Final answer:
Before Jackson's presidency, federal policy aimed to assimilate Native Americans into American society but eventually moved towards their relocation. The Indian Removal Act of 1830, advocated by Jackson, mandated their removal to territories west of the Mississippi. This policy continued the Jeffersonian legacy of prioritizing white settlement over Native American rights.
Step-by-step explanation:
Before President Jackson's administration, the federal government's view of Native Americans and its policy initiatives varied over time. During the Jeffersonian era, the sentiment was that Native Americans should be assimilated into the dominant American culture, which meant converting them into sedentary agriculturalists, mirroring the American yeoman farmer. The notion was that too much land for Native Americans inhibited their civility as interpreted by white society. Hence, policies under the Monroe administration aimed at moving Native Americans beyond the white frontier, resulting in smaller and more crowded reservations. This was partly criticized by figures such as Helen Hunt Jackson who called out the injustices suffered by Native tribes in her book A Century of Dishonor.
The Indian Removal Act of 1830, passed under Jackson's urging, was a pivotal policy that called for the relocation of all Indian groups living east of the Mississippi to territories in the west. Jackson's approach leaned heavily on the popular belief that Native American presence was incompatible with the vision of a White republic, which was evident in the Age of Jackson. This policy stretched back to Jefferson's idea that a surplus of land hindered the 'civilization' of Indians, thence policies were created to absorb them into American ways or forcefully remove them to make way for white establishments.