5. Indian Removal Act of 1830 marks a change in U.S. government policy toward Native Americans
On April 7, 1830, President Andrew Jackson submits a bill to Congress which calls for the relocation of tribes situated in the east to lands west of the Mississippi. The passage of the Indian Removal Act on May 28, 1830, marks a significant shift in governmental policy towards Native Americans. The Act authorizes the president to grant tribes unsettled and undesirable prairie lands in the west in exchange for sought-after Native American land, particularly in the southeast.
While a number of northern tribes are peacefully relocated, some tribes, particularly the “Five Civilized Tribes,” i.e. the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek, Choctaw, and Seminole refuse to trade their cultivated lands for less desirable land in the west. Many Native Americans belonging to these tribes had “homes, representative government, children in missionary schools, and trades other than farming.” The refusal of these tribes to leave resulted in the government forcibly removing them from their land. Approximately 100,000 Native Americans, many in manacles, were marched westward during the 1830s. An estimated 25,000 died en route during the removal process.
The Indian Removal Act had particularly devastating consequences for the Cherokee. Despite the Supreme Court rulings of 1831 and 1832 which stated that the Cherokee were entitled to remain on their land President Jackson sent in the Army in May 1838 to remove approximately 16,000 Cherokee from their land in Georgia. 1,500 die while imprisoned in camps for the summer. The surviving Cherokee are then marched 800 miles to Oklahoma along the “Trail of Tears.” Approximately 4,000 Cherokee died during the removal process.
The refusal of the Florida-based Seminole to be relocated leads to the Second Seminole War which lasts from 1835-1842. It is one of the most expensive and longest wars fought by the U.S. Army. 1,500 men are killed and $40-60 million is spent which was more than the entire allocated budget for Indian removal.