The
Indian Removal Act, part of a United States
government policy known as
Indian
removal, was signed into law by
President Andrew Jackson (D) on
May
26,
1830.The
U.S.
Senate passed the bill on
24 April
1830 (
-19), the
U.S. House passed it on
26 May 1830 (102-97);
Francis Paul Prucha,
The Great Father: The United States
Government and the American Indians, Volume I (Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press, 1984), p. 206.
The Removal Act was strongly supported in the
South, where states were eager to gain
access to lands inhabited by the "
Five Civilized Tribes".
In particular,
Georgia
, the largest state at that time, was involved in a
contentious jurisdictional dispute with the Cherokee nation. President Jackson hoped
removal would resolve the Georgia crisis. The Indian Removal Act
was also very controversial. While Indian removal was, in theory,
supposed to be voluntary, in practice great pressure was put on
American Indian leaders to sign removal treaties. Most observers,
whether they were in favor of the Indian removal policy or not,
realized that the passage of the act meant the inevitable removal
of most Indians from the states. Some Native American leaders who
had previously resisted removal now began to reconsider their
positions, especially after Jackson's landslide re-election in
1832.
Most European Americans favored the passage of the Indian Removal
Act, though there was significant opposition. Many
Christian missionaries,
most notably missionary organizer
Jeremiah Evarts, protested against passage
of the Act.
In Congress, New Jersey Senator Theodore Frelinghuysen and
Congressman David Crockett of
Tennessee
spoke out against the legislation. The
Removal Act was passed after bitter debate in Congress.
The Removal Act paved the way for the reluctant—and often
forcible—emigration of tens of thousands of American Indians to the
West.
The
first removal treaty signed after the Removal Act was the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit
Creek on September 27, 1830, in which Choctaws in
Mississippi
ceded land east of the river in exchange for
payment and land in the West. Choctaw chief (thought to be
Thomas Harkins or Nitikechi) quoted to the Arkansas Gazette that
the 1831 Choctaw removal was a "
trail of tears and
death."
The
Treaty of New Echota
(signed in 1835) resulted in the removal of the Cherokee on the
Trail of Tears. The Seminoles did not
leave peacefully as did other tribes; along with fugitive slaves
they resisted the removal. The Second Seminole War lasted from 1835
to 1842 and resulted in the forced removal of Seminoles, only a
small number to remain, and around 3,000 were killed amongst
American soldiers and Seminoles.
In 1823 the Supreme Court handed down a decision (
Johnson v. M'Intosh) which stated that Indians
could occupy lands within the United States, but could not hold
title to those lands.
See also
Bibliography
- Howe, Daniel Walker. What Has God Wrought: The
Transformation of America, 1815-1848. (2007) ISBN
978-0-19-507894-7
Notes
- Howe pp. 348-352
- (Eric Foner.Give me liberty.Norton,2006.)
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