Indian Removal Act

1. Indian Removal Act

2. Background Information • 125,000 Indians lived East of the Mississippi River • The 5 groups were the Cherokee, the Chicksaw, the Choctaw, the Creek, and the Seminoles • War and disease was killing some of the Indians • President Jackson passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830

3. Trail of Tears • After failed attempts for the Natives to become civilized, the entire Creek tribe was marched in handcuffs from Alabama to the “Indian Territory” • President Buren also continued with the act and forced 17,000 Cherokee from Georgia • 4,000 Cherokee died on the “Trail of Tears”, the walk to Indian Territory • One soldier called it “the cruelest work I ever knew” • The Seminole refused to move for a decade before about half were forced West • The other half hid in the Florida Swamps and still live there today

4. Reasons it Happened • America was cramped • Andrew Jackson wanted more land, population, and power • America wanted to welcome all the immigrants • Andrew Jackson wanted a civilized community and didn’t think the Natives were civilized • Jackson wanted a Christian community

5. Supreme Court Trial • Indian Removal Act made in 1830 • Supreme Court claimed they had a right to stay • American government offered money, supplies, land, and food if the Natives moved • Natives began making themselves like the Americans by writing, reading and farming • Jackson removed them by force even though it was uncontitutional • American citizens became angry and demanded it to stop but Jackson kept moving the Natives

6. Andrew Jackson • Thought of Natives as “Savage hunters” • Thought act would “enable those States to advance rapidly in population, wealth, and power…” • Believed it would help the Natives by letting them keep their own ways but becoming an “interesting, civilized, Christian community” • Tried to compare a country with forests and savages to a rich Republic • Considered his actions ‘generous’ and ‘kind’ to offer them new homes

7. 1830 Living Conditions of Americans • 599,000 immigrants coming to America in the 1830s (4 times as much as in the 1820s) • Outbreaks of diseases like cholera in the westward movement of settlers • American living quarters were small and cramped

8. Current Conditions • Native American Poverty Rates 2010- 27% • National Poverty Rates 2010- 14.3% • Caucasian Poverty Rates 2010- 11.6% • 334 Native American Reservations as of 2010

9. Conclusion We think the Indian Removal Act was not justified because President Jackson forced the Natives off their land, unconstitutionally, did not keep his promises of giving them supplies, money, and land, and he denied he was doing illegal actions by referring to them as ‘kind’ and ‘generous’

10. Works Cited Jackson, President Andrew. Speech To Congress on Indian Removal Act 6 December 1830. Teachers' Curriculum Institute. The United States Through Industrialism. Teachers' Curriculum Institute, 2013. Census.gov2010 Census http://kclibrary.lonestar.edu/19thcentury1830.html -Kingwood College Library http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/europeans/front.html-University of Virginia