Introduction

Abstract

Genocide is deeply embedded in America’s history. When European settlers came to North America, they found a land that was occupied by approximately ten million Native Americans. However, due to genocide, war, starvation, and disease, that population was reduced to one million. Even after the annihilation of millions of Native Americans had taken place, the U.S. government passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830. This was the modern-day equivalent of ethnic cleansing. Most Native Americans were forced to move to an area west of the Mississippi River. Many were forced to walk this long journey on foot. As a result, thousands perished while walking this “Trail of Tears” away from their ancestral land to reservations. It is ironic that at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 the Iroquois League had served as the blueprint for the U.S. federal government.