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Examples Of Decades Of Discrimination Against Native Americans

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Decades of discrimination against the Native American people including the Indian Removal Act, the Trail of Tears, and the Massacre at Wounded Knee has led to a so called “compromise” and the much needed formation of the American Indian Movement to try and keep Native American culture and customs alive. This unfair treatment and discrimination has been fueled by many different people and reasons, but ultimately boils down to the greed and intolerance of the white man. Numerous indian tribes were already living in the United States when the european people settled here. The act of living and existing in nearly complete peace for a great deal of years started its swift decline in the years leading up to 1830, again fueled by greed for land and materials along with intolerance of the indians obliterated any chance of fair treatment, or the two groups living in complete peace again. In 1814, an attack led by Andrew Jackson against the Creek Indians in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend ended with the indians being soundly defeated by his army and destroying any military power that the Creek Indians had. With no military power to back them up the indians were forced into several unfair treaties, including one that surrendered over 20 million acres of their land to the United States. Jackson didn’t just stop with the Creek Indians, this happened to several tribes in the United States, and played a huge part in what was known as the Indian Removal Campaign. The campaign included attacks, treaties, and petitions for removal. Wanting the indians off of their land and placed out west was justified by the reason that many people believed that there was gold on the indians’ land and wanted to claim it as their own. Also, farmers desired the land to increase their profit and area to plant. Forcing the Native Americans onto reservations seemed like the easy solution to their problems. Although some congressmen disagreed with the displacement of the indians, when Jackson was elected as the President of the United States in 1829 things became a done deal. In 1830, Andrew Jackson issued the Indian Removal Act to move all Native American tribes from their homes and send them west of the Mississippi River onto reservations. Several

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