Impact on Native Americans
Native Americans had been impacted by westward expansion ever since the expedition of Lewis and Clark. But the most impactful event in American history for Native Americans was the Indian Removal Act. The Indian Removal Act was passed by Congress in 1830 and allowed the American Government to remove Native Americans from their homelands, east of the Mississippi river, to modern day Oklahoma. Even though this removal of the Native Americans was technically voluntary, Native American leaders were under great stress to agree with the American government. The trail that the Native Americans took to Oklahoma was called by the Cherokee people as the "Trail of Tears". This is because of the mass destruction and loss of the Native Americans along the forced march. Around 15,000 Cherokee people started the trail and over 4,000 of them died on the journey. The trail was long and hard, and took place in the winter. This is almost a direct massacre of the Native Americans by the American government. Overall, the Naive Americans were greatly affected by westward expansion. They were forced out of there tribal grounds in California because of the existence of gold. Their almost essential essential animal for life and culture, the buffalo, was almost wiped out by the western settlers.