Case Study: The Indian Removal Act Of 1830

There were Five Civilized Tribes that lived in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. White people were not happy with the land they were on and Jackson forced them to move to the Great Plains because he believed there would be no conflict with them there. In 1830 Jackson pushed for the Indian Removal Act which allowed Native Americans to move west. In 1790 the federal government recognized the Cherokee as a separate nation which led to Georgia taking their land in 1830. The Cherokee went to the United States Supreme Court and they said they had the right to be on that land but President Jackson did not agree which caused the Trail of Tears.

In the early nineteenth Century, during Andrew Jackson’s presidency, Native Americans suffered many atrocities. In the 1830’s, Native Americans, mainly the Cherokees, tried to assimilate to the progressive white culture. Many adapted to American style constitutions, slavery, and white clothing. Andrew Jackson and his supporters pushed for the Indian Removal Act leading to the Supreme Court case Worcester v. Georgia, where the Supreme Court ruledthe Indian Removal Act as unconstitutional. However, Jackson ignored the Supreme Court’s decision and removed the Native Americans with the military, thus, naming the endeavor The Trail of Tears.

When the indians were being removed to the west over 4,000 cherokees died. These indians died because the U.S wanted more land which was not right because they were here first. This was called “The Trail of Tears”. On May 28 1830 two years later after Andrew Jackson was elected as the president, he signed the Removal Act. Before the Cherokees left their land they refused.

In the year 1830, Andrew Jackson and congress passed the Indian Removal Act with little opposition within the government. The result was the death of thousands of Native Americans as well as skirmishes between Native Americans and the United States Military. The end result of the Indian Removal Act was the Trail of Tears, which was the path that the Native Americans took to move west. While taking this path, the Native Americans placed a marker for every person that died, because of the lack of food and harsh conditions, creating a trail of markers for the dead, hence the name Trail of Tears. In Document A, the text states,” He imposed a cruel policy of Indian removal, forcing tribes of the Southeast across a brutal march to the Oklahoma territory.”

Indian Removal Act:There's no place like home The” Trail of Tears” is remembered as the most catastrophic events in American history. It was popularly known as the “Trail of Tears” because it had adverse effects on the history,culture and development of the Cherokee Indians .The “Indian Removal Act” was established during President Andrew Jackson’s jurisdiction. It led to the suffering and deaths of thousands of Cherokee Indians.

The United States Supreme Court said the land belonged to the Indians. Andrew Jackson was the only president in the history of the United States to openly defy a Supreme Court order. Jackson is said to have exclaimed “John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it.” (Foner, 303) Andrew Jackson disregarded the Supreme Court ruling and forced the Native Americans to move westward. The Trail of Tears is one of Jackson’s most infamous legacies (Warshauer, Matthew).

The Trail of tears was when Andrew Jackson forced the Cherokee tribe to give up all of their land east of the mississippi river. In 1829, Andrew Jackson signed the Indian removal policy, to make it so the Indians would get with drawn from the east of the Mississippi River and relocate them to the west of the Mississippi River. The tribes that were affected were the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole. These tribes had to leave their homeland and get relocated to the west of the Mississippi River against their will, so that slave owners could use their land for slavery. Andrew Jackson illegally forced the Cherokee tribe off of their land because the Supreme court ruled that the state of Mississippi couldn't make treaties or do anything that was on Cherokee land.

In 1838, the army forced the remaining 20,000 Cherokee to march west. This is the time where the name the Trail of Tears was created by the Cherokee Tribe. This highlights Jackson’s presidency because it shows that he supported a strong federal government. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 gave the federal government more control over the Native Americans because the federal government were able to move over 60,000 Native Americans to the west. This act showed that Jackson was capable of making big decisions and that he was a effective and efficient

After that, Jackson compared the superiority of the white men to the weaknesses and bad qualities of the Indians to support even farther why the white men should take the land. He tells Congress that the sanity of the white men leads them to choosing an extensive republic over a country covered with forests and savage communities. He compares the loyalty of the Indians with that of the “civilized Christian men.” What can the government do but agree? Why?

government passed the Indian Removal Act which forced members of the of the Five Civilized Tribes -- the Choctaws, Creeks, Chickasaws, Cherokees, and Seminoles from their ancestral lands in the Deep South. This was to make room for white settlers who wanted the rich soil. The tribes along with their black slaves were forcibly marched west of the Mississippi River to the new Indian Territory during the "Trail of Tears" of 1838 and 1839, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Native Americans. Some Native Americans refused to register with the Bureau of Indian Affairs or to allow them to be "removed" to "Indian Territory" in Oklahoma during the 1800s. They also refused to decide for the Blacks whether they would relocate or not.

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.

Indian Removal Act In 1838, sixty two years after the United States declared independence, white settlers have been pushing into Georgia which was originally the Native Americans land (more specifically the Cherokee tribe’s land). So, the president at the time, Andrew Jackson, created an act called the Indian Removal Act. But, the Native Americans actually took the act to the supreme court and it was declared unconstitutional, although the president didn’t listen. He eventually (somehow) got the act through anyway and all of the Native Americans were forced to leave Georgia on a trail called the trail of tears.

The Cherokee tribe even took action against the government, taking the removal to the court systems. Cherokee tribe vs. Georgia, went all the way to the supreme court who ruled in favor of the Indians; however, the state of georgia ignored the court ruling and went forward with the removal. Another tribe, the seminoles, tried resisting through guerrilla warfare, but unfortunately failed. The removal lead to one of the most remembered events in American history, The Trail of Tears. The trail went through nine states, and claimed an estimated 15,000 lives out of some 100,000 tribal members that were forced west (“Five Civilized Tribes”).

Andrew Jackson disobeyed a direct order from the Supreme Court, which it means he was above the law. I really wonder how Americans tolerated him, at that time, he was cruel to the Indian common man. Because of him, the Native Americans have the worst end of the Trail of Tears. They are the ones who are forced out of their traditional homes and sent away on a journey of pain and death. Those who had fallen ill, most of the time died, and those who had the will to move on were able to make it to the end and start new lives.

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.