THE INDIAN REMOVAL ACT
BY SARAHI URIBE, RACHEL PRETTYMAN,
DREW BLONDIN,
AND CHEYANNE STEVENS
Thurgood Marshall
Grade 5
The Indian Removal Act was sign by Congress and President
Andrew Jackson. Jackson had been known for his
toughness, which meant harsh and unfair treatment to the
Native Americans. It had been Jackson’s idea to start the
Indian Removal Act. He wanted the Indian’s land and thought
if he could get tribes to sign treaties, so he could easily
remove them. Due to the Indian Removal Act, Indian tribes
East of Mississippi had to leave their lands and walk many
miles to Indian Territory which is now called Oklahoma. This
was one of the first of many forced removals of the Native
Americans from their land by the United States Government
over many years.
In 1791 the United States
Government signed a treaty
recognizing the Cherokee
nation’s independence and the
Cherokee lived happily east of
Mississippi for many years. In 1829
Americans found gold on the
Cherokee’s homeland and they
wanted to Cherokee to leave. In
1832, Cherokee went to court,
and Chief Justice John Marshall
said they could stay, but the
ruling was ignored and the
federal troops were called in to
remove the Cherokee in 1838.
The Trail Of Tears
14,000 Cherokee were forced to walk
over 800 miles through North
Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee,
Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and
Arkansas in the winter of 18381839 to get to Oklahoma.
Weather got colder and more than
4000 Cherokee died because
disease, coldness, or lack of food.
Once they got to
Oklahoma on
March in the
year 1839, the
Cherokees were
one of the tribes
that stayed in
Oklahoma.
Where the Navajos started
At first the Navajo were
living peacefully in
Canyon de Chelly.
Then, when the
Americans moved out
west, the Americans
started to raid them
and the Navajo raided
the Americans. The
Navajo wanted to have
peace with the white
soldiers, so they signed
a peace treaty. But
someone accused a
Navajo cheating on a
horse race and broke
the peace treaty. The
American soldiers came
to the Navajo camp and
forced all of them to
go to Fort Defiance.
The Trail Of The Longwalk
About 3000 Navajo,
were forced to
walk about 300
miles to Fort
Sumner in New
Mexico. Many of
the Navajo died
during the walk
from sickness and
starving to death.
The Navajo tribe
walked through
some of Arizona
and New Mexico
before they finally
arrived at Fort
Sumner in the
Bosque Redondo
area.
At their new home, the
Navajo had trouble
planting food
because the land
was not good for
planting corn, so
they could not eat.
About 25 percent of
the Navajo died
from starvation.
They lived there for
another 4 years.
References
• Armstrong Nancy. Navajo Long
Walk. New York Scholastic,1994.
• Cherokee Messenger,1995. The
Cherokee Cultural Society of
Houston.
http://www.powersource.com/chero
kee/history.
• Horizons. United States History;
Beginnings. New York Harcourt,
2005.
• The Long Walk. 2007. The view
zone. http://viewzone.com/day3w.