Indian Removal Act Information

Against Indian Removal Act of 1830

Supreme Court Ruling

The Cherokee Nation resisted the Indian Removal Act and challenged the Georgia laws
that restricted their freedom on tribal lands. In his 1831 ruling on Cherokee Nation v. the
State of Georgia, Chief Justice John Marshall declared that the Indian territory is
admitted to compose a part of the United States, which meant that the Cherokee were
part of the United States. He also thought Native Americans should be treated like
children because he believed they were not intelligent enough to take care of
themselves. But, the following year the Supreme Court reversed itself and ruled that
Indian tribes were should be protected from racist Georgia laws and that the Cherokee
should not be removed from their land.

President Jackson refused to listen to the Courts decision. He convinced one Cherokee
chief to sign the relocation treaty. But the majority of the Cherokee did not want to leave
their land. They were led by Principal Chief John Ross in a desperate attempt to hold
onto their land. This attempt failed in 1838, when, under the guns of federal troops and
the Georgia state military, the Cherokee tribe was forced to walk to the dry plains across
the Mississippi. The best evidence indicates that between 3,000-4,000 out of
15,000-16,000 Cherokees died on the journey from the brutal conditions and harsh
weather.

Seminole Indians
The Second Seminole War (1835-1842) was the result of the United States government
attempting to force the Seminoles to leave Florida. This was part of the Indian Removal
Act but was also part of the Treaty of Payne's Landing of 1832, which Seminole
leaders claimed that they forced to sign under threat of violence. Raids and skirmishes
and a handful of larger battles raged throughout the Florida peninsula, with the
outgunned and outnumbered Seminoles effectively using guerrilla warfare to frustrate
the ever more numerous American forces.

After several years spent chasing bands of Seminole warriors through the wilderness,
the US Army changed tactics and began seeking out and destroying Seminole farms
and villages, a strategy which eventually changed the course of the war. The war
resulted in most of the Seminole population in Florida being killed in battle, ravaged by
starvation and disease, or relocated to Indian Territory in modern Oklahoma. What
began as a tribe of more than 10,000 people would end with only a few hundred
Seminoles alive and who were allowed to remain in an unofficial reservation in
southwest Florida.

For more information you will need to read short passages in the textbook.

Cherokee pg 332-333
Seminole pg 334
Supreme Court pg 332
Support the Indian Removal Act of 1830

Farmers
White Americans, particularly those who lived on the western frontier and were farmers,
often feared and resented the Native Americans they encountered: To them, American
Indians seemed to be an unfamiliar, alien people who occupied land that white farmers
wanted (and believed they deserved). Some officials in the early years of the American
republic, such as President George Washington, believed that the best way to solve this
Indian problem was simply to civilize the Native Americans. The goal of this
civilization campaign was to make Native Americans as much like white Americans as
possible by encouraging them convert to Christianity, learn to speak and read English,
and adopt European-style economic practices such as the individual ownership of land
and other property (including, in some instances in the South, African slaves). In the
southeastern United States, many Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, Creek and
Cherokee people embraced these customs and became known as the Five Civilized
Tribes.

But their land, located in parts of Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, Florida and
Tennessee, was valuable, and it grew to be more coveted as white farmers flooded the
region. Many of these farmers wanted to make their fortunes by growing cotton, and
they did not care how civilized their native neighbors were: They wanted that land and
they would do almost anything to get it. They stole livestock; burned and looted houses
and towns;, and lived on land that did not belong to them.
State governments joined in this effort to drive Native Americans out of the South.
Several states passed laws limiting Native American power and rights and moved onto
their territory. Southern states were determined to take ownership of Indian lands and
would go to great lengths to secure this territory.

For more information you will need to read a short primary source article on
the handout

President Andrew Jackson Document A

Cherokee Chief Elias Boudinot Document B