The Trail of Tears is one of the largest genocides of all time and is largely overlooked in American history. To understand the plight Native Americans were subjected to, it is important to know the events that led to this horrific time in our nation's history. There is an English saying that says “those who do not know their past are condemned to repeat it”. With all of the immigration and racial issues going on in our nation today, it is imperative that we, as the American people, remember our past mistakes and learn from them so that we do not repeat them and end up in a similar situation. American Indians fought for their rights and beliefs through the American justice system. Their other goal besides fighting for their rights was but, ultimately, they were forced to leave their homes and move west of the Mississippi River (Foner, 2012). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay As of 1830, nearly 125,000 Native Americans lived on millions of acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, and Florida, the land their ancestors had occupied and cultivated for generations. By the late 1830s, there were very few Native Americans left anywhere in the southeastern United States. The federal government forced Native people to leave their homes and land and walk thousands of miles to land designated as “Indian Territory” across the Mississippi River. Although the United States stated that it believed that if the tribes could demonstrate that they were civilized Indians and assimilated into the American population they would be allowed to remain on their land, the American people viewed the land as their own and would use any force needed to get it. Although the Cherokee people had demonstrated a willingness to abide by established treaties becoming the Indian Removal Act. In 1830, the Jackson administration established the Indian Removal Act (Kidwell, 2010). This point in our nation's history begins with the presidency of Andrew Jackson. President Jackson gained fame as an Indian fighter and as a hero of the Battle of New Orleans and later moved to Tennessee as a wealthy planter and slave owner. Like most white settlers of the time, Jackson sympathized with land-hungry citizens who were eager to take over lands held by Native Americans. Jackson believed in democracy, however, this did not extend to Native Americans. The law of the time required the government to negotiate removal treaties with Native people in a fair, voluntary, and peaceful manner. This meant that he did not allow the president or his other officials to force the natives to give up their lands. President Jackson and his government often ignored this law and forced Native Americans off lands they had owned and lived on for generations. Jackson thought the most humane solution to dealing with the Natives was to force them to leave their homelands and settle the area west of the Mississippi River. Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law in 1830; this forced thousands of Native Americans to leave their homes and settle elsewhere. In the winter of 1831, the U.S. Army threatened to invade the Choctaw. This led to them becoming the first Native Americans to be evicted from their lands. The Choctaws walked west toward their new “Indian Territory.” Some natives were tied in chains and forced to march in double file. They undertook this.