Imagine being woken up in the middle of the night and being taken out of one’s house by soldiers and moved from their homelands to a foreign land in the west. That is what happened to the Indians during the Indian removals. The Indian Removal Act gave the government enough power to seize the Indian’s land and move them west. The removals were meant to be peaceful and fair. They were also supposed to be done voluntarily (“Trail”). Andrew Jackson passed the Indian Removal Act on May 28, 1830. The Indian Removal Act affected many American Indian Tribes. After Andrew Jackson became president the Indian Removal Act was passed.
The act was passed so the Americans could get the Indians off of their ancestor’s lands. Then they moved them into Indian Territory (Bos). The people also wanted more lands for white settlement. The Indians had become successful but most people did not care. President Andrew Jackson called them, “uncivilized and savage hunters” (Hood, Kelleher, and Larkin). Andrew Jackson, long before he became president, was a Indian removal supporter. When Andrew Jackson was an army general, he led many protests against the Indians. He wanted the Indians out of the area of where the whites settled.
Many tribes were removed. Out of them the Choctaw was the first tribe to be removed (“Trail”). There were some tribes that agrees to move. Most of these tribes were in the North (“Indian” 2014). There were many places that the Indians moved west to. Of these places, Kansas was the most popular (“Indian” 2011). There were many stereotypes about Indians. This led the Americans to be more supportive of the Indian removal (Kidwell). The Indian Removal Act was a crucial part of the Indian’s lives. There were many reasons why the Americans wanted the act passed. One of these is that the Americans wanted to expand.
They thought that if the Indians were moved expanding would be easier. They also wanted the act because gold was discovered on Cherokee land. With the Indians gone the Americans could go and dig up the gold (Hood , Kelleher, and Larkin). Many tribes resisted the act. Most of these came from the southeast. These tribes were the five civilized tribes (“Indian” 2014). Sometimes there would be white men working with the Indians. Georgia made these men sign a loyalty contract if the continued to work with the Indians (Hill). The tribes were supposed to be removed voluntarily.
Most of the tribes refused so they were removed forcefully (Aboukhadijeh). The act caused 60,000 Indians to be forcefully removed from their homelands (Hood, Kelleher, and Larkin). The Native Americans took their problem of removal to court (Aboukhadijeh). The Native Americans began to start protests against the act. The protests were nonviolent and began to start getting into courts and the press. Some people did take the Indians side. These people were arrested, put on trial, then sent to jail (Hood, Kelleher, and Larkin). Some of these trials became very popular. The Cherokee’s trials went to the supreme court three times.
Chief Justice John Marshall stated that the Cherokee were “not a foreign state, in the sense of the constitution” (Aboukhadijeh). So the Cherokee could not sue in the Supreme Court. At one point during court trials the Supreme Court finally took the Cherokee’s side (Aboukhadijeh). The Cherokee had won in the Supreme Court. After that they had hit a dead end. Nothing changed for the Cherokee (Aaseng 75-76). The Cherokee finally realised that nobody could help them not even the Supreme Court (Aboukhadijeh). The Indians were forcefully removed from their homelands to the west using the Trail of Tears.
Andrew Jackson once said, “It gives me pleasure to announce to congress that the benevolent policy of the Government, steadily pursued for nearly thirty years, in relation to the removal of the Indians beyond the white settlements is approaching to a happy consummation. Two important tribes have accepted the provision made for their removal at the last session of congress and it is believed that their example will induce the remaining tribes to seek the same obvious advantages” (Bos). Many Indians were removed and a lot of them died. It was estimated that 100,000 were removed and twenty-five percent died (“Indian” 2014).
Many of these Indians died because they had little to no food and supplies. They also traveled west on foot so many became weak and couldn’t move on. The government gave no help to the struggling Indians (“Trail”). All of the Indians were expected to walk to the west. The only Indians that were aloud to ride in a wagon were the weak or the sick (Hill). Sometimes the Indians were not ready to leave their houses. If they were not ready they were forced to leave their things behind. They had to leave clothing, animals, personal belongings, and utensils (Hood, Kelleher, and Larkin). The Indians were left behind if they were to weak to continue.
