USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Introduction. The Indian Removal Act was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830, authorizing the president to grant lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for Indian lands within existing state borders. A few tribes went peacefully, but many resisted the relocation policy.

Detailed explanation-2: -Jackson declared that removal would “incalculably strengthen the southwestern frontier.” Clearing Alabama and Mississippi of their Indian populations, he said, would “enable those states to advance rapidly in population, wealth, and power."

Detailed explanation-3: -More than 46, 000 Native Americans were forced-sometimes by the U.S. military-to abandon their homes and relocate to “Indian Territory” that eventually became the state of Oklahoma. More than 4, 000 died on the journey-of disease, starvation, and exposure to extreme weather.

Detailed explanation-4: -These Indian nations, in the view of the settlers and many other white Americans, were standing in the way of progress. Eager for land to raise cotton, the settlers pressured the federal government to acquire Indian territory. Andrew Jackson, from Tennessee, was a forceful proponent of Indian removal.

Detailed explanation-5: -Losing Indian lands resulted in a loss of cultural identity, as tribes relied on their homelands as the place of ancestral burial locations and sacred sites where religious ceremonies were performed. Without their lands, nations lost their identities, and their purpose.