Assignment 8

What is the Indian Removal Act?

When the white people came to America, they wanted to build a new nation. They started new industries, a well-known industry is the cotton fields. But the white people needed a lot of space for their cotton fields, they had to send the Indians away. The Indians did not just leave their homes, they fought for their place and villages.

In 1830 president Jackson signed the Indian removal act, which gave the federal government the power to ‘exchange’ land of the Native Americans near the cotton fields for land in the West near the ‘Indian colonization zone’ (near present-day Oklahoma). The law said that the government had to negotiate honestly, voluntarily and peacefully.  It did not allow them to force the Native Americans out of their land, but that is exactly what they did . President Jackson and his government ignored the letter of the law multiple times.       

Do you think treaties between Native Americans and the American government were profitable for both sides?    
The treaties were unfair to the Native Americans because they were made by the government. The treaties were forced onto the Native Americans, they had to give up their rights to hunt.
The treaties were negotiated by the executive branch on behalf of the president and ratified by the U.S. Senate. The native tribes would give up their rights to hunt and live on huge parcels of land that they had inhabited in exchange for trade goods, yearly cash annuity payments, and assurances that no further demands would be made on them. Most often, part of the land would be "reserved" exclusively for the tribe's use. 

Explanation of the title "Trail of tears".

The Trail of Tears is a difficult and deadly journey. The native Americans were forced  to leave their millions of acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida. They had to walk thousands of miles to a specially designed Indian territory across the Mississippi River.

A map and pictures which show where the Indians originally lived and where they were moved to as a result of treaties.