Indian Removal Act

The Indian Removal Act, was a law which called for the removal of Indians from lands east of the Mississippi River. The act received a lot of support from the southern states, who desired the lands inhabited by Native American tribes. In Georgia, territorial disputes between white land owners and the Cherokee put immense pressure on Jackson to find a solution. Despite intense debates in congress, and opposition from Christian missionary Jeremiah Evarts, Senator Theodore Frelinghuysen, and Congressman David Crockett President Andrew Jackson, a former Indian fighter, signed the act into law on May 28, 1830. The act was a precursor to the infamous Trail of Tears.

1. Most were moved to Indian Territory, in Oklahoma and Kansas
2. Trail of Tears: Native American name for the removal of the Cherokee Tribe
3. 4,000 Cherokees died on the forced march
4. Davy Crockett, among others, was against the Act

Following the passage of the Indian Removal Act, many Native American tribes were forcibly coerced into signing treaties to concede their lands. In 1835 a small group of Cherokee signed the Treaty of New Echota, which exchanged established Cherokee lands, for largely unknown territory in Oklahoma. In 1938, the U.S. Army forced the Cherokee off of their lands at gun point, and began the 2,000 mile march to Oklahoma. The Death march resulted in the death of over 4,000 men, women, and children.

• University of Maine: The Great American Desert: The Congressional Debate on the Indian Removal Act of 1830

• 1790: Trade and Intercourse Act passed

• 1828: Cherokee Tribe in Georgia tried to secure their lands by adopting a constitution

• 1800: Code of Handsome Lake begins

• 1830: Indian Removal Act passed

• 1834: Congress reorganizes the Indian offices, creating the U.S. Department of Indian Affairs

• 1835: Texas Rangers are formed to fight against the Comanche Tribe. Beginning of war against the Seminole Tribe

• 1837: By the nen of the year, 46,000, Native Americans had been removed from their land east of the Mississippi

• 1838: Trail of Tears

• 1845: Texas is annexed as a state and reaffirms that Indians have no right to possession of Texan land and demand removal of 25,000 of the Apache Tribe.

• 1845: Andrew Jackson dies

• 1848: California Gold Rush

• 1851: Indian Appropriations Act

• 1853-54: Liquidation of northern portion of Indian Territory

• 1854: Commissioner of Indian Affairs calls for an end to the Indian removal policy