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Event Description: Congress passes a law forcing Native American tribes in the Southeast to move west of the Mississippi River.
Significance: This began large-scale government-controlled displacement, breaking tribal connections to land and forcing Native peoples into unfamiliar areas. This act set the foundation for future attempts to erase Native identity.
Key Players: President Andrew Jackson, Cherokee Nation, U.S. Congress
Source: National Archives – Indian Removal Act -
Event Description: The Cherokee, along with several other tribes, were forcibly marched west in harsh conditions.
Significance: Thousands died from disease, hunger, and exposure. The event symbolized the cruelty of U.S. Indian policy and all the things Native people had to leave behind.
Key Players: U.S. Army, Cherokee Nation
Source: Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian -
Date: Late 1800s, with the most famous school opening in 1879
Event Description: Native children were taken from their families and placed in government-run boarding schools that punished them for speaking their languages or practicing traditions.
Significance: This was one of the strongest assimilation efforts in U.S. history.
Key Players: U.S. government, Richard Henry Pratt, Native children
Source: National Museum of the American Indian – Boarding School History -
Event Description: The Dawes Act divided tribal lands into individual family plots in an effort to force Native Americans to adopt farming and “American-style” land ownership.
Significance: The tribes lost millions of acres of land. The act broke apart communal living and harmed cultural and political structures.
Key Players: U.S. Congress, Native tribes in the West
Source: National Archives -
Event Description: Native Americans were finally granted U.S. citizenship.
Significance: Although this seemed like a step forward, many states still blocked Native Americans from voting. Full political assimilation took decades.
Key Players: U.S. Congress, President Calvin Coolidge, Native peoples
Source: National Archives -
Event Description: This act ended allotment and encouraged tribes to self-govern again, restoring some tribal structures.
Significance: It marked a shift away from forced assimilation and toward cultural preservation and tribal sovereignty.
Key Players: U.S. government, Native tribal councils
Source: National Archives