Indian Removal and the Trail of Tears Updated!

Indian Removal was a policy formally adopted by the U.S. government under President Andrew Jackson (1767–1845), during the 1830s. As early as 1795, as a private citizen, Jackson was involved in unfair dealings with Native Americans as a land speculator. Without knowledge or consent, Native Americans frequently lost their lands to speculators during the pre-Civil War era. Also, Jackson was involved in bad-faith treaty negotiations with tribes, making agreements that provided a pretext for land theft. At the same time that Jackson was negotiating with tribal leaders, he was taking bribes and encouraging settlers to encroach on and occupy lands under tribal control. The purported inability to remove U.S. settlers from land where they were squatting became a flimsy cover...