Native Americans were forced out of their lands, and it was wrong for Andrew Jackson to move the Native Americans toward the West. "In the Moment Before" by Simon Ortiz J. and "She had some Horses" by Joy Harjo are pieces of literature that helped me understand. As well as the musical work of "Ba: Ban Ganho Ge CI-PIA" by Ofelia Zepeda a way to connect and understand more in depth this historical situation.
Since the beginning the government always mistreated the Indians. President Jackson was one of those governments who hated the Indians, which led to the Indian Removal Act of 1830. They were never given a choice to move out of their land. Thousands of Native Americans such as the Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws and etc. were forced to leave their homes, their sacred homeland by the Americans. They thought it would a be a good idea, that everyone could be happy. Unfortunately, it was not an easy trip for them, traveling by land and water with no transportation given and under mother nature's obstacles.
Simon Ortiz gives a brief look of what it means to leave behind home. Specifically, in one of the stanzas he says "the land, the way of life, the community. Ours. Our own. Our heart, blood, soul" (Ortiz 51). A place in which it has been theirs for many, many generations and from one day to another they take a part of them away. A piece that made them who they are. Going back to the Cherokees being dragged from their homes, not allowing them to take none of their belongings. The process of dispossession was violent and cruel. The natives were on their way to a deadly path, w...
