Indian Removal Act

On May 28^th, 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act. The Act allowed the Jackson administration to persuade, bribe, and threaten tribes native to the eastern United States on to reservations west of the Mississippi River in what was supposed to become “Indian Territory.” Over twenty of these Emigrant Tribes end up in eastern Kansas. The term “Emigrant Indians” refers to the indigenous peoples that were native to the Americas, but were pushed outside of their specific native homelands. Officially, the Act seemed fair by offering financial assistance and protection to the tribes forced to restart their lives elsewhere. Yet, in practice, the government’s practices were more underhanded. For example, a tribe might be placed on a small piece of land where it struggled to generate income. Government traders, who were granted a monopoly on trade with tribes, would offer them credit to temporarily sustain themselves. Eventually, however, the tribe would be forced to sell their land again due to debt. Also, within a tribe, the U.S. Government would only work with friendly tribal leaders, while ignoring dissenting leaders, making it unclear if these treaties truly represented the will of the tribe as a whole. By 1844, the population of Native Americans east of the Mississippi had dropped to about 30,000 from an estimated 125,000. Many of these tribes would be forced to move again in 1854 when the Kansas-Nebraska Act opened up “Indian Territory” to European-American settlement.