Impact Of Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Policy On Native Americans

Did Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal policy benefit Native Americans? The Indian Removal act did a good amount of things for the Indians; but when I say good, it wasn’t really that good. This act mainly benefited people who received the land that the Indians were on. This coincides with how Native Americans were constantly treated poorly; they ended up having to travel many miles to live on new land. All this happened and Andrew Jackson believed that he was doing this for the good of the Indians. The Native Americans barely benefited from this policy. The introduction of Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal policy made the states that got the land the actual beneficiaries instead of the Native Americans. “Early in the 19th century, while the
This required them to: leave their old life, travel a dangerous journey, and ultimately live new lives. “But though the War Department made some attempts to protect those who stayed, it was no match for the land-hungry whites who squatted on Choctaw territory or cheated them out of their holdings. Soon most of the remaining Choctaws, weary of mistreatment, sold their land and moved west.” (Indian Removal) The whites basically came into the Native American’s land and squatted their territory. It resulted in them moving out of their homes and into the west. This removal wasn’t meant to be violent, “This act affected not only the southeastern nations, but many others further north. The removal was supposed to be voluntary and peaceful, and it was that way for the tribes that agreed to the conditions. But the southeastern nations resisted, and Jackson forced them to leave.” (Indian Removal) As the Native Americans were less cooperative, they ended up being required to move. As Native Americans moved, they would experience an incredibly dangerous journey. “At the beginning of the 1830s, nearly 125,000 Native Americans lived on millions of acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida–land their ancestors had occupied and cultivated for generations. By the end of the decade, very few natives remained anywhere in the southeastern United States.
The answer is obviously no and I believe it did not benefit them all. Even though Andrew Jackson thought that by moving Indians to the west because he wanted them to be safe and not become apart of a huge war, it still resulted in huge losses for Native Americans. As they were promised land, they would not get any of that land and so it left the whites to take the land for their uses. As they were forced to travel to the west, this is where they experienced a tremendous amount of losses. One movement called the Trail of Tears just shows that the Native Americans couldn't even make it to where they were supposed to