Indian Removal Act Thesis

The Removal Act

Since the first Europeans landed on “the new land” with a thirst to conquer and deplete everything on their path, Natives to this land fought to retain as much as they could. But in reality, by the time the new settlers where finished they had decimated the natives in numbers and with that sought to remove and relocate the few that remained. The Indian Removal Act was enacted to relocate Indians from the east to west of the Mississippi. One may wonder how such a heinous act came into play; this essay will focused on a brief history of the events that lead to its fruition and finalization. It will also provide a personal evaluation of the effects of such act on the people enacted on.

Pressed by its white citizens The United

States government had treaties in place to start the removal of Indians from their tribal lands. This system was made more powerful by the institution of a major legislation which was named The Indian Removal Act, “The Indian Removal Act was put in place to give to the southern states the land that Indians had settled on. Although the act was passed in 1830 talk between Georgia and the federal government had started in 1802.” (Indian Removal Act – Wikipedia 2015). Under the presidency of Andrew Jackson this law was passed on May 28, 1830, and in which the president was entitle to negotiate with Native tribes for their eradication to different territory. The white settlers were greedy and desired to acquired access to lands inhabited by native tribes in order to expand their territory. The events that followed such an unlawful act were opposition from tribes which led to wars and many casualties for both sides, but the more appalling incidents were the unjustifiable deaths of Natives induce by the forceful relocation, which terminated in the complete displacement of Indians from the southeast of the United States of America.
The passing of The Indian Removal Act was the final push from the white settlers to gain access to desired land still inhabited by Natives.

According to a Britannica publication, this act “was the first major legislative departure from the U.S. policy of officially respecting the legal and political rights of the American Indians.” (Kathleen Kuiper). By the time the removal was being applied, many treaties were already in place trying to rid the natives of their lands. Once Andrew Jackson took presidency his governance sought to displace Indians and completely assimilate or eradicate them. While many natives had already relocated peacefully, it was just some remaining tribes that fought in legal courts to retain their land, “the Five Civilized Tribes (Chickasaw, Choctaw, Seminole, Cherokee, and Creek) refused to trade their cultivated farms for the promise of strange land.” (Kathleen Kuiper). The native’s attempts to retain their lands, whether combative or peaceful made no difference in the end result of submission and tragically expulsion from their homes. President Jackson’s aimed all along was for the complete removal of Indians to clear way for the white citizens, therefore due to the act enforcement about 46,000 Native Americans were uprooted across the Mississippi River. Once The Indian Removal Act was passed and more treaties enforced the end results were palpable, “with the exception of a small number of Seminoles still resisting removal in Florida, by the 1840s,

from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, no Indian tribes resided in the American South.” according to the office of the historian. At the end of it all the government and its non-native citizens accomplished the removal of all Indians and the acquisition of the desired lands.
From all the tribes that where affected The Cherokees endure the harshest and more abhorrent treatment, punishments and relocation.

By the end of the Revolutionary war which took place in 1775 and ended by 1783, half of the Cherokees primary land was relinquished, and by 1791 this tribe had already been displaced to Georgia with the passing of another treaty. White settlers wanted to keep expanding and the land became more coveted do to the discovery of gold, and so by 1830 the same government that relocated the Cherokees now attempted to recover the Georgian territory they got moved to and was home to the tribe now. The Cherokees were considered a “civilized” tribe and had left behind their combative nature, by now they believed in the rule of law and having a counsel objected to the relocation. The tribe appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court a total of three times to fight this injustice, the resistance was useless and the government still pushed for the Natives to give up their territory. The wheel was turning at this point and sadly and the events the follow were atrocious: “1838, U.S. president Martin Van Buren ordered the U.S. Army into the Cherokee Nation. The soldiers rounded up as many Cherokees as they could […] and […] marched the captives, […] to the Indian Territory. Scholars estimate that 4,000-5,000 Cherokees,[…] died on this "trail where they cried," commonly known as the Trail of Tears” (Garrison, Tim). This act caused the removal of about fifteen thousand

Cherokees, to which the difficulties did not end there, now faced with a new environment they had to acclimate to land that was unknown and made the more challenging do the hastiness of the relocation.
The history of the callousness in which the United States treated the natives to this land is appalling. There was a systematic system from the get go to start eliminating the Indians rights to their land and to their autonomy. From the beginning treaties dating back to the 1700 to the final laws enacted like The Indian Removal Act by the 1830’s, one cannot reconcile with the cruel treatment the Natives received from the whites. The white settlers notion that they were somehow superior to the natives “barbaric” ways were used as an excused for the atrocities committed to this group of people. With the idea that the Indians could be assimilated to the American way of life there was no room for these people and their culture to survive and their eradication was certain. The greediness in which the government of that time operated was enormous, by having already taken most of their original homelands, to having relocated and then eradicated the Indians from their new homes time and time again. This ended in finally deciding they were never going to incorporate and adjust to the new order or things and therefore completely expelling the natives to unwanted territory. Although there were supporters who try to fight for the plight of the Native Americans, I believe the avaricious government and people of the time would have never let the Indians remain and share the land with them. Personally I believe it all comes down to racism, Andrew Jackson had always seen the Natives as inferior and barbaric, it made sense he would enact laws against Indians and violate their rights. I find distressing that none of the white people in that era ever put their ethnocentrism to the side and took any compassion before executing such horrible acts on the Indians. To look back at history now we can say that what was carried out onto the Native Americans is one of the most unjustifiable acts committed by this country.