No. The Native Americans were not powerful enough to fight or resist the federal government. Andrew Jackson advocated "Indian Removal" and when he was an army general he led campaigns against the Creek and Seminole tribes in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. The result was that thousands of acres of Native American land went to white farmers. After he was president he continued this policy, signing the Indian Removal Act in 1830. This act empowered the...
No. The Native Americans were not powerful enough to fight or resist the federal government. Andrew Jackson advocated "Indian Removal" and when he was an army general he led campaigns against the Creek and Seminole tribes in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. The result was that thousands of acres of Native American land went to white farmers. After he was president he continued this policy, signing the Indian Removal Act in 1830. This act empowered the federal government to exchange eastern Indian lands for lands in the "Indian Colonization Zone" (modern day Oklahoma). Despite the Act's requirement that the removal treaties be fair and non-coercive, this was mostly ignored in practice.
In 1831, under threat by the US Army, the Choctaw became the first tribe to walk the "Trail of Tears." The forceful transfer of thousands of other Native Americans, from a variety of different tribes, was to follow. During these years a substantial portion of Native Americans died on the journey, where they were bound, beaten and denied food, water, or medical attention.
Despite the federal government's promise that the Indians would be left alone once they went to the new land, white settlers continued to push west and encroach upon the Indian territory. Slowly, the Native Americans' land shrank until finally in 1907 Oklahoma became a state and Indian territory was no more.
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