoma. Before this trying time there was speculation within the supreme court whether to treat the Native tribes as a sovereign foreign nation or as a dependent entity within the United States. I will discuss how these decisions came to be, the reactions to said decisions, and the aftermath of these rulings which inevitably leads to the Trail of Tears.

4,000. That is the number of cherokee that died because of Andrew Jackson just in the Trail of Tears. Jackson was not president at this time but his policies still led to the trail of tears, he did lead the Indian Removal act though and he was apart of Manifest Destiny, these reasons apply why Jackson was a villain. Jackson was a terrible role model for this country. He killed many innocent people for what he thought was for the good of the U.S.A.

The Trail of Tears event of the removal of the Indians happened in 1838. “At the beginning of the 1830s, nearly 125,000 Native Americans lived on millions of acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida–land their ancestors had occupied and cultivated for generations. ”(History.com Staff). In this event, the Cherokee community of Native Americans was forced by the US government to move from their native home in the Southern part of the contemporary America to what is known as the Indian territories in Oklahoma. Arguments over land, restrictions, and laws were common amongst the Indians and settlers/whites.

Andrew Jackson was the first person to be elected as a member of the senate and later elected president of the United States. He was a man of many contradictions who had little formal education. Jackson claimed he was a “people’s” champion, yet he excluded many, especially the Indians, from the country’s democracy calling them “savages”. (Schwartz, Lecture 19). With the exclusion of the Indians followed Jackson being a forceful proponent of Indian Removal.

Congress had made a ruling that the Indians were allowed to keep their land, but “King Jackson” said he had already made his ruling and forced them to the Trail of Tears at gunpoint (President Jackson and Indian Removal). Andrew Jackson just ignoring Congress was a problem that showed he wasn’t a common man. The

Andrew Jackson’s presidency was a turning point of sorts for the United States. For the first time ever there was a president “of the common man”, as he was referred to. Prior to him getting into office, the United States a fledgling nation, had yet to see anyone other than high-ranking, old money aristocrats in office. It can be hard to feel fully represented and provided for when your government is unfamiliar with your problems and needs. These was not an issue that was unfamiliar, in fact the problem of illegitimate representation was what the colonists had sought to escape when under Britain’s rule.

In 1838 and 1839, as part of Andrew’s Jackson’s Indian removal policy, The Cherokee nation was forced to give up its land east of the Mississippi River and to migrate to an area in present-day Oklahoma. The Cherokee people called this journey “The Trail of Tears”, because of its effects. The migrants

The root of Jackson’s hatred toward the Native Americans, which would lead to the Trail of Tears, is with the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. In this battle, he ruthlessly massacred the Creek Indians. In fact, one American said, “The river might very well be called a river of blood” (4, 28:30). Fast forward to 1830, during which Congress passed the Indian Removal Act. This gave the green light for “the President to demarcate Indian territory on public land west of the Mississippi River and negotiate treaties with the Indian tribes for their resettlement” (1).

The removal of Indians from their native lands being the start of a long list of actions made by Jackson, he was warmly thought of positively by most of the United States population and risked everything he had to give more power, and even control to everyday people and fighting for the everyday person, because he knew what it was like to come from nothing and be someone with nothing and no power and nothing to give to society like many of the everyday country. He was, a lot like his people ultimately kind and fearful, also smart but yet blind to some true problems in the everyday world, and a man who fought a war for what seemed like a life time Jackson was a man who to me could widely be compared to our first beloved president George Washington. But in Jon Meacham’s American Lion he has presented the set in history, human definition of an inspirational man who forever created the true and yet controversial definition of the American presidency and what it means to be an American. Because to be a President it’s more than a title it’s putting millions of people’s lives in your hands and looking to you to guide them in a time of national trouble and fear, this book gives you all of the above from start to

In their walk they would undergo the harsh elements of the weather, sickness and fatigue. They would bury sometimes 14-15 of their people at every stopping place, the majority being infants and elderly. The Cherokee’s would arrive to their new home without their past or their future. The U.S. stood to gain copious amounts of land and in return the American government would sacrifice its honor.