Indian Removal Summary

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The speeches and writings from this week on Indian Removal truly shocked me. I have never been informed of the horrifying details of this event. The Indian Removal stories revealed information regarding the occurrences. In particular, I found “The Cherokee Removal Through the Eyes of a Private Soldier” by John G. Burnett the most interesting.
John G. Burnett stated, "The facts are being concealed from the young people of today" (Zinn and Arnove 145). I completely agree with this statement, because my own education has never consisted of the details of the Indian Removal. There are many details that are too important not to teach young people. It is stated that the American government wanted to teach the Natives how to live a more modern lifestyle. The Natives politely declined, because they wanted to live a simple life. The Natives wanted to be left alone (Norton Anthology 590). This information illustrates how the …show more content…

Reading about the Indian Removal from the perspective of a soldier showed the true horrors that occurred. John G. Burnett stated, “ The trail of the exiles was a trail of death…as many as twenty-two of them to die in one night of pneumonia due to ill treatment, cold, and exposure” (Zinn and Arnove 143). This is a description of the conditions of the Removal. Over 4,000 were buried in unmarked graves along the way (Zinn and Arnove 144). This reading breaks my heart. If even a soldier can admit to these atrocities, imagine what the Natives that were killed would have had to say. A chief who saved Andrew Jackson’s life claimed that he would not have been so heroic if he had known that Jackson’s presidency would have caused the Indian Removal (Zinn and Arnove 145). I think this perfectly sums up how terrible the acts of the American government were. This reading, in particular, was eye opening and informative. These facts are indisputable and should be readily available in

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