The Indian removal act enables the president to grant any unsettled lands to the west of the Mississippi in exchange for Indian Lands. In my belief, Native Americans lived better before the Indian Removal act. Now a numerous amount of Native Americans are struggling to keep their culture alive. This act was passed by Congress on May 28,1830 during the presidency of Andrew Jackson. Non-native people from the south strongly supported this act, due to the land that they were going to gain access to.
During the 19th century, before the Indian Removal Act in 1830, native Americans settled in the south. This area of land was home to the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminole nations. They wanted to use this land to raise cotton and they also pressured the federal government to acquire Indian territory. Later on in 1814, Andrew Jackson commanded the US military forces to defeat the Creek nation. During this destruction, the Creek nation lost over 22 million acres of their land. In 1823, the Supreme Court decided that Indians could not hold titles on lands that they occupied, but they were still able to live on the lands in the United States. In reply to this, the Creeks,Cherokee, and Chickasaw came up with policies to avoid land sales to the government. They wanted to protect the land that they still had. The Cherokee adopted a written constitution in 1827, that declared themselves to be a sovereign nation. Finally after President Jackson was in office for a year the Indian Removal act was passed by congress.
In today's world native american cultural heritage is lost, due to the Indian Removal Act. Native Americans are now naturalized citizens, and are provided with the same constitutional rights as any other citizen. Economically, Native Americans have an uneven level of success across the nation. Currently, there are relatively 2.8 million Native Americans in the US. Presently, there are severe social problems including unemployment and poverty for Native Americans. Health wise, diabetes and heart diseases are a big concern for Native Americans now.
I believe that Native Americans were better off before the Indian Removal Act in 1830. Even though some Indian culture is still preserved on reservations and some Indians still practice old traditions, they are worried that their traditions will disappear because more and more Indians are being integrated into society. Although life has improved for Indians, they are still facing many problems. For example, the incomeof an Indian family is much lower than that of a white family. Also, they struggle with social economics. Life for Native Americans today is still very challenging and its hard for them to continue to live healthy lives and their economic stage is not the greatest. “About 55% of American Indians rely on the Indian Health Service for medical care”, according to an article called the Native American Aid. According to all of these reasons in my belief Native Americans are struggling in today's world, therefore before the Indian Removal Act was passed in 1830 their life was much easier compared to today's life for most Native Americans.