Sacred land was illegally and unconstitutionally being taken from the Cherokee. Lastly, the government had basically tricked the Indians into giving away their land, and made promises they didn’t keep.
The first reason why the Indian Removal Act was not justified was because innocent Indians were forced to go on this treacherous journey while not getting enough food, water, and shelter. They started migrating towards present day Oklahoma during the winter of 1838. With snow falling and winds blowing, finding shelter was one of their hardest tasks. One text states, “Many of these helpless people did not have blankets and many had been driven from home barefooted.”(Doherty and Jaffe). This source makes it clear how the Cherokee Indians didn’t even have blankets to cover themselves in the cold and how some …show more content…
However, they are wrong. Even if it allowed expansion, the government still made many crucial mistakes. The Indians were lied to. The government made promises that they never kept. According to one document, “The object was, first, to take their lands. Then the U.S. government would force those Indians to relocate… Years earlier, treaties with the U.S. government had granted these lands to them (Cherokee) forever...In 1828, the Georgia state legislature passed a law that denied the right of the Cherokee to rule themselves.”(Challenge). This was the real plan that the government came up with. Years earlier, the Cherokee had discussed their land with generals and U.S. leaders, and they responded by telling the Indians that the land was theirs, and that they would be able to live there in peace. Even treaties were signed about the Indians having rights to their land, yet they still got threatened and removed. Another piece of evidence about the government not being honest with the Indians states, “ Property of many has been taken, and sold before their eyes for almost nothing-- the sellers and buyers, in many cases, being combined to cheat the poor Indians...They are prisoners, without a crime to justify the fact.” (Green and Perdue 172). This is a journal entry of one of the bystanders from the Indian Removal. It shows how property was illegally being