Critical Analysis of American Indian Policy: Indian Removal Act and the Tears Trail

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The American Indian Policy was first formulated during the 19th century to allow people in the United States to make good trade with the native Tribes for crops and other materials. Therefore, people who were in the federal government had the power to make deals with the native Tribes with the authority of the Constitution. With that being said, if anything were to go wrong, the U.S. government needed to be in charge of any situation.They didn't want non-whites to take over their land and then embraced a containment policy that led to indigenous leaders abandoning their property, most of their people, education for their children, and eventually forcing them to move west of the Mississippi.Therefore, this prompted President Jackson to go against the natives with the natives causing problems for the Americans. This causes Congress to remember, then in 1830 they passed the Indian Removal Act. The Americans didn't like other non-white people because of the problems they created. It also forced the Five Civilized Tribes of the natives to migrate from the Southeast to the West with this act being created. Some tribes moved and others fought back for their property, particularly the Cherokee, without causing any surprise. The people of the Cherokee wanted to bring it to the Supreme Court. The types of programs put in place by the U.S. government to control and relieve the native issue are the Indian Removal Act and the Tears Trail.

The U.S. was unable to contain the natives because they fought back, and that's when they saw them as a threat. That led Congress, therefore, to pass the Indian Removal Act. An Act passed by Congress and signed by President Andrew Jackson was the Indian Removal Act. The Americans claim that the Removal was in the Native Americans ' best interest and that settling elsewhere is better for them. Andrew Jackson, for example, said Native Americans would have to adapt to support agriculture and mechanical arts by choosing to stay. He said it would be hard and cause them many struggles and finally their people would die out entirely. Jackson also claims he has no motive to deceive their men, but just to try to help them. The act gave the president permission to give the natives, within existing state borders, unsettled land that was west of the Mississippi for their land. Therefore, a few tribes went peacefully and did not cause the U.S. government any problems, but many resisted the policy of relocation. The one tribe with this was the Cherokees who had the biggest problem. They wanted to fight back because they saw it as unjust to prove their point by bringing it to the Supreme Court. But the Supreme Court eventually ruled that the Cherokees couldn't be a foreign nation because they didn't meet all the criteria for it.

That being said, the Cherokees produced their own constitution and then defined their rights to be entitled as human beings. Therefore, they not only use their constitution as a right to be treated as human beings, but also under God's faith. In addition, you use constitution writing to discuss their religion and ethics. Therefore, it will help protect the rights of the Cherokees for their independence and also for their happiness with this constitution. You also have the right to have an education. Then the Cherokee wrote a message to the United States. Congress stated that it was impossible to break the deals the U.S. reached with the Cherokee nation. For example, if the natives leave their land and the government of the United States wants the land they left behind. They'd have to pay a fair amount for it to the natives. Therefore, with the lands already owned by the natives or granted to the natives, it can not be bought or sold unless it has been decided on by both sides of the parties. Persons in the U.S. can not claim land to which the indigenous people are assigned, if they do, they are prosecuted under Cherokee law. The Cherokees were not in support of the Indian Removal Act because they found the treaty to be unfair and it was the reverse of their legislation that was made between the U.S. and its citizens. Therefore, it went against what the Cherokees Constitution was designed for leading them to hate the Americans with the new act of the Americans. So they played the people of the Cherokee, took more land than expected, and gave them less ground. In fact, they found this unjust and thus led the Cherokees to see who the whites really are and they saw them as their land's intruders.

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Nevertheless, being unable to do anything about it with the displacement of the natives and the Cherokees. Thus, the impact of removing the Cherokees resulted in cholera outbreaks, inadequate supplies, and death from hunger and exhaustion. Some of the Cherokess froze to death when they moved to the new land and died of pneumonia due to the weather. Besides this, the cherokee people lost their land, their crops, livestock, and places of historical significance. This only made it worse and there was no reconciliation between the two sides. The Cherokee tried to resist being expelled by the U.S. government several times, but it didn't work at all. Therefore, it incident was later referred to as the Trail of Tears. When the act was created, the land to the west of Mississippi was reserved for the Natives, but it was hard to barron and it was hard for them to live on without proper supplies to survive off. When they moved there, they didn't have much because they had to pack their stuff and go. They left Southeastern with most of their supplies and they lived off what they had.

The Cherokee Tribe has tried to make a New Echota Treaty with the Americans to sell their entire land east of the Mississippi for a large sum of money and also to help them move and compensate for their lost property. They had problems with the treaty and the Cherokee people where they were not happy with what had happened. But the convention was still approved by Congress. Just a few Cherokees travel to the territories of the natives and a large number stayed back. With the Cherokees who had been left behind, President Martin Van Buren sent his massive army to make sure all the Cherokees left the land and returned to the nativesTerritory. And they then marched all the natives thousands of miles to their territories with that happening. This was named the Tears Trail because for the natives it was a devastating road. Thus, thousands of them died on the way to their new home due to illnesses they caught. When all the remaining natives arrived in their new land, they were guaranteed not to be troubled by the U.S. government and left in peace to do what they wished. But that wasn't at all true because the white settlement pushed westward as time went by. Which was the Native Territory and the native population became smaller and smaller over time with that happening. And later on Natives Territory was gone and they didn't exist anymore.

In summary, the Indian Removal Act forced natives to move west to a new home. They forced the natives to leave because people who were non-white settlers did not like them. This caused a lot of problems with the Cherokees because they didn't want to be forced out of their land and got nothing out of it. Most natives have been killed in the process because of their new home environment's disease. But the Colonists are eventually able to rid themselves of all the natives and drive them west of the Mississippi. So the Settlers eventually got what they wanted and the natives didn't get anything out of it.

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Critical Analysis of American Indian Policy: Indian Removal Act and the Tears Trail. (2022, July 14). Edubirdie. Retrieved April 25, 2024, from https://edubirdie.com/examples/critical-analysis-of-american-indian-policy-indian-removal-act-and-the-tears-trail/
“Critical Analysis of American Indian Policy: Indian Removal Act and the Tears Trail.” Edubirdie, 14 Jul. 2022, edubirdie.com/examples/critical-analysis-of-american-indian-policy-indian-removal-act-and-the-tears-trail/
Critical Analysis of American Indian Policy: Indian Removal Act and the Tears Trail. [online]. Available at: <https://edubirdie.com/examples/critical-analysis-of-american-indian-policy-indian-removal-act-and-the-tears-trail/> [Accessed 25 Apr. 2024].
Critical Analysis of American Indian Policy: Indian Removal Act and the Tears Trail [Internet]. Edubirdie. 2022 Jul 14 [cited 2024 Apr 25]. Available from: https://edubirdie.com/examples/critical-analysis-of-american-indian-policy-indian-removal-act-and-the-tears-trail/
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