Sec. 3: INDIAN REMOVAL

• By 1829, the native population east of the Mississippi River had dwindled to 125,000.

• Growing population (risen to 13 million) pushed colonists farther west.

Indian Removal Act

•Indian Removal Act: (1830) under pressure from Jackson, Congress authorized the removal of Native Americans who lived east of the Mississippi River

• Indian Territory: U.S. land in what is now Oklahoma where Native Americans were moved to

•Bureau of Indian Affairs: Government agency established to manage Indian removal in western lands

Inevitably, this movement led to clashes over land.

As part of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, federal agents misled tribal leaders into signing removal treaties with the government.

• Jackson saw Indian Removal as an opportunity to provide for the needs of the white farmers and businessmen.

•He also claimed that removal was also in the best interest of the Indians. Why?

Jackson to the Indians:

“Where you now are, you and my white children are too near to each other to live in harmony and peace. Your game is gone, and many of your people will not work and till the earth. . . The land beyond the Mississippi belongs to the President and no one else, and he will give it to you forever.”

“Five Civilized Tribes”

1.Cherokee

2.Creeks

3. Choctaws

4. Chickasaws

5. Seminoles

**** wanted to stay on their lands

• Choctaw-1st Indians sent to Indian Territory

• Forced to give over 7.5 million acres of their land.

• ¼ of the Choctaw died during this moved due to cold, disease, or starvation

• These hardships caused other Indians to resist removal (14,500 Creek were captured & the Chickasaw negotiated for better supplies)

1. Establishing a government modeled after the U.S. Constitution-including an election system

2. Receiving formal education

3. Creating their own written language

4. Establishing a newspaper (Cherokee Phoenix) 

5.  Adopting the white man’s idea of black slavery & plantations

Cherokee Resistance• Cherokee tried to adoptwhite culture by doing the following:

• Once Gold was found on Cherokee land Georgia leaders wanted them removed

In 1838, the Georgia militia was ordered to force the Cherokee out of Georgia.

• Worcester v. Georgia: Cherokee sued Georgia claiming they had no legal power over their land-Chief Justice John Marshall agreed

“Only the federal government has authority over Native Americans.”

Georgia ignored the court’s ruling. President Jackson refused to enforce the ruling. He

remarked, “Well, John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it”.

17,000 Cherokees were brutally rounded up and marched to Indian territory in Oklahoma.

Trail of Tears: Cherokee’s 800 mile forced march off their land to the Indian Territory—over 4,000 died on the march (BP)

“I fought through the Civil War and have seen men shot to pieces and slaughtered by the thousands, but the Cherokee removal was the cruelest work I ever knew.”

Georgia Soldier involved in removal process