Removal Of the Indians from Their Native Land

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Removal Of the Indians from Their Native Land

The removal of the Indians from their original homes was received differently by different people in the United States of America. The Indians suffered a lot in the process and even some died as they were being removed from their original homes. The founding fathers of the nation had come up with a proposition that the Indians had to be civilized since they were not civilized and once, they were civilized then they could be accepted by the whites into the states as long as they were to continue behaving like white men. This had begun but the presidency of Jackson came before it could be finished (Wallace et al, 15). This paper discusses the reasons why president Jackson felt that it was important for the Indians to be removed from the mainland states and be taken to the states which were not established or sovereign as well as the process of removal with its good intentions and the negative experiences that happened.

When the whites settled in the United States as colonists, they did not recognize the Indians as any good or civilized people. They just thought they were indigenous people who could not be civilized and therefore their life was not spent trying to civilize people who were not civilized according to them. When the colonists rejected the stamp act and got into the American revolution war, they were fighting for the American land to be theirs (Remini,1829). Therefore, they did not consider the Indians as any important and they were faced with total feeling of control. Once independence was obtained and the articles of confederation as well as the constitution declared official and the nation established there remained one problem and that was Indians.

Even though the whites from England had found Indians in the place they never cared for them and always saw them as a destruction to the country which was new and ready for new beginnings (Act, 151). The men of wisdom as stated in the paper like Washington declared that the Indian problem had to be dealt with later and that they were supposed to be civilized and later assumed into the union and white men’s culture and kind of life. President Jackson however saw the process getting too slow and Indians being hurt by the whites as because of this he decided to go on with the process of removal which his predecessors were unable to do. He did this and while so many people did not say anything loudly, they agonized with the Indians and believed that if it was the only thing that could be done for the security of the nation then it was worth it.

One of the reasons as to why the Indians had to be removed is because the whites around them viewed them as weak. Because of this the whites felt in danger of anything happening around and the Indians being unable to protect themselves letting the whites be harmed. Therefore, they treated the Indians badly for them to get away and leave the whites on their own so that they could develop a way to deal with security issues which may arise without having to worry about the Indians.

Secondly, the fact that whites viewed the Indians as uncivilized made the whites wish that they were not close to the Indians. This desire to be so far away from Indians created hate and the whites mocked Indians as most of them did not want to be civilized and change their culture as the whites wanted. They were discriminated against and they were told how they are not worthy of so many things. These are some of the sufferings Indians endured just because they were not whites and they did not follow the culture of the whites.

President Jackson therefore seeing all this suffering and trying to protect Indians removed them from their original homes and drove them away to the places where they could stay safely without having to worry about the whites threatening them or mistreating them. However, this was not the only desire of the president as new land was gained as the Indians were taken away from the whites and this was part of the plan to gain more land for the union.

President Jackson also made the shifting and removal as smooth as possible even though he was faced by issues of graft, theft and corruption. When he realized that the Indians were suffering too much especially the Cherokees, he changed the people who were supposed to guide the Indians to their new lands and the whole process was handled by military (Remini,1827). This serves to show that even though the president is criticized for doing what was inhuman and making the Indians leave the homes they had buried their ancestors which was very special to them, he was human and wanted the best for them as he provided all means to approve and make sure they travelled safely and well as providing everything they needed for a whole year as they settled in their new homes.

The president also wanted to protect the Indians from the state governments formed by the whites and which could really be a bother to the Indians if they were left in their original lands. They could be a big bother to the Indians in that the whites could have taxed them very much and the natives could not take it in. the other reason was for the safety of the nation because the lands they occupied were too precious and if they were to be left in the lands and any enemy attacked that would have been a window for the enemy to enter into united states which would not be allowed.

Therefore, it is true that president Jackson did what had to be done and removed the Indians from their native land to other places even though a lot of people were against this as they saw it as mistreatment and lack of recognition of the rights of the Indians as the native owners of the land they were (Wallace et al, 12). It is indeed possible to view it as cruelty since the whites found Indians in the places, they were removing them from. This is because the Indians were the original owners of such lands and removing them is like going to destroy the house of someone and take them somewhere else, they do not have any emotional connection with (Remini,1824). However, viewed from the positive side, if a wise person does that and knows that the security of the house is not okay, then it is no longer cruelty but concern and care which is exactly what president Jackson had for the Indians as he tried to arrange the country in the manner in which it was needed for economic prosperity and security of the United States.

Works Cited

Act, Indian Removal. “Indian Removal Act (1830).” Behind Barbed Wire: An Encyclopedia of Concentration and Prisoner-of-War Camps (2018): 151.

Remini, Robert V. Andrew Jackson: The Course of American Freedom, 1822-1832. Vol. 2. JHU Press, 1998.

Wallace, Anthony, and Eric Foner. The long, bitter trail: Andrew Jackson and the Indians. Macmillan, 1993.