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White settlers had held one of two attitudes toward Native Americans. Some whites favored the displacement and dispossession of all Native Americans. Others wished to convert Native Americans to Christianity, turn them into farmers, and absorb them into white culture -
Southeastern tribes - the Cherokee, Choctaw, Seminole, Creek, and Chickasaw had begun to adopt the European culture of their white neighbors. These tribes occupied land that many white planters wanted. -
Under this law, the federal government funded negotiation of treaties that would force the Native Americans to move west. -
Jackson pressured the Choctaw to sign a treaty that required them to move from Mississippi. -
Jackson ordered U.S troops to forcibly remove the Sauk and Fox from their lands in Illinois and Missouri. -
Jackson also forced the Chickasaw to leave their lands in Alabama and Mississippi. -
Cherokee Nation won recognition as a distinct political community. The Court ruled that Georgia was not entitled to regulate the Cherokee nor to invade their lands. -
Federal agents declared the minority who favored relocation the true representatives of the Cherokee Nation and promptly had them sign the treaty. -
The Cherokee were sent off in groups of about 1,000 each on the long journey. The 800-mile trip was made partly by steamboat and railroad but mostly on foot. As the winter came on, more and more of the Cherokee died en route. -
Nearly 20,000 Cherokee still remained in the East, President Martin Van Buren ordered their forced removal. U.S. Army troops under command of General Winfield Scott rounded up the Cherokee and drove them into camps to await the journey.