Indian Removal Act

Indian Removal Act. In the 1820s, land speculators called for the elimination of Native American communities that impeded white settlement. Particularly at issue were the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole Indians of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida—the so‐called Five Civilized Tribes. Thomas L. McKenney, head of the federal Indian Office from 1824 to 1830, viewing American Indians as children, proposed their removal west of the Mississippi River. Some missionaries, eager to convert and “civilize” Indians in isolated western lands, welcomed his rhetoric. In 1829, newly elected President Andrew Jackson endorsed the Indian‐removal campaign.

Signed into law on 28 May 1830, the Indian Removal Act empowered the president to exchange Western lands for lands held by eastern tribes and appropriated $500,000 for that purpose. After negotiating divisive treaties with southern Indian nations for removal to Kansas and Oklahoma, Jackson launched prolonged wars of removal that decimated Seminole populations in Florida. In two important Supreme Court cases, Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831) and Worcester v. Georgia (1832), Chief Justice John Marshall, while denying Cherokee claims to be an independent nation, did partially uphold their claims on the basis of prolonged occupancy. But to no avail. The forced removal of the Cherokee, the so‐called “Trail of Tears,” reduced their population by over 30 percent. An eyewitness recalled: “Families at dinner were driven by blows and oaths to the stockade by soldiers to await removal.” They had little choice, since the alternative to removal was often genocidal policies. After the forced expulsion to Indian territory (Oklahoma), many tribes suffered long‐term trauma, discord, and violence between pro‐removal and anti‐removal factions. Although some whites opposed removal, the overwhelming majority supported Jackson's policies, contributing to his lopsided reelection victory in 1832.
See also Antebellum Era; Cherokee Cases; Expansionism; Indian History and Culture: From 1800 to 1900; Indian Wars; Seminole Wars; Sequoyah.

Bibliography

Michael P. Rogan , Fathers and Children: Andrew Jackson and the Subjugation of the American Indian, 1975.
Ronald N. Satz , American Indian Policy in the Jacksonian Era, 1975.
Stephen Breyer , ‘For Their own Good’: The Cherokees, the Supreme Court, and the Early History of American Conscience, New Republic, August 7, 2000, 32–39.

Donald A. Grinde Jr.