Indian Removal Act

Question 1

Date:

Answer 1

May 1830

Question 1

Who was Edwin James?

Answer 1

Botanist

Question 2

How did Edwin James describe the Great Plains?

Answer 2

In regard to this extensive section of the country, I do not hesitate in giving the opinion that it is almost wholly infit for cultivation, and of course uninhabitable by a people depending upon agriculture for their subsistence. Large areas of fertile land are occasionally to be found, but the scarcity of wood and water will prove an impossible obstacle in the way of settling the country.

Question 3

How did Jackson defend sending them to an inhospitable land?

Answer 3

away from liquor sellers, dishonest traders, and land dealers.

Question 4

How many treaties signed with Native Americans in the Indian Removal Act?

Answer 4

94

Question 5

When did Jackson announce that the policy has been / was being completed?

Answer 5

1835

Question 6

Where were the 5 civilised tribes?

Answer 6

South

Question 7

Which of the 5 civilised tribes refused to move?

Answer 7

Cherokee

Question 8

When did the Cherokee appeal to the supreme court?

Answer 8

1831

Question 9

What did the Cherokee’s lawyers argue?

Answer 9

The law did not apply to them as they were a “nation within a nation”

Question 10

How did Jackson react to the supreme court’s ruling?

Answer 10

He ignored it.
Georgia declared that the Cherokee’s claim to the land was invalid.
- Banned from testifying against whites in court
- Banned from digging for Gold

Question 11

Date: Treaty of Echota

Answer 11

1835

Question 12

Terms of the Treaty of Echota?

Answer 12

Gave up 8 million acres of land for a homeland in the west and $5 million.

Question 13

How many Cherokee moved after the Treaty of Echota?

Answer 13

2000

Question 14

How many stayed in the east after the Treaty of Echota?

Answer 14

15,000

Question 15

What happened in 1838?

Answer 15

Cherokee forcefully removed. 4000 died in camps or on the journey.

Question 16

What did the journey become known as?

Answer 16

‘Trail of Tears’

Question 17

Description of a soldier:

Answer 17

• “some women were preparing the little body for burial. All were arrested and driven out, leaving the child in the cabin. I don’t know who buried the body.”
• “But the task was to great for that frail mother. A stroke of heart failure relieved her sufferings.”

Question 18

The conditions of the Indian Removal Act (1830):

Answer 18

• President given funds and power to move Native American tribes from their eastern lands to western lands.
• The western lands (though unsuitable for white settlement) were to be guaranteed to the tribes “forever”
• The government could provide some financial compensation and assistance in moving the Indians west
• The act declared that no existing treaties would be violated. This meant that new treaties would have to be negotiated in which the tribes agreed to removal.

Question 19

Who opposed the Indian Removal?

Answer 19

Northerners mostly

Question 20

How was the Indian Territory seen in the West?

Answer 20

A kind of heaven where the Native Americans could adapt and assimilate the manners of White settlers.

Question 21

How many Choctaws died?

Answer 21

1,600 (nearly 1/10th of the tribe)

Question 22

When did the Choctaws treck?

Answer 22

Winter of 1831-2

Question 23

Who was the judge for the trial of the Cherokee?

Answer 23

Chief Justice John Marshall

Question 24

What did Chief Justice John Marshall say?

Answer 24

“domestic dependent nation”. Entitled to federal protection from Georgia.

Question 25

How many Native Americans did the Cherokee join in the Indian Territory?

Answer 25

50,000

Question 26

How long was the trail of tears?

Answer 26

1900 km

Question 27

Who did the Indian Removal Act effect?

Answer 27

1. Choctaws of Mississippi
2. Creeks of Alabama, Chickasaws of Mississippi and Tennessee

Question 28

Seminole tribe to Indian Removal Act?

Answer 28

Fought off the US army for 7 years before giving up their homeland

Question 29

How many US soldiers marched onto Cherokee land?

Answer 29

7000

Question 30

Makeshift concentration camps in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama.

Answer 30

13
15,000 Cherokee

Question 31

Choctaws example of soldiers being unable to help?

Answer 31

In 1832, a boat loaded with Choctaws got stuck in ice on the Arkansas River near Fort Smith. The lieutenant escorting the party requested extra blankets from the boat’s supply. Without them, the stranded Choctaws faced death from exposure. When a superior officer denied the request, the lieutenant physically attacked him in order to get the blankets released. For this attempt to aid the Native Americans, the lieutenant was dishonourably discharged from the Army.

Question 32

How many Indians walked into exile in the 1930s?

Answer 32

nearly 100,000

Question 33

Description of the Choctaws from soldier?

Answer 33

“They are a wretched set of beings, nearly naked, and have marched the last twenty-four hours through sleet and snow, barefooted. If I could have done it with propriety, I would have given them shoes.”

Question 34

How many Cherokee moved west in the Trail of Tears?

Answer 34

13,000

Question 35

Who spoke out against the Indian Removal Act?

Answer 35

Davy Crockett
Daniel Webster