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The Trail of Tears was a series of forced Indian removals by the United States government during. Still, but the removal of the Cherokee nation 's removal from Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama is are the most famous of these forced marches. While the Cherokee removal is the relocation that is most often associated with the Trail of Tears, but it was not the only one. The Seminoles (1832), the Choctaw (1830), the Chickasaw (1832), the Creek (1832), the Fox (1832), the Sauk , and the Cherokee (1835) were all removed from their ancestral lands. Each of these removals resulted in an appalling loss of life.

The U.S. Government used treaties as one means to displace Indians from their tribal lands, a mechanism that was strengthened with the Removal Act of 1830. In cases where this failed, the government sometimes violated both treaties and Supreme Court rulings to facilitate the spread of European Americans ' spread westward across the continent.

As the 19th century began, land-hungry Americans poured into the backcountry of the coastal South and . They began moving toward and into what would later become the states of Alabama and Mississippi. Since Indian tribes living there appeared to be the main obstacle to westward expansion, white settlers petitioned the federal government to remove them. Although Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe argued that the Indian tribes in the Southeast should exchange their land for lands west of the Mississippi River, they did not take steps to make this happen. Indeed, the first major transfer of land occurred only as the a result of the war.

In 1814, Major General Andrew Jackson led an expedition against the Creek Indians , climaxing in the Battle of Horse Shoe Bend (in present -day Alabama near the Georgia border), where . Jackson’s force soundly defeated the Creeks and destroyed their military power. He then forced upon the Indians a treaty whereby they surrendered to the United States over twenty-million acres of their traditional land—about one-half of present -day Alabama and one-fifth of Georgia. Over the next decade, Jackson led the way in the Indian removal campaign, helping to negotiate nine of the eleven major treaties to remove Indians.

Under this kind of pressure, Native American tribes—specifically the Creek, Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Choctaw—realized that they could not defeat the Americans in war. The settlers' appetite of the settlers for land would not abate, so the Indians adopted a strategy of appeasement. They hoped that if they gave up a good deal of their land, they could keep at least some a part of it. The Seminole tribe in Florida resisted, in the Second Seminole War (1835–1842) and the Third Seminole War (1855–1858), however. However, neither appeasement nor resistance worked.

From a legal standpoint, the United States Constitution empowered Congress to “regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes.” In early treaties negotiated between the federal government and the Indian tribes, the latter typically acknowledged themselves “to be under the protection of the United States of America, and of no other sovereign whosoever.” When Andrew Jackson became president (1829–1837), he decided to build a systematic approach to systematically approached Indian removal based on the basis of these legal precedents.

Why was Jackson so committed to removal? Jackson fundamentally believed that Native Americans represented a serious security risk to the United States. Jackson had taken part in the United States campaign against members of the Creek nation who followed Tecumseh in 1814. Tecumseh believed that the United States represented an existential threat to not only the Creek tribe, but and all Native Americans in the United States. Tecumseh lead a revolt against the United States to push back the advance of American settlers. Tecumseh's revolted was defeated at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814, but Jackson had already decided that Native Americans and US settlers could not live together peacefulpeacefully. As a result , the Tecumseh's defeat, Jackson imposed terms on the entire Creek nation that removed them from their ancestral lands.

Native Americans also held some of the farmlands in the Southeast United States. Several of these tribes had already begun to farm these lands and earnest and make them productive. Both states and settlers wanted to seize these agricultural lands from the Native Americans. The states, such as Georgia, cared little that Native Americans had placed farms on these lands, purchased slaves, or built homes. The tribes did not recognize the states state's authority over their lands, because they viewed themselves as independent nations. <div class="portal" style='float:right; width:35%'>====Related Articles===={{#dpl:category=History of the Early Republic|ordermethod=firstedit|order=descending|count=6}}</div>

Jackson strongly favored removing the 60,000 Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw , and Creek and Seminole (the Civilized Tribes) from North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi. Indian Removal was one of Andrew Jackson's most important goals. It was so important that during Jackson’s first message to Congress, he asked for a bill and funds to move these tribes west of the Mississippi. Jackson's message was clear, Indians needed to be permanently removed west of Louisiana.

In Jackson's 1830 message to Congress , he stated:

"The consequences of a speedy removal will be important to the United States, to individual States, and to the Indians themselves. The pecuniary advantages which it promises to the Government are the least of its recommendations. It puts an end to all possible danger of collision between the authorities of the General and State Governments on account of the Indians. It will place a dense and civilized population in large tracts of country now occupied by a few savage hunters...Rightly considered, the policy of the General Government 's policy toward the red man is not only liberal, but generous. He is unwilling to submit to the laws of the States and mingle with their population. To save him from this alternative, or perhaps utter annihilation, the General Government kindly offers him a new home, and . It proposes to pay the whole expense of his removal and settlement."

The first piece of legislation passed after Jackson took office was the 1830 Indian Removal Act. The 1830 Act was just a first step in a long process that forced Native American Americans off their land to make way for white settlers.

