A Saga Of Generational Trauma

        The Indian Removal Act & Westward Expansion :
                A Saga of Generational Trauma

There is a common misconception among those who see the modern world only through the narrow lense of their own lifetime; that the past is not worth studying, because it has no relevance to the present. Their ignorance lies in their inability to consider the myriad ways human history has shaped the world we live in now - and in particular, American society. All of the current social issues that have been propelled to the forefront of the national conversation in recent years have roots deeply embedded in the soil of the past. Such is the case with the plight of America's indigenous peoples, who have suffered for many generations - and continue to endure great suffering - as a result of the Dawes and "Indian Removal" Acts, and Westward expansion into their homelands by white colonizers. Because of these key events, indigenous people today continue to struggle for survival in the face of poverty, racism, lack of financial opportunity and social mobility, broken families, and incarceration - impediments perpetuated by a cycle of generational trauma which originated nearly two hundred years ago.

In order to understand how the present came to be as it is, a thorough understanding of the past is essential. While colonists had been rapidly invading North American indigenous territories since the 1500's, by the early 1800's, most of the land west of the Mississippi still remained untouched by white settlers. This was soon to change however; on the eve of the civil war the southeast drew some increased political attention as Democrats sought to increase the number of slave - owning states by taking over indigenous territories which were the homelands of the Cherokee, Choctaw, creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole. White colonists saw these sovereign indigenous nations as an "infringement to white economic development" (Pearce, Ph.D) and put pressure on the federal government to seize the land for their use. In agreement with the idea that White invaders were entitled to take whatever land they pleased, President Andrew Jackson ultimately signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830 which forcibly relocated all five aforementioned indigenous nations and their people to lands west of the Mississippi. The horror that ensued became known to history as the "Trail Of Tears"; a brutal trek undertaken during the winter of 1838-39 that covered over five thousand miles, and claimed the lives of approximately 4,500 men, women and children. It was not the first broken treaty and certainly not the last, but it sealed the fate of the western tribes in the sense that it was the beginning of a domino effect.

After the southeastern tribes had been removed, slavery expanded further across the southeast and into the Mississippi River valley. While this was only a temporary "win" for pro slavery advocates, as by 1860, Civil War broke out; it is worth noting that the Indian Removal act and subsequent exile of indigenous people was a catalyst for the war in that it increased friction between the north and south by fueling the debate over states rights and expansion of slavery. With the southern democrat's successful petition for the removal of indigenous people for that specific purpose it became clear to northern republicans that the south intended to push their agenda further and further into the western frontier, which would increase both their political influence in the form of congressional representation, and their economic boon from cotton plantations. With mounting concerns over the burgeoning power of the south, Civil War officially broke out in 1861 and dragged on for four bloody years. By the time a tentative peace had been restored to the nation, the southern economy had been crippled. During and after the war, many farming families were drawn west in search of opportunity and escape from the social unrest of the north and south eastern coast. Single men and migrant workers also flooded the western frontier en masse, hoping to profit off of mineral mining and gold panning in the region. Railroad labor was in high demand as well, as business tycoons capitalized on steel production for track laying. The establishment of a transcontinental railroad system connecting the east and western coasts and hundreds of new towns and cities in between made the west accessible to non - indigenous people as never before, bringing "tens of thousands of newcomers and stimulating the expansion of farming, mining and other enterprises. The incorporation of the west into the national economy spelled the doom of the plains Indians and their world;" (Foner, 634) the floodgates were open and there was no holding back the waves of settlers.