Most of them died. The old, sick, and weak were sometimes kicked and hit by the soldiers (Brill 45). White Americans were also removed with the Indians. These men and women were supporters of the Indians (Brill 11). The Choctaw tribe lost one fourth of their people on the removal. One other tribe, the Creeks, had 11,500 out of 15,000 people at the end of the journey west. Some tribes, like the Seminoles, refused to leave and hid in the everglades (Aboukhadijeh). Some of the Indians that refused to leave fled to Canada to get away from military problems (“Indian” 2011).. Thirty three holding camps were put up for Indian Removal.
There were six in North Carolina, fourteen in Georgia, eight in Tennessee, and five in Alabama. The cam became overcrowded very fast. This caused disease and contaminated water and food which led to many deaths in the camps (Hill). Indians traveling to the west were exposed to extreme weather. During the winter months many Indians died from the very cold weather (Hood, Kelleher, and Larkin). The Indians traveling in the winter did not have proper clothing (Hill). The Indians were taken from any possible location. The men were taken from fields, the women from spinning wheels, and the children from their toys (Brill 43).
Sometimes children were captured away from home. These children were used to get their parents out of hiding (Brill 45). When it came around time for all of the Indians to be removed the Cherokee still held on to their land (Aaseng 79). When they still resisted to leave, the Cherokee were forcefully removed. Even though it was supposed to be done peacefully (Hood, Kelleher, and Larkin). Choctaw leader Pushmataha said, “We wish to remain here, where we have grown up as the herbs of the woods; and do not wish to be transplanted into another soil” (Kidwell).
The Trail of Tears is now what they call the forced march of the Cherokee. Out of all the tribes removed, the Cherokee suffered the most (Kidwell). Fifteen thousand Cherokee were forced to remove west on the trail of tears (Hood, Kelleher, and Larkin). Sometimes groups of Cherokee would escape holding camps. Most of them did not survive (Aaseng 79). It was more than an eight hundred mile march to the west. When the Cherokee started the march they had eight hundred seventy five Indians. At the end they had six hundred and two Indians (Brill 48). In the west the Indians tried to plant crops along the Arkansas river.
The river flooded and washed all the crops away (Kidwell). A soldier that had been part of the removal said, “I fought through the civil war and have seen men shot to pieces and slaughtered by thousands, but the Cherokee removal was the cruelest work lever knew” (Hood, Kelleher, and Larkin). The Indians were also affected by society. The Indians never fully understood the act. They could not figure out how the United States could take their lands. They did not know how the soldiers were surprised when they refused removal (Brill 7). There were many causes for the Indian Removal Act.
One of these causes were, that the Indians had a thirst for land. They wanted the Indian’s lands so they forced them to be removed (Kidwell). Some Indians were peaceful. Not even these Indians were accepted by the Americans (“Indian” 2014). The southerners were big supporters of the act. So they made arguments to try and pass the act. One of the arguments was that in the west the Indians would have more resources and a better way of living. The southerners did not seem to care that the lands in the west were already occupied (Hood, Kelleher, and Larkin).
Some of the Indians were bribed from their lands. Other were threatened to be removed (Brill 38). To get the Indians to leave, the Americans made cruel laws. They wanted the Indians to become so miserable they would leave (Aaseng 7). One of these laws was that the Indians were not aloud to dig for the gold discovered on their lands (Aaseng 7-8). The Indian Removal Act made the Indians miserable. The Indian Removal Act was a cruel unreasonable law. The law affected many Indian’s lives greatly. The Indian Removal Act was passed so the Americans could get more land.
The Indians were moved from their lands to Indian Territory in the west. The act was passed for a lot of different reasons. Many tribes resisted the act. The Indians went to court to try and stop the removal of the Indians. The trials went all the way to supreme court. The removal of the Indians was harsh. They were kicked, beat, and left behind to die. The Americans affected the Indians in many ways. Many supported the Indian Removal Act. Some even fought for the law to be passed. The Indians were affected greatly by the Indian Removal Act.