Indian Removal Act Research Paper

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Pages: 3

The Indian Removal Act – and Choices

Before reading any further, stop and think about your life as a fourth grader. What important decisions did your family have to make during the last year? Were there decisions about jobs, housing, moving, schools, or health-related choices? Were those decisions easy or difficult? How did your family make the decisions? How about you? What is the most important decision that you have made recently? As we read about historical events in Social Studies Weekly each week, we read about many different groups of people. They faced many very difficult decisions. In 1830, many American Indians faced a difficult decision. Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, which was President Andrew Jackson’s idea. The act was supposed to be voluntary and peaceful, requiring Indian nations living east of the Mississippi River to assimilate (adapt or adjust) into the American culture or make treaties to turn over their land, and move west to the Indian Territory. This area of land is where we find present-day Oklahoma.
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No. Some Indian nations made treaties, and most of them ended up relocating west. Some groups decided to stay in their land; moreover, they refused to sign treaties. They ended up fighting the soldiers who were sent to remove them. In the Great Lakes region, the Sauk and Fox Indians fought the soldiers. They were led by Chief Black Hawk in the Black Hawk War. Farther south, the Seminole Indians of Florida also fought the soldiers. They were led by Osceola, and helped by runaway slaves. In both of these wars, many of the Indians were removed from their homeland or