Indian Removal Act: A Reassessment

In the early nineteenth century, the United States was faced with an obstacle—the Native Americans—in its Expansion toward the west of the continent. As the Indian-White conflicts intensified, the U.S. federal government, under the administration of Andrew Jackson, promulgated the Indian Removal Act in 1830 in hopes of annexing the land of the Five Civilized Tribes in the Southeast America by trading for the lands west of Mississippi. Undoubtedly, this act met opposition and indefatigable resistance from the Indians who treasured their ancestral lands more than anything else. However, the American government, by employing base means and superior weapons, forced them to the west of Mississippi (present Oklahoma).Although the idea of removing Indians was conceived upon the founding of the United States, it was not until the Jackson administration that the Indian Removal was legalized. Naturally, President Jackson was rendered a mix of evaluations for his role in the Removal. By synthesizing the historical documents and various interpretations of scholars from home and broad, and by analyzing the background of the Indian Removal, American government's motive, means and mentality in enforcing the Removal, the thesis argues that American government's responsibility for the tragedy of the Southeastern Indians was undeniable despite some historians' justification of the Removal. In many ways, white men's advocacy of Manifest Destiny and supremacy based on racial prejudice predetermined the first Americans' inevitable doom.The Great Removal paved the way for American industrial revolution. From then on, the United States witnessed rapid economic development. Meanwhile, urbanization and a multi-cultural society began to take shape as a result of immigration and the development of cities. As for American Indians, the Removal brought fundamental changes and huge damages to their political and economic lives as well as their tribal foundation, which resulted in the Indians' undue poverty and denial by the mainstream society even till today.