In general terms====Cherokee Legal Opposition====The Cherokee Nation resisted, however, Jackson’s government succeededchallenging in court the Georgia laws that restricted their freedoms on tribal lands. By the end of In his presidency, he had signed into law almost seventy removal treaties, 1831 ruling on Cherokee Nation v. the result State of which was to move nearly 50Georgia,000 eastern Indians to Chief Justice John Marshall declared that “the Indian Territory—defined as the region belonging territory is admitted to compose a part of the United States west of .” He affirmed that the Mississippi River but excluding the states of Missouri tribes were “domestic dependent nations” and Iowa as well as “their relation to the Territory United States resembles that of Arkansas—and open millions of acres of rich land east of the Mississippi a ward to white settlershis guardian. Despite ” However, the vastness of following year the Supreme Court reversed itself and ruled that Indian Territory, tribes were indeed sovereign and immune from Georgia laws. President Jackson nonetheless refused to heed the government intended that the Indians’ destination would be a more confined area—what later became eastern OklahomaCourt’s decision.

====The Treaty of New Echota Splits the Cherokee Legal OppositionNation====The A minority faction of the Cherokee Nation resisted, however, challenging in court the Georgia laws that restricted nation led by John Ridge realized little they could do to prevent removal from their freedoms on tribal lands. In his 1831 ruling on Cherokee Nation v. the State Instead of Georgiafighting it, Chief Justice John Marshall declared that “the Indian territory is admitted they decided to compose negotiate a part of treaty with the United States,” and affirmed that to get the tribes were “domestic dependent nations” best terms possible. The Cherokee Nation divided on between Ridge's Treaty Party and “their relation John Ross's National Party. A delegation was sent to the United States resembles that of negotiate a ward to his guardian.” HoweverTreaty, the following year the Supreme Court reversed itself and ruled that Indian tribes they ultimately were indeed sovereign promised $5 million and immune from Georgia laws. President Jackson nonetheless refused the right to heed hold the Court’s decisionlands in modern-day Oklahoma in perpetuity. He obtained Ridge's group agreed to the signature of a Cherokee chief agreeing to relocation in terms and received approval from the Treaty of Party in New Echota, which . Congress then ratified against the protests of Daniel Webster and Henry Clay in 1835. The Cherokee signing party represented only a faction fraction of the Cherokee, and the majority followed Principal Chief John Ross in a desperate attempt to hold onto their land. This attempt faltered in 1838, when, under the guns of federal troops and Georgia state militia, the Cherokee tribe were forced to the dry plains across the Mississippi.

Cherokees had split on the issue of removal. Some members of the tribe left early and cherry-picked some of the best lands in Oklahoma , while others resisted forced removal. Chief John Ross supported passive resistance, but it accomplished little. Martin Van Buren organized the removal of 18,000 Native Americans between 1838 and 1839. Anyone who resisted removal was imprisoned and then forcibly removed. Due to the lack of preparation and funding by the United States government, 4,000 Cherokees died from exposure, starvation, and disease on their way to Oklahoma. The Cherokees named this forced march "the trail on which we cried," aka the Trail of Tears.

To achieve his purpose, Jackson encouraged Congress to adopt the Removal Act of 1830. The Act established a process whereby the President could grant land west of the Mississippi River to Indian tribes that agreed to give up their homelands. As incentives, the law allowed the Indians financial and material assistance to travel to their new locations and start new lives and guaranteed that the Indians would live on their new property under the protection of the United States Government 's protection forever. With the Act in place, Jackson and his followers were free to persuade, bribe, and threaten tribes into signing to sign removal treaties and leaving leave the Southeast. With the exception of Except for a small number of Seminoles still resisting removal in Florida, by the 1840s, no Indian tribes resided in the American South from the Atlantic to the Mississippi.  In general terms, Jackson’s government succeeded at removing Native Americans from their lands. By the end of his presidency, he had signed into law almost seventy removal treaties, the result of which was to move nearly 50, no 000 eastern Indians to Indian Territory—defined as the region belonging to the United States west of the Mississippi River but excluding the states of Missouri and Iowa as well as the Territory of Arkansas—and open millions of acres of rich land east of the Mississippi to white settlers. Despite the Indian tribes resided in Territory's vastness, the government intended that the American SouthIndians’ destination would be a more confined area—what later became eastern Oklahoma. Through a combination of coerced treaties and the contravention of treaties and judicial determination, the United States Government succeeded in paving the way for the westward expansion and the incorporation of incorporating new territories as part of the United States.

[[Category:United States History]] [[Category:Colonial American Historyof the Early Republic]] [[Category:18th 19th Century History]] [[Category:Political History]] [[Category:Diplomatic History]][[Category:Native American History]] <div class="portal" style='float:left; width:35%'>====Related Articles===={{#dpl:category=History of the Early Republic|ordermethod=firstedit|order=descending|count=6}}</div>

* Article: [https://history.state.gov/milestones/17501830-17751860/albanyindian-plantreaties| Indian Treaties and the Removal Act of 1830https://history.state.gov/milestones/1830-1860/indian-treaties]