USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Removal and settlement on reservations served two purposes for the United States. First, it cleared land of Native Americans for western expansion. Second, it permitted the United States to carry out a program of Americanizing Tribes into communities of small farmers.

Detailed explanation-2: -The Indian Removal Act, signed by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830, was an unprecedented legal maneuver that gave the president the power to make treaties with every tribe east of the Mississippi, ultimately forcing them to surrender their lands in exchange for territory in the West.

Detailed explanation-3: -In 1851, Congress passed the Indian Appropriations Act which created the Indian reservation system and provided funds to move Indian tribes onto farming reservations and hopefully keep them under control.

Detailed explanation-4: -Relocation was either voluntary or forced. Army and militia patrols supervised the tribes’ westward journey. It is estimated that between 1830 and 1840 the government relocated more than 70, 000 Native Americans, thousands of whom died along what came to be known as the Trail of Tears.