indian removal act and trail of tears definition
Trail of Tears The Trail of Tears was a series of forced removals, sometimes at gunpoint, of Native American nations from their ancestral homelands in the Southeastern United States to other areas, one which was an area West of the Mississippi River that had been designated as Indian Territory. The forced relocations were carried out by government authorities following the passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830. Many of the relocated native people suffered from exposure, disease, and starvation while en route to their new designated reserve, and many died before reaching their various designated reserve(s). The removal included members of the Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Seminole, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Ponca nations. The phrase "Trail of Tears" originates from a description of the many native american tribes removal; including the infamous Cherokee Nation in 1838.[1][2][3]
Dawes Act The Act was named for its creator, Senator Henry Laurens Dawes of Massachusetts. The objectives of the Dawes Act were to abolish tribal and communal land ownership of the tribes into individual land ownership rights in order to transfer lands under Native American control to white settlers and stimulate assimilation of them into mainstream American society, and thereby lift individual Native Americans out of poverty. Individual household ownership of land and subsistence farming on the European-American model was seen as an essential step. The act provided that the government would classify as "excess" those Indian reservation lands remaining after allotments, and sell those lands on the open market, allowing purchase and settlement by non-Native Americans.