Indian Removal Act and the Trail of Tears

1. The Indian Removal Act
and the
Trail of Tears

2. • As the United States expanded
westward, Native Americans were
still living in the eastern part of the
country
• Groups known as the “Five Civilized
Tribes” had established successful
farming communities in the
Southeast
• Many settlers wanted the federal
government to relocate the tribes,
proposing that the Native Americans
be forced to leave their land and
move west of the Mississippi River

3. • In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act. The federal government
would pay the Native Americans to give up their land and move west.
• In 1834, the Indian Territory (in present-day Oklahoma) was created for the
relocated Native Americans

4. • One group refused to give up their land
• In spite of a treaty from the 1790s which recognized the Cherokee people as
their own nation, the state of Georgia would not honor the agreement of the
treaty
• The Cherokee sued first the state government, then took their case to the
Supreme Court. In 1832, it was ruled that the state could not interfere with
the Cherokee.
• President Andrew Jackson had supported Georgia’s efforts to remove the
Cherokee; he took no action against Georgia to make the state follow the
Supreme Court’s ruling

6. • In 1838 General Winfield Scott
and his army of federal troops
went to remove the Cherokee
from their land
• Scott threatened to use force if
the Cherokee did not leave
peacefully
• Knowing that they did not have
the power to fight, the Cherokee
leaders were forced to give in

7. • The long march to the West claimed thousands of lives due to disease
and brutal weather
• The forced journey of the Cherokee became known as the Trail of Tears