Lesson 2: Indian Treaties and the Removal Act of 1830

To provide context for students’ work today and in the coming lessons, explain that the author of Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer, is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, one of the nations whose history students will study today.

• Say: Part of what we will study in this unit is Robin Wall Kimmerer’s relationship to the land—not just as a scientist, but also as a member of an Indigenous nation. In the video you watched in the previous lesson, Kimmerer spoke about the concept of reciprocity and its importance in the relationship between humans and the land. We will talk more about this concept when we start reading Braiding Sweetgrass.

Define the word indigenous for students, and explain its history and application to the people who first lived on the North American continent.

• Say: The word indigenous refers to the original inhabitants of a place. In what is now the United States, Indigenous nations lived on and cared for these lands long before the United States existed as a political nation. You may also hear the term Native American, but whenever we can, it is more respectful and more accurate to name a specific nation, such as Cherokee, Muscogee Creek, Choctaw, Seminole, or Citizen Potawatomi.

Collaborative Idea Board

Say these Directions: We will work together to create a Collaborative Idea Board to organize our understanding of and questions about the history of Indigenous nations and the U.S. government’s role in that history, specifically the Indian Removal Act of 1830. I will start by writing an idea on the board.

Record the following on the board:

“The U.S. government forced some Indigenous nations to move west.”

Invite a student to share another idea, question, or comment, and record it on the board in response to this idea. Remind students that they can use their prior knowledge to respond.

• Why did the government make people leave their homes and land?

Continue building the Collaborative Idea Board together as a class. Display the following questions to help focus students’ responses. The purpose behind this activity is to activate students’ prior knowledge about Indigenous tribes and historical events and to affirm what students already know as they collectively share their ideas.

Say these Directions: We will continue building the Collaborative Idea Board together as a class. What can you share about the following:

• What do you already know about the history of Indigenous nations in what is now the United States?

  • Many Indigenous nations were living across this land long before the United States was created. I also know that different nations had their own governments, languages, and relationships to specific places.

• What do you know about the Indian Removal Act of 1830?

  • The U.S. government forced many Indigenous nations off their land and pushed them west. The Trail of Tears resulted from it and caused horrible suffering and death. I know that many Indigenous people ended up living on reservations.

• How do you think Indigenous peoples’ lives changed after the United States became a nation?

  • Many nations lost land, safety, and control over parts of their lives, like where they lived and hunted. Families, languages, and traditions were probably affected when communities were forced to move.

Display the Collaborative Idea Board in the classroom so students can refer to it as they learn through this lesson and subsequent lessons.

Connection to Today’s Learning

• Say: Today, you will learn about a tragic event in American history. You will read an article about Native American removal, which occurred in the 1800s. You will explore the impact of that government action on various Indigenous nations.

Part A: Understanding Native American Removal (RI.8.3) (20 minutes)

Explain that knowing about the historical events that led to and included Native American removal will help students better understand the anchor text, Braiding Sweetgrass.

Provide students with the article “Indian Treaties and the Removal Act of 1830,” and transition them into pairs.

Close Read & Annotation Protocol

Say these Directions: Read through the article together with your partner. You can take turns reading aloud. As you read, pause to annotate the text that answers the following questions.

Display the following questions for students to use as a guide as they read the article.

• What events and decisions led to Native American removal?

• How did American politicians and government officials force Native nations to leave their lands?

• How were Native nations treated during removal, and what does that reveal about the human cost?

After partner reading, lead a whole-class discussion and keep a visible class record of ideas. You might consider adding student responses to the Collaborative Idea Board.

• Ask: According to the article, what events and decisions led to Native American removal?

  • In the opening part of the article, the government kept pressuring Indigenous nations to trade their land for land west of the Mississippi River. Then leaders like Andrew Jackson turned to violence to force peoples from their lands. Jackson supported removal as official policy and was met with appeasement from the nations. That sequence shows that removal did not happen all at once; it was built through political decisions over time.

• Ask: How did American politicians and government officials force Native nations to leave their lands?

  • The government used laws, pressure, and military force to make removal happen. Even when some nations resisted or argued for their rights, U.S. officials kept pushing removal westward.

• Ask: How were Native nations treated during removal, and what does that reveal about the human cost?

  • They were forced on journeys under harsh conditions, with families separated from home, and many people suffering or dying. That reveals that removal was not just a change on a map; it caused deep human loss.

Part B: Inferring Impact (RI.8.1) (10 minutes)

Turn-and-Talk

Keep students in their partnerships from the previous activity.

Say these Directions: Think back to Spark Lesson 1, when we used reciprocity as a way to describe a healthy relationship between humans and the land. Turn to your partner, and discuss the prompt below. Use at least one textual detail from the article to support your inference.

Display the following question. Instruct students to turn and talk with their partner.

• What do you think happens to knowledge of the land when communities are forcibly separated from their land, their language, and each other?

  • When communities are forced to move to a new place, they will likely be unfamiliar with the land, which means they will no longer possess knowledge of the plants, seasons, soil, and animals that they previously had. The article explains that the Indian Removal Act forced people to leave the southeastern part of the United States to live in “present-day Oklahoma.” The detail about the Trail of Tears taking place in “brutal winter conditions” is important because many of the people had always lived in a warm climate, so this would affect their understanding of the land.

Allow students to talk for two to three minutes. Then invite volunteers to share their ideas in a whole-class discussion.

Quick Write

Say these Directions: Write two to three sentences in response to the question below. Use at least one specific detail from the article to support your response.

• What did you learn about Native American removal that you did not know before?

  • One new idea I learned is that Native American removal happened through a chain of government decisions, not just one event. The article explains that U.S. leaders used treaties, laws, and force to push nations off their land, and it also describes the harsh conditions people faced during removal. That helped me understand how removal damaged both communities and their relationships to place.