Jackson’s Removal Policy

• Jackson believed that the government had the right to control where Native Americans
lived.
• He believed they had only two choices for their living arrangements.
1. Native Americans could adopt white culture and become U.S. citizens.
2. Native Americans could move to the Western Territories.
• Gold was found on Cherokee land and the Southern states began passing laws that allowed
them to take over the Native American lands.
• The Cherokee Nation and other Native American tribes protested these laws.
• Jackson asked congress to pass a law forcing the Native Americans to choose one of the
two choices he believed they had.
• In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act. This act required that government
negotiate treaties with the Native Americans to move west.
• Jackson thought this policy was “just and liberal” and that it allowed the Native
Americans to maintain their culture and way of life. But it changed their nations forever.

Trail of Tears

• With their lands being invaded, many Native American tribes saw no other option than
to sign the treaties.
• Their land was exchanged for land in an area called Indian Territory. Which is now
Oklahoma and parts of Kansas and Nebraska.
• Fall 1831- Choctaw and other Southeast tribes were removed and relocated in Indian
Territory.
• 1832- The Cherokee Nation appealed the U.S. Supreme Court to protect their land
from the state of Georgia.
• The Supreme Court ruled that only the federal government can govern the Cherokees.
President Andrew Jackson and the state of Georgia did not listen.
• A small number of Cherokees agreed to the treaty, but majority didn’t.
• 1838- General Scott gathered up about 16,000 Cherokees and forced them into camps
for relocation in the fall and winter of 1838.
• ¼ of the people forced march in the cold, rain and snow died from lack of proper
clothing and supplies.
• This forced relocation became known as the Trail of Tears.