4-5.4

It Is Essential For Students To Know:

• Territorial expansion and related land policies had a very negative impact on Native Americans.
• As more settlers moved farther west, they took more Native American land and created conflict with the Native American tribes.
• The United States government exercised its power to make treaties and to force tribes to move from their ancestral lands.
• The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was a law passed by the United States Congress and signed by President Andrew Jackson. It provided land and money the president could use to enter treaties with the Native Americans in which the Indians agreed to leave their lands east of the Mississippi and move west.
• If a tribe resisted the Americans taking over the lands the United States government would take the land by force. Having no choice, some Native American tribes moved farther west voluntarily. Other tribes, such as the Cherokee nation, attempted to live in harmony with the American settlers and adopted many American customs.
• The Cherokee tried to resist removal by taking their case to the Supreme Court. Even though the Supreme Court ruled that the Cherokee had a right to their land, President Jackson ignored the Court. He used the army to force the Cherokee to move from their homes across the Mississippi River to Oklahoma, the Indian Territory, on what is called the Trail of Tears.
• The Seminole Wars in Florida were fought because the Seminole Indians refused to give up their lands peacefully and move to reservations. The Seminoles lost; many were captured and forced to move to the Indian Territory.
• Even though the Native Americans were promised reservations in the west, settlers and the military often broke treaties.
• White settlers wanted Native American lands because of the gold or silver or the rich grazing land found there. This caused conflicts between settlers and Native Americans that led to a series of Indian wars. These conflicts were sometimes used as an excuse by soldiers and settlers to massacre Native Americans.
• Native Americans resisted until they were defeated and forced onto reservations in the period after the Civil War

It Is Not Essential For Students To Know:

• Students do not need to know the plight of specific Native American tribes, except the Cherokee and the Seminole.
• Students do not need to know about specific conflicts in the west and the specific massacres of the tribes in the west.
• Students do not need to remember “Custer’s Last Stand”.