At the beginning of the 1830s, nearly 125,000 Native Americans lived on millions of acres of land across the United States, including Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, and North Carolina. By the end of the decade, however, very few Native Americans remained in the southeastern part of the United States. This occurred because of the political agenda the United States adopted at the time, led by President Andrew Jackson. Below is a brief snapshot of Indian removal westward, propelled by the Indian Removal Act of 1830 (Editors).
For an accessible version of the above infographic, please view the following file:
The video below dives into more of the historical background on the Indian Removal Act of 1830. As shown from the map above, the scope and breadth of this policy was huge, impacting dozens of tribes and thousands of people. The federal government was swift in the implementation of its new adopted policy on Native Americans, as more and more settlers wanted to expand and grow their land into the new possibilities of the West.
Native Americans experienced many radical changes to their way of life and were affected by the laws passed by the United States Congress. Many of these laws infringed upon the rights of Native Americans and continued to diminish their homelands as westward expansion increased by the United States. Below is a timeline outlining the hard times that Native Americans experienced, from the Indian Removal Act of 1830 up to the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.
For an accessible version of the above timeline, please view the following video:
Works Cited: Native American 2010 by mrbill78636 under CC BY 2.0 Editors, History.com. “Trail of Tears.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 9 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/topics/native-american history/trail-of-tears. National Geographic Society. “Indian Removal Act.” National Geographic Society, 29 Apr. 2014, www.nationalgeographic.org/thisday/may28/indian-removal-act/. Reading Through History. “History Brief: Indian Removal” Youtube, 20 June 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8Hd42J-tzs.