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Essay / Trail of Tears - 1365
Maintaining large tracts of land has always been a goal of the U.S. government. During the 1830s, large numbers of Native Americans were forcibly removed from their lands so that the Americans could claim them as their own. With little defense compared to the Americans' superior firepower, the Native Americans had virtually no choice in whether or not to leave their lands westward. The Cherokee Indians are a specific group of Native Americans unjustly removed from their land. The Cherokee clashed with the U.S. government and did not willingly leave their native lands in the southeastern United States. Although the Americans had good reason to want the Cherokee territory, they had no right to expel the Indians from their homeland. Many events led to and caused the Trail of Tears. One of the main reasons the United States wanted the Cherokee lands was to open the Eastern lands to European American immigrants (Bertolet). During the 1820s, as the Eastern population grew, Southern states pressed the federal government to remove Indians from their lands. The government attempted to appease the southern states by offering treaties with the tribes. The Indians felt that the land was theirs by right and so they did not accept these treaties. As the Indians disagreed with the government, President Andrew Jackson approved and signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830. This act allowed the president to exchange Indian lands for land west of the river Mississippi. This act was unfair to the Cherokee Nation and Indian people because they had no say in the passing of this law. Supporters of the removal law said it would allow Americans and immigrants to... middle of paper ...... reserve community structures such as clan and kinship relationships (nationalhumanitiescenter.org) . The removal of the Cherokee Indians from their southeastern lands constituted the largest Indian relocation in American history (Sides 362). It was unfair for Americans to take over Indian land to make room for more Americans and immigrants. The Indians had done nothing to deserve this type of brutal treatment. These Indians had no way of fighting back against the Americans, so it was both unjust and unjust. The trail of tears, or as the Indians called it the trail of crying, was a trail of illness and despair (Ehle 385). No one should ever have to experience what the Cherokees and other tribes experienced. Even if the Americans had valid reasons for desiring Indian lands, they did not have the right to forcibly remove the Indians without their full consent..