Trail Of Tears Research Paper

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 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.

On May 28, 1830 Andrew Jackson, the president at the time, signed the Indian Removal Act making it a law. The law gave the U.S. government the right to exchange land west of the Mississippi for Indian Territory in the state borders. Some tribes relocated peacefully, but most resisted the relocation. The United States government forced Cherokee Indians to move and 4,000 of them died being relocated giving the forced movement the name “Trail of Tears.”

The Trail of Tears is no exaggeration as to what happened when the Indians were forced to abandon their home. Having to move to a completely different state with no real explanation as to why, one must wonder, how could this happen? It is hard to imagine how someone could justify uprooting thousands of people. Treated unfairly with all claims being ignored, the Indians were forced to move. With legalization by the government it is clear to see how easy it is for history repeats itself.

The purchase of Louisiana doubled the United States in size and was the key to the beginning of westward expansion. This expansion of the U.S. served as one of the defining topics of American history but contrarily, it nearly demolished the entire democracy. Because of Louisiana’s high birth rate and rapid immigration, the United States’ population increased from about five million to more than twenty-three million people. Such expeditious growth as well as economic depressions drove millions of Americans to the west in search of fresh territory and opportunities also known as manifest destiny. At the start of the 1830’s almost one hundred twenty-five thousand Native Americans lived on southeast acres that their ancestors had inhabited for generations. But then President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian removal act which gave the government the authority to trade native held land for land to the west that the United States had obtained with the purchase of Louisiana. By the closing of the decade, only a few Natives were left because the Federal government mandated that they abandon their homeland and go to designated Indian territory. This expedition was better known as the Trail of Tears. The purpose of these reservations was to bring the Native Americans under United States government control, eliminate conflict between the Indians and settlers, and finally to further encourage Native Americans to take on the habits of settlers. In exchange tribes usually received money but it was never a lot and the majority were spent on purchasing food and supplies from traders. But the daily living conditions of the reservations primarily had the most catastrophic results with devastating and long lasting effects. Overall, the rapid territorial expansionism resulted in relocation and brutal mistreatment of Native American occupants of territories now occupied by the United

How the Indian removal act of 1830 impacted the Native American community is from the death’s of many Native American Indians . In Document 4 by a private who served in the Cherokee removal act states “Four-thousand silent graves reaching from the foothills of the Smoky Mountains to what is known as Indian Territory in the West.” Also in The Trail of Tears map it states “ traveling from 200-1250 miles.” Both of these pieces of evidence show how the relocation of the indians was a painful journey especially with not having enough rations and the cold weather plus counting the distance and the deaths in all.

On May 26th, 1830, congress passed the Indian Removal Act allowing president Andrew Jackson to kick the Native Americans off their land that was west of the Mississippi River and move them to land west of the Mississippi without the tribes agreeing or even knowing about it (“Indian Removal”). What most people don’t know about the Indian Removal Act is that Congress actually didn’t accept the act and decided that the Act was unconstitutional, but Andrew Jackson ignored that fact and continued to remove the the Indians regardless of what Congress said. Most people also do not understand that the Trail Of Tears wasn’t an actual trail, it was what the path of the Native Americans used after they were pushed off their land by Andrew Jackson. Thousands of cherokees were forced to move westward beyond the Mississippi River. In 1813 the United States started the Battle at the Thames and killed the Native resistance leader Tecumseh, and in 1814 General Andrew Jackson had forced the Creeks (a major cherokee tribe) to hand over twenty million acres of their national land after the revolt at Horseshoe Bend (“Garrison, Tim 85-89”).

Indigenous people still burdened from their past! The effects of the Indian Removal Act and the Trail of tears still causes heartache among many Indigenous people. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was an act passed by Andrew Jackson where in which Andrew Jackson would discuss and negotiate a plan to remove the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole to land west of the Mississippi in exchange Europeans would get their homeland.Georgia and the government had no right treating indigenous people unfairly, evicting them from their homeland, and killing them in the process of it all. While this was all happening settlers were expanding into new territories, gaining many resources from the

Cherokees ravaged American settlements in North and South Carolina, killing men, women and children. Cause would be about waged that indians get. That make fear for normal American people, because they won’t know when or why Cherokee people hurt or kill American people again. So, American government choose them to move from America. Also, government said, place that Cherokee people move to, government will give them more then 70,000 square miles of land in Louisiana Territory, and each Cherokee person will get more than 1 square mile. That is good land, on the banks of two major rivers that join the Mississippi River. Resultingly Cherokee people moved to that place. But, was that indian removal act of 1830 justified?

Admiring the current situation of modern day America, I would choose an event that relates to today. The Trail of Tears is the removal of Native Americans from their ancestral land to land reserved just for them, that lasted from 1839 to 1850, usually near the area of what is the state of Oklahoma today. Considering the damage and effects it had on Native Americans, I would want to see their travel, their struggle, as well as their hopes of ever being accepted become a lost ideal.

After their journey to Oklahoma the Indians were moved onto reservations which were bad for them. Prior to the Dawes Act of 1887, the Indians had almost one hundred fifty million acres of land. When the act was passed, the Indians lost ninety million acres of land. The Indians were left with fifty three million acres of land, which would only be two percent of the land in North America (New). In a growing country many resources are needed. When there is not enough resources to fit a population they have to get stretched to meet the needs of the people. The Indians would not be able to survive on stretched resources in the confines of a reservation. The Indian Removal act was bad for the Indians because they were only limited to what they had on reservations which wouldn’t last them for

The Indian Removal Act was a law that authorized the president to grant land west of the Mississippi River to indian tribes that agreed to give up their homelands. Andrew Jackson had the power to relocate Native Americans in the west of the Mississippi River in exchange for their lands. The tribal leaders agreed, few of the tribes went peacefully, but many didn’t. The five groups were the Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creeks and Seminoles, they all had to leave their homes, crops and places that were important to them. During the travel the Cherokees were forced by the US army and it became known as the “Trail of Tears.”

Around the 1830s, the Indian removal act was created. This act gave the “American man” the right to come into Indiana territory and move them to another area to claim the land as their own. The trail started in Northern Georgia in 1831 and ended in Oklahoma in 1840. At the beginning, they gathered all Indians, mainly Cherokee into stock holds for months at a time. When summer hit, sicknesses started to outbreak. Many of the Cherokee were becoming very ill. When they began moving the Cherokee, they made they walk a minimum of ten miles a day before rest. At the beginning of the move, there were around five thousand Cherokee Indians. Due to the illnesses, lack of food and clothing, and terrible weather conditions one fourth of the Cherokee tribe, mainly

Between 1830 and 1850, the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole, and Cherokee people were forcibly removed from their ancestral land relocated farther west. It was called the trail of tears because the Indians didn’t want to leave their ancestral home they cried the entire way. 4,000 Cherokee died on a journey later called the trail of tears. Men working in Felds were arrested and driven to the stockades. Women’s were dragged from their homes by soldier whose language the women could not understand. Children were often separated from their parents. Often the old and injured were prodded with bayonets to hasten them to the stockades.

One of the defining moments of President Andrew Jackson’s career, if not the most significant, was the Indian Removal Act of 1830. This was a controversial bill at the time and the impact from it is still felt today. The Indian Removal Act directly led to the displacement of thousands of Native Americans; including four thousand deaths during the Trail of Tears, the forced march from Georgia to Oklahoma. While overt racism played a clear role in relocating Native Americans past the Mississippi, it is possible that other factors were at play. The living conditions in many of the states were poor for Natives and Jackson hoped that giving them a new location to live could remedy these problems while opening the land up for white settlers.