Indian Removal Act summary: After demanding both political and military action on removing Native American Indians from the southern states of America in 1829, President Andrew Jackson signed this into law on May 28, 1830. Although it only gave the right to negotiate for their withdrawal from areas to the east of the Mississippi river and that relocation was supposed to be voluntary, all of the pressure was there to make this all but inevitable. All the tribal leaders agreed after Jackson’s landslide election victory in 1832.
It is generally acknowledged that this act spelled the end of Indian Rights to live in those states under their own traditional laws. They were forced to assimilate and concede to US law or leave their homelands. The Indian Nations themselves were force to move and ended up in Oklahoma.
The five major tribes affected were the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole. These were called The Civilised Tribes that had already taken on a degree of integration into a more modern westernised culture, such as developing written language and learning to read and write.
It overturned the more concessionary attitude of ex-President George Washington that aimed for ‘acculturation’ after debate with the Indian Nations. Even in those distant times, there was heated debate in congress with such famous names as the future president Abraham Lincoln and Davy Crockett speaking out against it. Now it is considered with serious negativity by all involved.
