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Removal of Native Americans
Some whites favored the displacement and dispossession of all native Americans, others wished to convert Native Americans to Christianity and absorb them into white culture -
End of the War of 1812
Since the end of the War of 1812, some Southeastern tribes the Cherokee, Choctaw, Seminole, Creek, and Chickasaw had begun to adapt the European culture of their white neighbors. Called the "Civilized tribes" they occupied large areas in Georgia, North and South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Many white planters and miners wanted that land. -
Indian Removal Act of 1830
Andrew Jackson thought the assimilation could not work nor did he think that allowing Native Americans to live in their original areas would work so he thought the solution was to move the Native Americans from their lands to areas farther west. Congress passed he Indian Removal Act in 1830 which funded negotiation of treaties that would force the Native Americans to move west. -
Moving Lands
In 1830, Jackson pressured the Choctaw to sign a treaty that required the to move from Mississippi. In 1831, he ordered U,s, troops to forcibly remove the Saul and Fox from their lands in Illinois and Missouri. In 1832, he forced the Chickasaw to leave their lands in Alabama and Mississippi -
The Cherokee Fight Back
The Cherokee Nation tried to win just treatment through the U.S. legal system. Chief Justice John Marshall refused to rule on the first case the Cherokee brought against Georgia, though, because in his view the Cherokee Nation had no federal standing; it was neither a foreign nation nor a sate. but rather a "domestic dependent nation." Undaunted, the Cherokee teamed up with Samuel Austin Worcester, a missionary who had been jailed for teaching Indians without a state license. -
Worcester v. Georgia
The Cherokee Nation finally won recognition as a distinct political community. The Court ruled that Georgia was not entitled to regulate the Cherokee nor to invade their lands. Jackson refused to abide by the Supreme Court decision, saying "John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it" -
Treaty of New Echota
Cherokee leader John Ross tried to fight the sate in courts but other Cherokee began to promo relocation. In 1835, federal agents declared the minority who favored relocation the true representatives of the Cherokee Nation and promptly had them sign the Treaty of New Echota which gave the last eight million acres of Cherokee land to the federal government in exchange for 5 million and land west of the Mississippi. -
The Trail of Tears
Beginning in October 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. Along, the way government officials stole the Cherokee's money, while outlaws made off with their livestock. The Cherokee buried more than a quarter of their people. They ended up on land far inferior to that which they had been forced to leave. -
The 20,000 Cherokee in the East
By 1838 nearly 20,000 Cherokee still remained in the East, President Martin Van Buren ordered their forced removal, U.S. Army Troops under the command of General Winfield Scott rounded up the Cherokee and drove them into camps to await the journey,
