Indian Removal Act Of 1830 Dbq

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1. During the 1820s and the 1830s, Native Americans had little to no citizenship rights. They were ultimately forced to leave their land and if the Natives didn’t move, they had to follow the rules of white people. The Natives were afforded rights I the form of compensation for relocating. The solution to the conflicts between the white people and the Native Americans was to either relocate the Natives and if they didn’t relocate, force them to live by the rules set forth by “cultural” white men. Robert V. Remini explains what the Congress told President Jackson after he asked for a solution, “As a matter of fact, something can be done. I suggest for your consideration the propriety of setting apart an ample area west of the Mississippi, outside …show more content…
The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was significant because its purpose was to save the Indians from extinction. Unfortunately it added to the country’s national debt and created a divisional hatred towards President Jackson. It is understood that President Jackson had seen firsthand Native tribes becoming extinct trying to live side by side with white people. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 prevented many other tribes from becoming extinct by separating them from the white people. Robert V. Remini explains how the Indian Removal act would save the Native Americans, “So, as his final action in inaugurating the new Indian policy, he prepared to go to Congress and request appropriate legislation to end the collision, the intrusion, the killing, and the debasement of Indian culture and save the remaining tribes from extinction.” The Indian Removal Act was significant because it supposedly “saved” remaining Indian tribes from becoming extinct. Another reason the Indian Removal Act is significant is because it created a devastating amount of debt for the nation. Remini explains how much relocating the Indians cost, “In his eight years in office some seventy-odd treaties were signed and ratified, adding to the public domain approximately 100 million acres of Indian land in the east at a cost of $68 million and 32 million acres of land west of the Mississippi River.” The Indian Removal Act is significant because it exponentially increased the nation’s debt. One other reason the Indian …show more content…
Although the Indian Removal Act of 1830 was supposed to be beneficial to the Native Americans, it was a disaster. The Act was not beneficial to the Indians, because the state did not stay true their word, and squatters tried to take over the Indian’s new land. Alfred A. Cave describes how the Indians reacted to the white people not holding up their end of the deal, ‘“Your agent," they said, "told us at the Treaty made at Chicago in 1833 that the country assigned to us west of the Mississippi was equally good as the lands in Illinois.... Father-we have been deceived and we feel disappointed & dissatisfied…. There is scarce timber enough to build our Wigwams, and that some of our land is too poor for snakes to live upon. Our men are not accustomed to the Prairie. They have always lived in the woods.”’ The Removal policy did not benefit Native Americans because they did not receive the land they were promised. The land that was given to them was barely livable. The next reason the Removal policy was not beneficial to the Native Americans was because President Jackson did not follow through on his word that if the Indians stayed and obeyed the laws set by the states, they would be protected. Cave explains what Jackson told the Indians, “Rather than enforcing the laws that forbade white settlement on treaty lands, Jackson informed Indian leaders that he lacked the power to protect them from even the most extreme and oppressive actions of the state governments and of lawless
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