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Indian Removal Act
Indian Removal Act & Nunahi-duna-dlo-hilu-i In the 1800 's, the United States was a nation still learning how to efficiently run a government, and establish credibility as a force to be reckoned with. Expansion was the first priority in which they were determined to achieve. The greatest onslaught of discrimination towards a group of non-resisting people occurred in 1830, when President Andrew Jackson passed the Indian Removal Act; Jackson passed this act in order to further expand the country into lands east of the Mississippi River. For a group of people willing to assimilate, there still was a severe expulsion from their native lands when there really didn’t have to be. “In 1830 the United States Congress passed . . . a statute authorizing use of military force to compel the relocation of all indigenous peoples east of the Mississippi River to points west (Ward, 144.).” Jackson was ruthless when it came to the enlargement of his country, and would stop at nothing to achieve his goal. Although Jackson was set on his plan of action, the previous years ' presidents had not had the same fundamental opinions upon the subject as he. The Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee-Cree, and Seminole Indians were all indigenous to southeastern territory in the States; these five tribes were recognized to be the “Five Civilized Tribes” due to their acceptance of acculturation that George Washington had proposed to them (Perdue, 51). Following George Washington 's acceptance of the Indians, Jefferson agreed that it was only correct to allow the tribes to remain on their homelands; he also had a policy that they would be tolerated, and supported from the American government and be allowed to remain east of the Mississippi as long as they agreed to assimilate to Americanized culture. Jackson didn’t agree with that at all. Prior to Jackson, the main objective of the presidency was to guide the United States toward a mass agriculturally based lifestyle, and develop a


Bibliography: 1. Cave, Alfred A. "Abuse Of Power: Andrew Jackson And The Indian Removal Act Of 1830." Historian 65 (2003): 1330-1353. Academic Search Elite. Web. 2 December 2012. 2. Charles Hicks, Tsalagi (Cherokee) Vice Chief on the Trail of Tears, August 4, 1838. 3. Indian Removal Act Of 1830." Indian Removal Act Of 1830 (2009): 1. Academic Search Elite. Web. 15 November 2012. 4. “Indian Removal”. PBS, n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2012 <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2959.html>. 5. Jahoda, Gloria (1975). Trail of Tears: The Story of the American Indian Removal 1813-1855. 2 December 2012. 6. Jefferson, Thomas (1803). “President Thomas Jefferson to William Henry Harrison, Governor of the Indiana Territory,” 3 December 2012. 7. Maier, Pauline. “Inventing America: A History of The United States”. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2006. Print 8 9. Ward Churchill, A Little Matter of Genocide (San Francisco, 1997), 144. 1 December 2012. 10. Stewart, Mark. The Indian Removal Act: Forced Relocation. Minneapolis: Compass Point, 2007. Print. 11. "The Museum of the Cherokee Indian." The Museum of the Cherokee Indian N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Nov. 2012. <http://www.cherokeemuseum.org/html/collections_tot.html>. 12. Tocqueville, Alexis De, and J. P. Mayer. Democracy in America. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1969. Print. 2 December 2012.
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