Trail of Tears During the 1930s, President Jackson wanted to create a buffer zone between civilized lands by removing the Native Americans that inhabited the east and sending them west. In 1830 congress passed the "Indian Removal Act" forcing the remaining tribes to relocate to west of the
Mississippi. This plan allowed for American expansion and assimilation we 12212g619m stward. The chief justice of the
supreme court ruled it unconstitutional, but
Jackson ignored the supreme court because the supreme court could not enforce their decision. Cherokees occupied lands in several southeastern states. The Cherokee in
Georgia had already had much of their land stolen by cotton growers. One major factor in this land theft and the "Indian Removal Act" was that President Jackson and many Americans had a deep prejudice against Native Americans. They believed that the Native Americans would prevent white people from expanding west and using the land there for industrial and agricultural purposes.
In protest of the theft of land, the Cherokee sent an appeal to the Supreme Court in 1830: "The people of the United States will have the fairness to reflect, that all the treaties between them and the Cherokee were made ... for the benefit, of the whites.... We wish to remain on the land of our fathers. We have a perfect and original right to remain without interruption.... The treaties with us and laws of the United States made in pursuance of treaties, guaranty our residence.... It cannot be that the community we are addressing, remarkable for its intelligence and religious sensibilities, and preeminent [admired] for its devotion to the rights of man, will lay aside this appeal. In 1837 and 1838, the
US army forced fifteen thousand Cherokee to move from their homes and march approximately 800 miles west to
Oklahoma. All of the Cherokee were forced to make the journey, even the very young, the elderly, and the sick. Those that would not make the trek were forced by the
US military, treated brutally and some were even transported in chains. This march was called the Trail of Tears.
Throughout this nightmare journey, one out of every for Cherokees died of disease or exposure. This relocation process also cost the government six million dollars, an amazingly large sum for the time.
