Impact of westward Impact of westward movement on the movement on the

American Indians (First American Indians (First Americans)Americans)

Manifest Destiny

The notion that the United States was a superior country and had a right to invade, conquer, and occupy the North American continent and beyond.

During this period of westward migration, the American Indians were repeatedly defeated in violent conflicts with settlers and soldiers.

They were forcibly removed from their ancestral homelands.

Removal of the Indians

Native Americans were viewed as “savages,” not only uncivilized but uncivilizable.

Most whites hungry for valuable land wanted the Indians removed from east of the Mississippi River.

Black Hawk War, 1831-32

The Sauk (Sac) and Fox Indians under Chief Black Hawk fought against the whites along the Mississippi in Illinois and Wisconsin, hoping to regain their tribal lands.

Soundly defeated and even attacked while trying to surrender and many were slaughtered.

The Five Civilized Tribes

The Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw in the South in valuable cotton-growing territory.

Lived in agricultural societies, not nomadic.

In 1830, Congress passed the Removal Act, paying the Indians for the land and removing them to the West

Trail of Tears

The Cherokee, who had adopted many European ways, tried to resist.

In 1838, the US government forced out the remaining 15,000-17,000 from Georgia.

About 4,000 died of small pox, along with starvation and exposure, en route to resettlement in the Indian Territory in what later became Oklahoma.

Trail Video

Seminoles ResistedThe Seminoles had signed agreements

with the US to resettle in the Indian Territory.

Most left Florida, but a small minority resisted under the leadership of the chieftain Osceola.

A group of runaway slaves joined Osceola in his fights against removal.

The Second Seminole War lasted from 1835 until 1843.

The US lost about 1,500 soldiers and spent $20 million.

Meaning of the Removal

By the end of the 1830s, virtually all the important Indian societies east of the Mississippi had been removed to the West.

The forcible removal of the American Indians from their lands continued throughout the remainder of the 19th century as settlers continued to move west following the Civil War.