Cultural Assimilation Of Native Americans

Cultural Assimilation Of Native Americans

The first thing that comes to mind while discussing how Native Americans were accepted into society is the Indian Removal Act.  The Native Americans in the 1820’s were treated much differently from both the past and the future.  The Indian Removal Act has influenced events from 1820’s to the early 1840’s.

The Western Native Americans Had been Viewed as inferior compared to the American settlers,  for this reason they were required to have several laws placed on them.  The most notable of these laws was the Indian Removal Act.  The law was an effort to free up land for the new settlers,  in order to do this the Native Americans had to be removed.  This idea was rejected by several of the major tribes, these included the Cherokee,  Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole.  These along with several other small tribes initially rejected the act.  In 1832 Andrew Jackson was re-elected,  This was a frightening event for some of the tribes who had previously rejected the act.  Due to this re-election Jackson had more time to continue on the removal of the Native Americans.

The Indian Removal Act had been initially rejected by several of the major tribes.  The new re-election of Andrew Jackson had them wanting to re-consider the terms.  An Event called the Trail of tears came out shortly after the Indian removal Act.  This was a more dramatic form of the Indian Removal Act.  For the Native Americans this was a non optional venture,  if the Government said that they had to go they had to go.  Many of the same tribes that declined the Indian Removal Act were re-located through this portion of the Act.  Many of the people that were forced to the new lands died due to disease, exposure, and Starvation.  The end location to the Trail of tears was in areas ranging from Tennessee to Florida.  The trail of tears was a large and important portion to Native American history.

The overall relation of the tribes among the individual citizen would have not existed.  The amount of Native Americans to the us citizens would have been low so the interaction with them was limited.  The general idea of them was more a stereotype rather than knowing the people.  Therefore the people really did not know the full extent of what the government was doing to the Native Americans.  Thousands of Native Americans died on the trail of tears.  Had the population realized these were too people that lived lives much like their own then maybe they could have found another way around what happened to them.

The Native Americans had a major role in the History of the US.  They had been through many different situations along with hard times.  But through all of it moving to an entirely different land,  Losing their people by the thousands,  and being severely neglected by the public they still survived.  The Native Americans were a major minority population within the US.

Works Cited

"Americanization of Native Americans." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Oct. 2013. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.

Graf, Christine. "Moving West: A Native American Perspective." Gale Group. Cobblestone, 2005. Web.

Hansen, Megan. "Following the Footsteps of Our Cherokee Ancestors." Gale Group. Cobblestone, 2010. Web.

"History and Culture: Indian Removal Act - 1830 - American Indian Relief Council." History and Culture: Indian Removal Act - 1830 - American Indian Relief Council. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.

"Indian Removal Act." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Oct. 2013. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.

"Trail of Tears." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Oct. 2013. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.