Indian Removal Act

2 Pages 457 Words

People dying from starvation and being forced off of land that is theirs. Does this seem fair? Well in my opinion it’s not. Sure the government says, “we bought the land and it’s ours”, but it was the Cherokee’s first.
As we all know President Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act. A reason it was set forth is because the government says, “we need these lands to expand the nation”. Also, the government says, the act was made because, “the land has been ours to begin with”.
Has the government even given a second thought to all of the costs of this act? I bet they have not. Well first of all, there is the fact that through the Trail of Tears many Cherokee Indians died, just because President Jackson wanted the land. Also, doing this could cut-off trade between the Indian tribes and the white settlers. All the Indians did was try to live in harmony and the white settlers had to disturb the peace. Also, President Jackson was almost killed in one raid. The White settlers were so stubborn, because they always have to get what they want, so they raided Indian villages. This killed many innocent Native Americans and it is truly wrong. Now some benefits. Well, I suppose, a benefit would be more land for the United States to expand on. Also, the Native Americans will now have land all to themselves, but will have to pay a terrible price to get it. I would say a last benefit would be that America did get what they wanted and that was all Indian lands.
In my opinion, many core Democratic values were overlooked in this situation. Such as, equality. Equality means, we are all equals. The Cherokee’s should have been treated as equals. They are just like everyone else. Also, the Cherokee’s individual rights were overlooked. They have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and in this case they were not given that.
There are alternatives that could have been used in place of the Indi...