Thousands of people left Europe, during the period of colonization, out of a desire to be given land or to have the opportunity to acquire land, to obtain religious freedom, and many other reasons. Europeans emigrated with their entire families to settle in the far-off frontier now known as America. Wasn't that the very reason for leaving Europe and coming to the Americas? But what was inflicted on the Indians who occupied North America was almost exactly what the colonists wanted to escape. What Indians have been subjected to is complete and utter hypocrisy. The Trail of Tears was an event focused on ethnic cleansing, blatant racism, religious oppression, and the subjugation or elimination of Indian tribes. It is shameful and a great stain on the conscience of American history that this idea was conceived and supported, and then carried out. Forcibly removing the Indians, seizing their lands to further the white settlers' goal of expansion and exercising control and use over their lands and natural resources, was extremely wrong. The Trail of Tears was a calamitous, sad and truly revolting time in our time period. the history of the country at the beginning of the 19th century. It was an eight-hundred-mile death march, enforced and escorted in many cases by the military (“Cherokee”). The various Indian tribes suffered enormously, all in the name of the common good, as well as the cowardice and greed of the white settlers. However, it is little known that Trail of Tears was a fully government-backed and mandated law. It was officially known as the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Five major tribes were affected by this act. The tribes affected were: the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muskogee Creek and ...... middle of paper ......da or Mexico. This would have avoided the bloodshed, hardship, and all the results associated with the plight of the Indians. Ultimately, the Native Americans' plight was completely avoidable. However, the Americans took the easy, but wrong, route of indulging in outright savagery, enslaving the Indians or corralling them into unwanted territories. The worst part is that this is not an isolated event. The government and the Native Americans never signed a treaty, thus refraining from giving them their own sovereign land, even to this day. Instead, a band-aid was offered: reservations. The reservations allowed some latitude in jurisdiction as a minor consolation, but this is by far a very insignificant concession compared to what the Indians once had. This too will one day be revoked by the government and consolidated in the United States. Mark my words.