History Review 5 - Andrew Jackson as President

Indian Removal Act

• Growing pressure from states, especially Georgia, to remove Native Americans led to the Indian Removal Act (1830).

• The Cherokee Nation tried to claim sovereignty to protect its land, but Georgia placed the Cherokees under state law and limited their legal rights.

• Jackson opposed treating tribes as sovereign nations and supported state authority over Native Americans.

• The Indian Removal Act allowed the federal government to negotiate treaties relocating tribes west of the Mississippi River and provided $500,000 for this purpose.

• Although removal was officially voluntary and force was not authorized, states could override federal protections, and little aid was provided to those who relocated.

Trail of Tears

• Thousands of Indians (¼) died on their way to Oklahoma, the victims of cold, hunger, disease, and the general callousness of the white people that they met along the way

  • The horror was collectively recalled by the Cherokees as the “Trail of Tears” 

• The private groups that won the federal contracts for transporting and provisioning the Indians were shady and only intreated in profit 

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