Indian Removal Act At the time of the Louisiana Purchase,
President Thomas Jefferson believed that American Indians could
be moved from the East to lands in the new territory. This would
free up lands in demand by white settlers. The plan was
voluntary and was considered a failure—some tribes participated,
others refused. The plan also did not account for the fact that
other tribes with nomadic lifestyles already occupied this land.
Twenty years later, President Andrew Jackson decided to push for
the Indian Removal Act. Passed in 1830, the act allowed the U.S.
government to move Indian tribes in the East to lands west of
the Mississippi. Indian leaders were pressured to sign treaties
that would give up ancestral lands in exchange for much smaller
parcels in the West. The removal policy was eventually refined
into the "reservation" system, with tribes being confined to
specific areas of land. The area that became Kansas was
considered prime space for these "emigrant" American Indians who
were forced to move we