Episode 297: Claudio Saunt, Indian Removal Act of 1830

by Liz CovartMarch 16, 2021

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The history of Native American land dispossession is as old as the story of colonization. European colonists came to the Americas, and the Caribbean, wanting land for farms and settlement so they found ways to acquire lands from indigenous peoples by the means of negotiation, bad-faith dealing, war, and violence.

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 is deeply rooted in early American history.

Claudio Saunt, a scholar of Native American history at the University of Georgia, and author of the book Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory, joins us to discuss the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and how Native Americans in the southeastern part of the United States were removed from their homelands and resettled in areas of southeastern Kansas and Oklahoma.

About the Show

Ben Franklin’s World is a podcast about early American history.

It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.

Ben Franklin’s World is a production of the Omohundro Institute.

Episode Summary

Claudio Saunt, a scholar of Native American history at the University of Georgia, and the author of the book Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory, joins us to discuss the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and how Native Americans in the southeastern part of the United States were removed from their homelands and resettled in areas of what is now southeastern Kansas and Oklahoma.

As we investigate Indian removal in the early United States, Claudio reveals the origins of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and what the act meant for Native Americans living in the southeastern United States; Information about how the act passed Congress amid much opposition; And details about the lands the United States traded dispossessed Native Americans and the migrations Native Americans made to their new homes in present-day Kansas and Oklahoma.

What You’ll Discover

Origins of the Indian Removal Act of 1830
Why the government desired to trade western lands for eastern lands
Why the mass expulsion of Native Americans wasn’t inevitable
The Cherokee People
Native American life amidst white encroachment
Native American cultural and governmental accommodations to the United States
Native American slaveholding
Treaties between the United States & Native peoples
White northern resistance to Native American dispossession
Who pushed for and profited from the Indian Removal Act
International dimensions of Indian Removal
Andrew Jackson’s role in Indian Removal
Politicking for the Indian Removal Act of 1830
Native American efforts to block the Indian Removal Act
State laws for forced removal
Western lands offered to southern Native Americans
Removal of the Choctaw
What migration was like for Native peoples
What it was like for eastern Native Americans to live in new western areas
Lost generational knowledge
The importance of the history of Native American land dispossession

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Time Warp Question

In your opinion, what might have happened if Congress had not passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830? How might the physical and social landscape of the eastern United States have looked differently today? And what would the world of Native America look like today, if thousands of native ancestors had not been forced to migrate west?