Indian Removal Act
The Indian Removal Act (German Indian Resettlement Act or Indian Expulsion Act ) was enacted in the USA in 1830 to create a legal basis for the expulsion of Indians (Indian Removal) from the states east of the Mississippi River .
The law was passed by the US Senate on April 24, 1830 . The House of Representatives approved it on May 26th with 102 votes to 97 (with MPs from the north rather rejection, from the south approval). President Andrew Jackson , who supported the project, signed it on May 28, 1830. It was particularly endorsed by the southern states , who wanted the land claimed by the five civilized nations for themselves. The opposition among whites was great among the main opponents of the law were the missionary Jeremiah Evarts , Senator Theodore Frelinghuysen and Congressman Davy Crockett of Tennessee , a famous hero of the " Wild West ".
The law authorized the president to begin negotiations with the tribes living within the states to swap their land for land in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase territories that were not (yet) organized as states or territories. This area was later called Indian Territory and now forms part of the state of Oklahoma .
The first such contract was the Dancing Rabbit Creek contract, signed on September 27, 1830. The Choctaw gave up land in Mississippi State (east of the river) in exchange for money and land west of the river. The Treaty of New Echota in 1835 led to the expulsion of the Cherokee from the fertile southeastern woodlands of the USA to the rather barren Indian territory in what is now the state of Oklahoma, the so-called " Path of Tears ". Most of the tribes in the east bowed to pressure and signed similar treaties. However, some smaller tribes still live in the eastern United States today.
The law actually stipulated that the Indians should be cared for during the resettlement and in the first few years afterwards. However, this was done very carelessly, which is why there were many deaths. The United States also failed to keep the guarantees that the land would belong to the Indians forever.
Web links
- Indian Removal Act and other sources at the Library of Congress
- Transcript of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 , at www.civics-online.org
- Text of the speech “State of the Union” (1829) on The American Presidency Project
Individual evidence
- ^ Howard Zinn: A People's History of the United States . Harper Perennial, 2005, ISBN 0-06-083865-5 , p. 138.