The Trail Of Tears/Indian Removal, 1815-1860

Unit 4 Essay - The Trail of Tears/Indian Removal 1815-1860 was a busy time for the United States of America. The country was still fairly new and everything was changing. The country had to deal with new land areas, Indian removal, nullification, a national bank, and everything in between. Whoever was elected as president had a large task ahead of them, not one president had it very easy. Ever since this country was founded, there was one substantial problem that lay ahead of them; the Native Americans. The whole country was in fear of the Natives and what they could possibly do. The country needed to expand and the only thing standing in their way was the Native Americans and eventually the country came up with a way to relocate them. Indian removal was the solution to the country’s Native American problem. After years of trying to come up with a plan, Andrew Jackson passed this act to relocate Indians from the southeast to designated territories out west. The United States gained control over 3/4th of Alabama and Florida, as well as parts of Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky and North Carolina after the relocation (PBS). In 1823, the Supreme Court passed a decision saying that the natives "right of occupancy" was less important than the United States' "right of discovery" (PBS). The Native American groups that were forcibly
relocated were the Chickasaw, Creek, Choctaw, Cherokee, and Seminole (Divine-290). The Native Americans had no intention of leaving their sacred land.
There were early attempts at resistance, but most of the protests were non-violent. The Natives decided to take up American practices such as farming, Western education, and slave owning to try and be more like the Americans (PBS). Following these methods, the tribes earned the title of the “Five Civilized Tribes”. In 1830 the protest over the disputed land was over after Andrew Jackson passed the Indian Removal Act. The bill passed through the senate by a vote of 28 to 19 and the house by a small margin of 102 to 97. The Natives now had no choice but to
relocate. After the bill was passed many tribes did not comply, but after years of resistance, in 1833 all Southeastern tribes except the Cherokee agreed to evacuate their valued lands (Divine – 290). The Cherokee later reluctantly agreed to move on due to military pressure in 1838. This journey for the Native Americans was known as the “Trail of Tears”. The trail was so harsh that about 4000 of the 16000 marchers died on the way to Oklahoma, ¼ of the Indian population. An estimated 46,000 Indians relocated from the Southeast to the Oklahoma territory due to the Indian Removal act (Divine – 292). After many failed attempts to get rid of the Indians, the country had finally relocated them. Indian removal was one of the most offensive things that the government did to any group. The Native Americans had not been that large of a problem for expansion because the country had thousands of miles of undeveloped land. This event is important because it shows how the Native Americans are forced out of their rightful land in order for the nation to expand and prosper. If the Trail of Tears had never happened and the Natives never moved, the country would’ve been completely different from the way it is today. The Native American relocation was important because it changed our country and it displays what happened to the once great Native Americans before we forced them to relocate.