Indian Removal Act DBQ

The Indian Removal Act was a passage brought into play in the mid-1830s. At the time, Andrew Jackson was the President of the U.S. who was responsible for signing the law into action. After a mere two days of discussion, Jackson signed the law. In Layman's terms, Jackson was about to go into the territory controlled by the Indian tribes in the south and essentially force them to vacate and transition to land that was located near the Mississippi River. One must understand that they territory controlled by these Indian tribes as aforementioned was their ancestral homeland. This was not an area that was recently occupied. It was in the control of the Indian tribes for decades upon decades. This is the land that they had grown up on and had called
government’s forced removal of Native Americans was a shameful act in American history due to what the Natives were subjected to. As documented by heaps of historians, the Trail of Tears was one of the saddest periods in the history of Indian tribe neglect. “Andrew Jackson had placed Indian removal at the top of his administration's priorities." (Hershberger 1) With this notion came the inevitable Trail of Tears. The Trail of Tears is known to man as a collective of removals that targeted Native Americans. Before the Indian Removal Act of 1930 being signed into law, Native Americans were able to take up residence all over the nation; notably more so in the south of the U.S. as dozens of Indian tribes were removed from the north in earlier years. The Trail of Tears focused on removing all Native Americans from their homelands and pushing them to the northwest of the Mississippi River. This area was designed by Andrew Jackson and his men. Even more, the territory did not hold the necessary resources that the Native Americans needed to thrive. This led to many Natives scavenging for supplies and suffering hardship from not having the appropriate materials that they had needed to live and excel in life. While en route to their new native territory, hundreds if not thousands suffered from starvation, disease, exposure to foreign illnesses, and alike elements. Again, this was a time for the Native Americans that was nothing but sheer chaos. It was as if the plague was occurring, but it was only affecting the Natives. When all was said and done, this act was responsible for both thousands of deaths and thousands of displaced Native Americans all around the