The Indian removal mainly affected five nations in the southeast, including the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole. However, it is notable that the removal did not only happen to these five nations but to the Indian communities in general. In the Inseparable Separations: Slavery and Indian Removal podcast, Dr. Parker mentioned other nations located in the midwestern areas were also affected by the removal period. Therefore, it is important to understand the removal history as the “many removals” period. I am pretty curious about how the removal period affected nations in the north and the west of America.
The intertwining between the slavery extension and the Native removal is very complex and interesting. Thinking about the expansion of slavery to the West, I believe that the removal of Indian families that were slaveholders contributed to this process. At the same time, as mentioned in the podcast, the lands of the Native communities became the largest slave-holding states afterwards. So the removal of the Native people freed up the lands for white settlers to live and cultivate crops for profit. The settlement of white people and the requirement of labour increased in the number of slaves in these areas. This shows that the removal of the Indian communities tied closely with the expansion of slavery.
Although the Indian communities relocated to the new place and lived in their reservation sites, the US authorities were still trying to exert their powers on the Native sovereignty. This included the attempt to steal away part of the Native lands or the attempt to intervene with the operation of the nations based on the three cases that we read for classes.
Work cited
McCoy, M. (Host). Inseparable Separations: Slavery and Indian Removal [Audio podcast]. Learning for Justice. https://www.learningforjustice.org/podcasts/teaching-hard-history/american-slavery/inseparable-separations-slavery-and-indian-removal