INDIAN REMOVAL ACT&

INDIAN WARS

ANDREW JACKSON VS. THE NATIVES• By the time Andrew Jackson became President in

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

• In contrast, the non-Indians population had risen to 13 million.

• 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.

THE PROCLAMATION OF 1763 • As the population grew, the colonists pushed farther west into the territories occupied by the American Indians.

• Inevitably, this movement led to clashes over land.

• This proclamation forbade settlement west of the Appalachians in hopes of eliminating conflict between the colonists and the natives living in the Ohio River Valley.

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.”

THE INDIAN REMOVAL ACT, 1830• The forcible removal of 100,000 members from

5 different tribes in the southern part of the U.S.

• Cherokee, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles

• signed into law by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830.

• This act authorized the President to grant unsettled lands west of the Mississippi to Native Americans in exchange for the land they resided on within existing state borders.

• A few tribes went peacefully, but many resisted the relocation policy and wanted to remain in their homes.

THE INDIAN REMOVAL ACT, 1830• The Removal Act provided for the government to

negotiate removal treaties with the various tribes.

• Many of the treaties were misleading, and resulted in Natives being forced from their homes and deported to lands west of the Mississippi.

WORCHESTER VS GEORGIA (1832)

• In an agreement with the federal government, the state of Georgia gave up claims to large tracts of western land in exchange for the federal government negotiating treaties for Indian removal.

• The Supreme Court and Chief Justice John Marshall ruled the Cherokee could keep their lands because of earlier federal treaties.

• Furthermore, the court ruled the treaty was an agreement between two nations and couldn’t be overruled by Georgia.

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

WHY GEORGIA?• Georgia is desired because it posses

fertile soil and it the next area of expansion

• Gold is discovered in 1828 in Georgia over 10,000 Anglos rush to Georgia

• Land lotteries of Cherokee land take place even though Cherokees live there

TRAIL OF TEARS• As part of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, federal

agents misled tribal leaders into signing removal treaties with the government.

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

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

– Estimated 4,000 died