Indian removal

Indian removal
Routes of southern removals
LocationUnited States
Date1830–1847
TargetNative Americans in the eastern United States
Attack type
Death march, population transfer, ethnic cleansing, genocide
Deaths8,000+ (lowest estimate)
Perpetrators
Motive
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The Indian removal was the United States government's policy of ethnic cleansing through the forced displacement of self-governing tribes of American Indians from their ancestral homelands in the eastern United States to lands west of the Mississippi River—specifically, to a designated Indian Territory (roughly, present-day Oklahoma), which many scholars have labeled a genocide.[2][3][4] The Indian Removal Act of 1830, the key law which authorized the removal of Native tribes, was signed into law by United States president Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830. Although Jackson took a hard line on Indian removal, the law was primarily enforced during the Martin Van Buren administration. After the enactment of the Act, approximately 60,000 members of the Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw nations (including thousands of their black slaves) were forcibly removed from their ancestral homelands, with thousands dying during the Trail of Tears.[5][6][7][8]

Indian removal, a popular policy among incoming settlers, was a consequence of actions first by the European colonists and then later on by the American settlers in the nation during the thirteen colonies and then after the revolution, in the United States of America also until the mid-20th century.[9][10]

The origins of the policy date back to the administration of James Monroe, but it addressed conflicts which had occurred between the American settlers and Indigenous tribes since the 17th century and were escalating into the early 19th century (as settlers pushed westward in accordance with the cultural belief of manifest destiny). Historical views of Indian removal have been reevaluated since that time. Widespread contemporary acceptance of the policy, due in part to the popular embrace of the concept of manifest destiny, has given way to a more somber perspective. Historians have often described the removal of American Indians as paternalism,[11][12] ethnic cleansing,[13] or genocide.[14][15]

  1. ^ Crepelle, Adam (2021). "LIES, DAMN LIES, AND FEDERAL INDIAN LAW: THE ETHICS OF CITING RACIST PRECEDENT IN CONTEMPORARY FEDERAL INDIAN LAW" (PDF). N.y.u. Review of Law & Social Change. 44: 565. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 14, 2023. Retrieved August 19, 2023.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference NOTE2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Anderson2014 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference AmericanIndianSmithsonian was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Thornton, Russell (1991). "The Demography of the Trail of Tears Period: A New Estimate of Cherokee Population Losses". In William L. Anderson (ed.). Cherokee Removal: Before and After. pp. 75–93.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ Prucha, Francis Paul (1995). The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indians. U of Nebraska Press. pp. 241 note 58. ISBN 0803287348. Archived from the original on March 16, 2023. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  7. ^ Ehle, John (2011). Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. pp. 390–392. ISBN 9780307793836.
  8. ^ "A Brief History of the Trail of Tears". www.cherokee.org. Archived from the original on October 18, 2017. Retrieved October 17, 2017.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kanth2009 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference FinkelmanKennon2008 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference Wilentz was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference B&C was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Zinn2012 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ "Indian Removal Act: The Genocide of Native Americans – UAB Institute for Human Rights Blog". sites.uab.edu. Archived from the original on October 16, 2021. Retrieved October 16, 2021.
  15. ^ Stannard, David (1992). American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World. Oxford University Press. p. 256. ISBN 978-0195085570.