Removal

What happened

Removal was the federal policy of moving eastern Native nations west of the Mississippi River. The Indian Removal Act, approved May 28, 1830, let the President set aside districts in territory west of the river for tribes or nations "as may choose to exchange the lands where they now reside, and remove there."

The National Park Service gives the scale. It says that between 1830 and 1850, about 100,000 American Indians living between Michigan, Louisiana and Florida moved west after the U.S. government coerced treaties or used the Army against those resisting. It says an estimated 3,500 Creeks died in Alabama and on their westward journey.

The Cherokee case shows how the policy worked and how people fought it. The Cherokees challenged Georgia in the Supreme Court and won Worcester v. Georgia (1832), where the Court said the laws of Georgia could have no force in Cherokee territory. The Park Service says the United States still sought out a minority in December 1835 to sign the Treaty of New Echota. Twenty signed, none an elected official of the Cherokee Nation, and more than 15,000 Cherokees protested. The Senate ratified it on May 23, 1836, by one vote. Chief John Ross wrote to Congress that the document came "not through our legitimate authorities." In May 1838, federal troops and state militias began rounding Cherokees into stockades.

Good to know. The 100,000 people and 3,500 Creek deaths are National Park Service estimates; other sources give other totals.

Summarized with AI assistance from 5 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error