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The Benefits Of The Trail Of Tears

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When it came to land, America would do anything for it, even if it meant sending an entire population of people away from their homeland. The Trail of Tears was a two-month long trek though freezing harsh terrain resulting in one third of the Cherokee Nation being wiped out. Some say the US removed the natives from their land because they were a different race. However, the main reason the US wanted the land so bad was purley out of greed. The US saw profit in the native lands. The US wanted the land because it was on the Mississippi River which had many economic benefits because land on the river was more accessible for trading. In the text, Transcript of Jefferson's Secret Message to Congress Regarding the Lewis and Clark Expedition, it states; "First to encourage them to abandon hunting, to apply to raising stock...and thereby prove to themselves that less land and labor will maintain them in this... Secondly: to multiply trading houses among them." The US is trying to encourage the natives to transition into a lifestyle more like theirs which involves more farming and less hunting. By switching, the natives will need less land because they won't need to hunt anymore. The US had plans to open more trading houses for the natives so they could make a profit off of farming. Before the US tried getting the natives to indulge in trading houses, the government tried buying the land from the natives. The natives were becoming nervous and irritated because their land was

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