Mansfield Times

The Trail of Tears and the Indian Removal Act of 1830 by a not so Good President, Andrew Jackson

By Kenneth Hammontree

Over the past few articles, we related the sad history, of the old North West Territory (Ashland and Richland Counties, Ohio) and the demise of the various tribes and their land holdings. Our attention now turns to the Eastern Woodlands Tribes of the Southeast region of the United States, including: Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole.

Based on tribal and military records, it is suggested that approximately 125,000 indigenous people were forced from their lands and homes, by the Indian Removal Act of 1830, supported by none other, than President of the United States Andrew Jackson.

First, a review of the Indian Removal Act of 1830; The roots of this Act forced removal, from 1830 through 1840, and relocation into reservations (Interment Camps), lay in the greed of the white land speculators and settlers. In 1829 gold was discovered on Cherokee land in Georgia. Vast amounts of wealth were at stake with the gold mines producing 300 ounces of gold a day.

Land speculators, like President Jackson, soon demanded that he, with the assistance of a corrupt congress devolve to the states the complete control of all real property owned by the tribes and their members. A corrupt Congress complied by passing the Indian Removal Act of 1830. This act entitled the president, who hated Native Americans, to negotiate with (steal from) the various tribes in removing them west of the Mississippi River.

The Removal Act also was to provide some $500,000 for transportation and compensation to the indigenous land owners. Yea right! Much of the money never made it to the various tribes; surprise, surprise!

We also know that over 15,000 Native Americans died during the Trail of Tears, after being force out of their home by the military.

Second, what was the Trail of Tears? The Federal Government working on behalf of the white settlers and land speculators forced them to leave their ancestry home lands and walk hundreds of miles to a designated “Indian Reservation (interment camps)”.

The Trail of Tears was all about greed and land that became more valuable and coveted as white settlers flooded the tribal lands. To the indigenous people, land was very sacred, given to them by Monoto (God), as was all of nature. All life was sacred and given to humans as a gift.

The white settlers often resorted to violent means to take the land. They stole livestock; burned and looted houses and villages, and squatted on land that did not belong to them.

State governments joined in this effort to drive Native Americans out of the south. Several states passed laws limiting Native Americans sovereignty and rights as they stole their land. The term Trail of Tears invokes the collective suffering the Native Americans experienced in reference to the removal of the Southeast Tribes generally, and the Cherokee nation specifically.

The physical trail consisted of several overland routs and one main water rout across portions of nine states.

In Worcester v. Georgia (1832), the U.S. Supreme Court objected to the practice of limiting Native American Sovereignty and affirmed that Trible lands were sovereign nations “in which the laws of Georgia and other states can have no force.” Even with this decision by the Supreme court, maltreatment continued. As President Andrew Jackson noted in 1832, “if no one intended to enforce the Supreme Court rulings (which he certainly did not), then the decision would fall.”

Andrew Jackson had long been an advocate of “Indian Removal”. As an Army General, he had spent years leading brutal campaigns against the Cherokees, Creeks in Tennessee and Georgia, and the Seminoles in Florida. The Cherokee Nation tried to use legal action to resist removal. They sent letter after letter to congress in protest referring to the previous treaties. However, all legal action ultimately provided no relief.

Several families moved west on their own, the majority stayed, believing their property rights would ultimately be respected. This was not to be the case, and in 1838 the military began to force the Cherokee people from their land and homes.

Some joined armed resistance groups and fought with the Sauk leader Black Hawk. Others had no choice but to comply and leave like the Choctaw and Chickasaw, however, bureaucratic ineptitude, and political corruption caused many to die of exposure, malnutrition, exhaustion, and disease while traveling.

Very few Americans today have any idea how the Native Americans have been treated in the past. We know about African Americans and the Japanese during WWII, but now maybe we can understand a little about our Native American brothers and sisters.

In the next article, we will be moving out West, and witnessing the same situation that was experienced with the Eastern Woodlands Tribes.

Original source found here.