Elected president in 1828, Jackson did everything in his power to get rid of the natives in the south. He believed that they were not supposed to be there and they were in the way of westward expansion of the government. Jackson and his cabinet members had a few different ideas on how to deal with the Natives. They were: allowing white settlers to violate Indian lands, having the federal government move in so they could enforce treaties, forcing the Indians to acclimate by taking away government protection, or removing them from the guaranteed land given to them by treaties and sending them to unsettled western lands. Andrew Jackson also said that, “The consequences of a speedy removal will be important to the United States, individual states, and to the Indians themselves.” This is to mean that he believes that removing the Indians from the south will help the United States in becoming a better …show more content…
Because of the harsh conditions faced on the long journey to the west, around four-thousand died. After a harsh outbreak of smallpox, they were not able to go into certain towns because of the fear of spreading the disease. Disease, famine, and prolonged exposure to the harsh elements were the main reason why they died along the way. The cold weather was brutal and a lot of times they had a hard time crossing the rivers because they were frozen and had chunks of ice floating in them. There was a land route and a water route to get to the west. (See Fig.