The Indian Removal Act of 1830

Ethnic Cleansing is a crime against today but the United States employed it in the 19th century. The Indian Removal Act played an integral role in displacing thousands of The ‘Five Civilized Tribes’ and other Native American communities from their motherland. President Andrew Jackson orchestrated the removal and mass murder in the Southeast. It is not easy to forget that it is Congress that passed the Act into law through a single vote. Congress became an accomplice but Jackson and other land speculators’ greed led to the crafting and passage of Removal Act of 1830. 

Civilized Tribes in the 1830s

The name ‘Five Civilized Tribes’ originated from early settlers in the United States. The Chickasaw, Creek, Choctaw, Seminole, and Cherokee formed the civilized Native Americans. The Indian tribes had economic, political and cultural integration before removal from their ancestral land by the government in the 1820s and 1830s. However, the phrase mostly applied in Indian Territory and Oklahoma (Goins and Goble 14).   The ‘Five Civilized Tribes’ were indigenous people who resided in South-eastern. They grew crops such as beans and corn with hereditary political and religious elites.  Before the arrival of the first European, the tribes lived in matrilineal societies. According to Andrew Frank, majority of the population lived in towns while other part grew crops in hundreds of acres (1). The leaders controlled their space and designed their streets. Additionally, they subdivided public and residential areas with clear demarcations. The chiefdoms varied in complexity and size while the military organization was of high-level.

Americans considered the South-eastern nation ‘civilized as they assimilated to Anglo-Americans practices. The tribes had centralized organized governments, written constitutions, participation in organized market and education system. They also adopted Christianity and intermarried with the white American as well as practicing slavery holding in plantations (Andrew Frank 1). The term used to differentiate the five nations from other ‘wild’ tribes that continued to rely on hunting as a means of livelihood.  At the declaration of independence, there was emergent of United States culture but The Five Tribes practices remained useful.

Provisions of the 1830 Indian Removal Act

At the beginning of the 19th century, the land speculators European settlers and Euro-Americans wanted the expansion of farming land. They invaded the countryside from the coastal south. Their number grew rapidly and began encroaching into Indians territory.  The tribes were a significant obstacle for white settlers to expand westward.  Subsequently, they petitioned the federal government to order Indian removal. Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe were former presidents who proposed that the native tribes in the south should resettle in the West of Mississippi River as compensation for their removal.  Major General Andrew Jackson led several battles with Indians tribes including the Battle of Horse Shoe Bend in 1814 ( ). The army general defeated and destroyed military power of Indian Creeks. He coerced Indian into a treaty where they gave up millions of acres to the United States. Later, Jackson negotiated eleven other treaties enabling the Native Americans to leave their lands.  Andrew Jackson came into power and influenced the Congress to adopt the Removal Act.

  It was a systematic approach to set a legal precedent that hastens Native American relocation.  The president told the Congress that the Native American populations living independently in states as sovereign groups posed a serious threat to the sovereignty of the federal government (Sturgis 1). President Jackson signed the Act in law on May 28, 1830, and enforced it during his reign between years 1829-1837 (Miller 23). The law provided that the president could offer alternative land in West Mississippi to Native Americans for giving up their ancestral land. Further, the Act provided that Indians be given financial and material resource to facilitate their relocation. The US government promised to offer protection to the lives and property forever. 

The Trail of Tears and Justification the Mass Transfer of Indians 

The Jackson government was successful in removing the Indian tribes from their homeland. As a result, over 50,000 moved westwards to Mississippi. A few tribes complied and peacefully march to the new location. Many of the Five Tribes members resisted the government’s directives. However, the military force made the tribesmen to trek.  The armed forces dragged the Cherokee onto wagons before concentrating them in holding camps (Sturgis 17). Thousands of people perished during the war against the government while others died on the journey. Others perished from starvation, exposure to clay and disease. The Cherokee mass movement became the infamous ‘Trail of Tears’ (Perdue, Theda and Green 42).  The term represents the suffering experienced during the removal era.

Andrew Jackson’s government justified the Indian Removal Act indicating that the government would get more land. Similarly, the Indians would become civilized citizens and have improved lives.  Unfortunately, the Act design aimed at benefiting settlers and left a suffering population. The government promised money, food supply, and security which the government failed to honor. According to the Supreme Court ruling, the removal was unconstitutional but President Jackson had other ideas. In the Trail of Tears, over 4000 Cherokee people died (Perdue, Theda and Green 42).  It led to the destruction of property and livelihood. Today, over 2.5 million of the Native Americans reside in reservations. The living conditions are devastating. Majority of adults are unemployed and live below the federal poverty line. 

Conclusion

The issue of genocide and American history indicates brutality to humankind. The indigenous people suffered from atrocities committed by their own government. Direct killing and mass movement of people amounted to crimes against humanity. The men, women, and children suffered because their land was rich with gold and other resources.  It was the greed of the settlers that motivated the Removal Act and ethnic cleansing of the Indian Tribes.

Work Cited

Andrew K. Frank, “Five Civilized Tribes,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, www.okhistory.org (accessed December 05, 2018)

Goins, Charles R, and Danney Goble. Historical Atlas of Oklahoma. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 2006. Print.

Perdue, Theda, and Michael D. Green. The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears. , 2008. Print.

Sturgis, Amy H. The Trail of Tears and Indian Removal. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2007. Internet resource.

Miller, David W. The Forced Removal of American Indians from the Northeast: A History of Territorial Cessions and Relocations, 1620-1854. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Co, 2011. Print.