Dbq Indian Removal

On January 27th, 1825 the U.S Congress had its annual meeting to discuss issues going on in the country and on this day one of those issues was agreeing to set aside territory for Native Americans. This Indian Territory was land that was west of the Mississippi River, but did not include the states Louisiana or Missouri, and the Territory of Arkansas. The land was called Indian Territory because it was set aside by the United States government to move the Native Americans that they relocated from the southern part of the United States in order for white settlers to move into to live on. This territory will eventually be called the state of Oklahoma. By setting aside this land it allowed the United States government to relocate the Native Americans

to the west so that white settlers could live and farm in the south which in turn would shape the America that we live in today.
America during this time had just recently purchased new territory from France known as the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of the United States. Although we had this vast amount of land ready to be explored and settled on many citizens wanted to move south into states such as Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Florida. These settlers wanted move down there in order to grow crops such as cotton in the fertile soil found in these southern states. There was one problem though, the white settlers were terrified of living down there with Native Americans. They felt that the Native Americans were an obstacle standing in the way of progression, and that’s what they told the federal government. The settlers pushed for the government to purchase the land known as Indian Territory.
One famous proponent of the Indian removal was Andrew Jackson from Tennessee. Jackson commanded the U.S military that fought and took out groups of multiple Native American tribes living in the south. From 1814-1824 Jackson negotiated nine out of eleven treaties which helped the United States get the Native Americans to trade their southern land for land west of the Mississippi River. In 1823, the Supreme Court made a decision which said that Native Americans could still live on the land in United States, but could not have their own land titles. Years later in 1829, Andrew Jackson became President of the United States making him the nation’s seventh president. While only being in office for less than a year in 1830 Jackson pushed for the Indian Removal Act which allowed him the power to conciliate removal treaties with Indian tribes living east of the Mississippi. Under these treaties, Native Americans were suppose to give up their land in the south for land west of the Mississippi River. Any Native Americans wishing to stay east of the Mississippi were supposed to be allowed to become citizens of their home state. However, that was not the case for most southern tribes.
Native American tribes tried different ways to preserve their land from the Supreme Court’s decision in 1823 for as long as they could. The “Five Civilized Tribes” are probably the most commonly known southern Native American tribes in U.S history and they included the Creek, Cherokee, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw tribes. These tribes tried multiple non violent methods in order to protect the land that they had worked so hard to build a civilization on. The reason they are known as the “Five Civilized Tribes” is because they tried to adopt Anglo-American practices such as plantation farming, Western education, and owning slaves. They chose this method to ward off hostility and to try and live peacefully with the white settlers.
When being non violent and civil did not work Native Americans turned toward fighting and blood was shed. The Seminoles and Creeks simply refused to leave their property and engaged in war with the settlers. The Cherokee however, took another approach which was taking their case to court. In 1827, the Cherokee adopted a written constitution saying that they were a sovereign nation, but Georgia did not see them as a nation but more like tenants living on Georgia soil. Upset by this dismissal the Cherokee took the issue to the Supreme Court who ruled against them. Once again in 1831, the Cherokee went to the Supreme Court based on the ruling that white settlers could not live on Indian territory without a license from the state. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Cherokee, but Georgia failed to abide by the law and President Jackson refused to fairly uphold the law.
In 1830, President Jackson pushed the Indian Removal Act which allowed him to basically move the Native Americans as he pleased.

The Choctaw tribe was the first to sign a treaty and be relocated. Some decided to stay on their land, but were weary of being attacked and mistreated ultimately sold their land and moved westward. Even though the Indian Removal Act went through the United States still struggled in relocating all Native American tribes west. The Seminoles were tricked into signing a treaty and angered by this declared the treaty illegal. They refused to move which resulted in multiple wars between the U.S military and Seminoles. Thousands of lives were lost on both sides and ended up costing President Jackson close to 40-60 million dollars. Eventually, the United States ended up paying the remaining Seminoles money to pack up and move westward. The Creeks like the Seminoles refused to move from their land. The Creek did sign a treaty in March of 1832 which said that they were guaranteed protected ownership of a small portion of their land. Sadly though the government did help protect them like they said they would from land hungry white settlers. This resulted in over 15,000 Creeks migrating west. The Chickasaw tribe saw removal as something they could not avoid, and signed a treaty in 1832. This treaty said that the government would protect them until they moved to their land in the west. Like with the Choctaw the government backed out on their promise and the Chickasaw ended up having to pay the Choctaw to live on their land in the Indian territory. The Cherokee were tricked with an illegitimate treaty. In 1833, a group of Cherokee agreed to sign the Treaty of New Echota, but the people who signed were not the real leaders of the Cherokee tribe. The Cherokee tried to get the Supreme Court to appeal the treaty, but instead they ratified it saying that they had two years to move westward on their own. After the two years they would be forcibly moved out

west by the U.S military. By 1838, only 2,000 Cherokee had migrated west, so the United States sent in 7,000 troops who forced the Cherokee into stockades. There were over 16,000 Cherokee who had yet to move in the two year time span, and these 16,000 were shackled and forced to walk what today is known as the “Trail of Tears”. Over 4,000 Cherokee died from starvation, diseases, and cold during this walk west.
By the time all this had happened more than 46,000 Native Americans had been relocated westward into Indian territory. The majority of the “Five Civilized Tribes” had been moved west of the Mississippi River which opened up 25 million acres for white settlers to live and farm on.