Why did the US pass the Indian Removal Act?

Answer 1

The law was passed with the hope that the Indian tribes would willingly go to lands west of the Mississippi. It was thought at the time that America would never expand as far as the Mississippi. If the Indians were "with their own people" it would be better and safer for everyone. Americans did not want to understand that every tribe was different

Answer 2

As people began to move west they wanted the Native American lands, so the act made it official that the tribes were to be removed. From the very moment of the first colony the European settlers did their best to kill, remove, or displace the Native tribes from their lands. The government made treaties they broke and they forcibly removed people to reservations. The Union army would go into a sleeping village early in the morning and kill men, women, and children. The government policy was a " good Indian was a dead one" and they would do anything to accomplish this task. Read Black Elk Speaks or Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee for further understanding of the genocide that was committed.