The Indian Removal Act By Andrew Jackson

In Jackson’s mind, he expected the Indians to thrive as they did in their current home, except there would be no white men. Three chiefs, each one from the Chippewa, Potawatomi, and Ottawa tribes, came forward to the White House and told about their suffering. They said they were promised land as fertile as Illinois, but received land that a snake couldn’t live on. They could not live in the prairie when they were from the woods. Thousands of Indian people suffered because Jackson heard what they said

The Trail of Tears is part of the immoral history of the United States. The information in this paper will be about the causes, history, deaths, and the hopes that were lost. There were at least four causes for the Indian removal act of 1830. The history of the trail discussion about the Native Americans, and what happens to them when they were moving to their new home in the west, as well what happened after the removal act.

On May 28, 1830, the Indian Removal Act was passed. It stated that the Native American were to be removed from the Southern states (Indian Removal Act). The act ended the Native American’s right to live in the states under their own traditional laws (Indian Removal Act). They were given the options to assimilate and acknowledge the United States’ laws or leave (Indian Removal Act). They were forced to leave their land, their homes, everything they ever knew or face the consequences. They were forced to go to a land that they knew nothing about, and hope that they would be able to survive where ever they ended up. When the Cherokee were forced to leave, out of the 18,000 that left 4,000 died on the way (Primary Documents) As a result of all of the death on the trail, it was named the Trail of Tears (Primary Documents).

In the early 19th Century, the Manifest Destiny led many White Americans to conquer new territories and force Native Americans out of their homeland. The growing population caused the need for people to move to have more space for farms and crops. The religious groups were also wanting to sweep God’s word across the nation by going west. The Native Americans were unwilling to give up their land and fought to keep it. Outmatched by the U.S. Military, the Indians were forced to leave and settle in a territory that was not claimed by Whites. Andrew Jackson, the 8th President of the United States, participated in some of the battles with the Natives Americans and the removal of 5 different tribes from their homeland into what is now Oklahoma.1 This research paper is to study about Andrew Jackson, his battles with the Natives, and what led to the Trail of Tears.

In the years leading up to the Indian Removal Act, which was the initial cause of the Trail of Tears, the United States was in a shift. The country was seeing an unrivaled influx of European settlers looking for careers and land. This caused population to skyrocket, in fact in the years 1790-1840, the United States saw a 350% increase in population. In other words, the need for fertile land and viable property was high. At the same time, attempts at assimilation of Indians into American society were proving to be futile. Americans saw the Indians as “noble savages”, who were uncivilized but able to be fit for society if they were converted to Christianity and adopted Anglo-European culture and behavior. With the growing need for land and the rise in tension between Natives and fearful white settlers, something needed to be done in the eyes of the American people. These two things combined is what really set up the foreground for what would become the Indian Removal Act. President Andrew Jackson, in

In 1830, congress passed President Andrew Jacksons Indian Removal Act. This policy allowed the United States government to extinguish the Cherokee, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, Seminole and many other tribes title to their land. The Indians had to leave the land and life they had always known in the Southeastern United States behind. This disturbing event was named the Trail of Tears because many Native Americans died during the process of marching to an area west of the Mississippi River due to disease, starvation, and the long journey.

When Americans expanded their country west, they interfered with many American Indian Tribes. In a letter he wrote to congress, he explained “This emigration should be voluntary… (but) if they remain within the limits of the states they must be subject to their laws” (Andrew Jackson’s Message to Congress December 7, 1829). Andrew Jackson offered to let the American Indians stay if they followed their laws. But in 1831, Jackson forced the Native Americans out of their homelands starting the Indian Removal. According to a reprinted in Niles Weekly Register, the Cherokee’s said “We wish to remain on the land of our fathers. We have a perfect and original right to remain without interruption or molestation”. Jackson lied to the American Indians about allowing them to stay. Jackson did not act democratically because he did not allow the American Indians to stay and forced them to move west. Jackson was fair to his supporters, but not to

The Trail of Tears was a testament to the cruelty and disrespect we showed toward the Native Americans. This paper will show how the United States used its legislative power and brute force to remove the Indian tribes. From the election of Andrew Jackson, and the implementation of the Indian Removal Act. The Creeks, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole and their actions against the removal process. Finally, how the Cherokee used the legal process to fight evacuation of their nation.

Trail of Tears/Indian Removal As a result of President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act of 1830, thousands of Native Americans were forcefully removed from their tribal lands and transferred to lands west of the Mississippi River. Natives were held at gunpoint as they trekked the 800 mile “Trail of Tears” to the West and because of the harsh terrain and spread of disease, it claimed the lives of almost ¼ of the Cherokee Natives. Promptly after becoming president, Andrew Jackson and Congress passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830 due to the assimilation and protection of Natives being too costly. While Jackson’s support of Indian Removal was mostly to benefit America, he reasoned that it would benefit the Natives too. He believed that “to

There no doubt about it Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of the United States, was one of the worst Presidents to serve the U.S.. Jackson deserves to be impeached for his quick and horrible decisions of creating the Indian Removal Act, being called the “Common Man”, and for the removal of the National Bank that caused an economic depression in the U.S..

When the Indian Removal act of 1830 was enacted, the Cherokee Nation panicked. The Cherokee, specifically the romanticized Tsali, did their best to preserve their culture in the mountains of North Carolina, but what really saved them from their harsh fate that so many other Cherokee faced, was there white chief, William Holland Thomas. The Cherokee were “disagreeable and dangerous neighbors,” but they had a powerful ally in Raleigh, who saved the Eastern Band from a much harsher fate. The Eastern Band, with a strong helping hand from William Thomas, proved themselves not only in war or battle circumstances, but also in a social stance as well.

“The most destructive law” to the American Indians which barely passed May 28, 1830 was known as the Indian Removal Act, and later was known as the Trail of Tears. In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson brought up to Congress that all American Indians “be encouraged to move voluntarily from their lands east of the Mississippi River.” For some time, many American Indians began their new venture and voluntarily started to move. President James Monroe also agreed with Thomas Jeffersons’ ideas and convinced Congress to move on with the process.

"Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.'

The glistening and seemingly useless plains west of the Mississippi did not compare to the nutritious lands east of the Mississippi - ideal for farming. Jackson desired the land for prospective colonists but knew that it was inhabited by the five civilized tribes: the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole. According to Jackson, he respected the natives but viewed them as “lower than that of whites.” Therefore, he had every right , in his mind, to move the natives - by treaty or by force. Most of the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole subsided to the government and moved westward “safely”; Many died to exhaustion, starvation, dehydration, and sickness during and after walk to their permanent lands. The Cherokee, however, opposed of the removal because they had made an effort to blend in to the colonists culture. Jackson still demanded they move westward; Again the Cherokee refused and military force was used. The walk is now known as the Trail of Tears. During the eighteen-thirties, many colonists viewed the removal as a positive economic change but in present day America, the removal has inadvertently costed the government billions of dollars. If Jackson were to predict that the government would pay the Native Americans billions for their troubles, he would still have followed through with the Indian Removal Act because his actions were not controlled by any external source of information; If Jackson was determined, then he was unstoppable.

Robert V. Remini argues that Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act of 1830 was socially motivated by humanitarian impulses, and that Jackson’s actions where driven by the desire to save the culture and populace of the Native