Indian Removal Dbq

The Indian Removal Act is justified and should be approved as a bill. In January of 1830, a bill was introduced to the Congress to remove and relocate the Natives elsewhere. The rationale of the bill was to expand the southern and the western regions of the United States of America. Furthermore, the Natives would have to be moved further to the west of the Mississippi river. The Indian Removal Act would set up a new foundation for the Natives and expand the frontiers of the United States of America.

In 1831, the Cherokee nation went to court against the state of Georgia. They were disputing the state’s attempt to hold jurisdiction over their territory. Unfortunately, because they are not under the laws of the constitution, the Indian’s right to court was denied. It was not until 1835 that the Cherokee finally agreed to sign the treaty, giving up their Georgia land for that of Oklahoma.

The states of Georgia and the United States of America chose to relocate the Muscogee (Creek), Cherokee, Chickasaw, Seminole, and Choctaw Indians from what was known as Indian territories then. By 1828, the Cherokee were civilized people since they had acquired most the western culture. Their women wore gowns, in addition to the Cherokees having a system of government. Moreover, they had built roads in their territories to show that they were ready to govern themselves. The people had decided that the land was theirs and as result, they had started to develop. They had quit their way of life and adopted western life such as farming and cattle ranching. However, despite their efforts the US government considered them as strangers who did not merit living in Georgia. Although some Cherokees like Major Ridge supported the removal, it is important to note that this was against the American constitution, which gives everyone equal rights.

The year is 1830. You are out in your farm, gathering food for your dinner. Suddenly, Cherokee Indians burst out of the nearby woods and drag you away by your hair. At their camp, they tied you to a wood pole and build a fire around your feet. The last sensation you feel is sweltering heat as a wave of black consumes you. This is a small taste of what it was like back in 1830. Before the United States was as large as it is now, the U.S. kept bumping elbows with its neighbors, the Indians. President Andrew Jackson introduced the Indian Removal Act to give the U.S. some room. The Creeks and Choctaw Indians already moved out, and only the Cherokee Indians remained. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 and withdrawal of the Cherokee was justified because they were bloodthirsty, the U.S. needed room to grow, and it’s not the worst thing in the world for them.

Politics, race, and medicine were all important factors during the Indian Removal of 1830, as they had convinced the people of the United States that removing the Natives from their land was the right step for the nation. Presidents Jefferson and Jackson main goals were to either force the Natives to migrate further away or to force them to assimilate to western culture.

If you were a Cherokee, would you want to give up everything you know to a total stranger? No because of the different grudges that would be held against them, how they were treated, and the Americans don’t and shouldn’t have the right to kick them of land that wasn’t theirs. In the past before this act the indians had helped the Americans achieve and conquer different things. Such as the Louisiana Purchase the indians had been there during the act for guidance and somewhat wisdom of what’ll be in there journey. The indian removal act wasn’t justified because the Cherokee had arrived before the georgians had, Americans were disrespectful towards the Cherokee, and had fought with/for the Americans during different wars but were still treated harshly.

Imagine you were told to leave the only home you have ever known, and march 2,000 miles westward so people can tear your home down, and make a living for themselves on your land. The law required a peaceful, fair, non-violent removal of the Native Americans, that is what the Supreme Court tried to achieve for the Natives. However, Andrew Jackson did not care. He ignored the Supreme Court and the law, created the Indian Removal Act of 1830, and had the Native Americans removed. This was all for white U.S. settlers, and their desire to grow cotton.

But in 1829, Jackson said to Congress that if a state chose to advance it’s power and legislation on the indians that the federal government wasn't required to restrict it. So when the state chose to discontinue certain treaties, Secretary of War Eaton explained in the place of president Jackson to the natives that any of the assurances in the negotiations with the U.S. were nothing more than temporary grants from one power-the United States- to a weaker nation- the Cherokees. Therefore, he declared, there were no certainties in any arrangement that could be considered permanent. This led Jackson to eventually disregarded a key section of the removal act but he also but broke a number of federal treaty commitments to the Indians; some of which he personally negotiated(Cave, 215-216). The Indians thought that the documents that they were signing would actually protect them, but Jackson thought the only way to make his twisted dream come to pass was to make a sense of false security to a group of people who had done nothing to be

The removal of the Creek Indians in the Indian Removal Act helped the development of the United States but in a cruel and harsh way. Without the Indian Removal Act, most of the land that is America today would be inhabited by indians. Although we were mostly at peace with the Creeks and had trading and housing arrangements, after the Indian Removal act was created, it all went downhill. There were wars, conflicts, and bribes for land and that just made the Creeks fall apart .

Introduction Imagine having a nice family dinner with your entire family. You ask “Pass the chicken, please.” a peaceful normal dinner. Then, American soldiers barge into your house, knocking down your door in the process.

In 1830, under President Andrew Jackson, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act. The purpose of this act was to relocate the Indian inhabitants of the southeastern states to a designated Indian Territory west of the Mississippi and eventually eliminate the Indian population from their homeland. Although the act did not provide authority to remove the tribes by force, military action was utilized to carry out the removal. The consequences for the Native American tribes were devastating as well as long lasting.

Despite Andrew Jackson not being able to predict the outcomes and consequences of the Indian Removal Act, there is no justifying his actions. Andrew Jackson was the man who openly gave approval to committing mass genocide for the Native Americans, forcibly removed thousands of Native Americans from lands they had owned for thousands of years prior, and approved and appointed the individuals in charge of starting the trail of tears. In February 1830, the Indian Removal Act set in place that potentially allowed the president to grant land that was west of the Mississippi river in exchange for Native American’s land within existing state borders. In theory, this plan would allow the native to earn money if they wished to move, and in return the Americans could acquire more land. The outcome of this, however, was a bloody massacre. Many of the Native Americans did not want to move, since they have been living there for thousands of years, longer than the whites have been there. Since many of them did not want to move, the Americans used force in an attempt to push the Native Americans west in a movement that killed over 4,000 natives. There is no justifying what Andrew Jackson did in order to gain more unnecessary land.

The Indian Removal Act was a law signed by Andrew Jackson stating “to provide for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing in any of the states or territories, and for their removal west of the river Mississippi,” to make room for the white population to grow and become prosperous. This would mean that the Native Americans would lose their land and be forced to leave the graves of their fathers to walk thousands of miles into their new territory. Nonetheless, this act would cause thousands of Native American civilized tribes such as the creek, cherokee, chickasaw, and choctaw tribes to lose their lives and the dangerous journey filled with demise would later be called the Trail of Tears. I believe this act was unlawful, illegal and unconstitutional due to the fact that Jackson organized it because he despised the Native Americans. He merely saw them as people who could not adjust to the ways of the “white man” or act in a civilized manner.

A summary comparison of views regarding the Indian Removal Act of 1830, Was it an act of humanitarianism intended to help and save the Native American culture from the white settlers, as Robert V. Remini has argued? Or was his intent to destroy the tribal culture and to get rid of the Native Americans, as Anthony F.C Wallace has argued?

Jackson was a groundbreaking President in many regards. He was an orphan and did not come from the upper class. He was the first President to actively campaign for votes and when elected in 1828, he would continue the previous policies for moving Native Americans to the Indian Territory as he believed this is what the voters wanted. During this time, many Southern states restricted the rights of Indian Nations. Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi all stripped Native Americans of their civil rights, abolished the tribal unit, rejected ancestral land claims, and would not allow them to vote or testify in court. Before the Indian Removal Act, Native Americans signed various treaties with the federal government in regards to keeping their land.