Indian Removal Act

 

The Indian Removal Act was a law passed by Congress on May 28, 1830 giving the President the authority to negotiate with South Eastern Indian tribes for their relocation from their homelands to land west of the Mississippi. There were two essential parts to the law. The first was assimilation; in an attempt to avoid broadening the potential for a greater Indian war, a policy of assimilation was put into place. The intention was to coerce Natives to give up their culture and inherit the European lifestyle of Christianity and agriculture. By assimilating the American Indians into the American culture, they would be less self reliant and would become  dependent on trade with Christian whites.

 

The second was removal. Indians of the "Five Civilized Tribes" (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole)  were forced by the United States government to divest their lands in the east in exchange for land west of the Mississippi. Only a small number of Indians relocated voluntarily. It took a total of 28 years to complete the removal. Through unfair treaties, many Natives moved west. Those who resisted were removed forcibly. The most well know case was the removal of the Cherokee nation on the Trail of Tears. More than 46,000 Native Americans were removed from their land, opening up over 25 million acres to white settlers.