Why Native Americans Sought

Involuntary Exchange of Lands
Native Americans and the Supreme Court

3. An Attempt at Assimilation

4. Two Illegal Treaties

5. Betrayal and a Forced March
The Cherokee are Native Americans. Long before the English colonists arrived, they lived in part of the region that became Georgia.
Andrew Jackson became president in 1829. That same year, gold was discovered in Georgia. Settlers already wanted the Cherokee lands in Georgia.
In 1830, Jackson signed into law Congress’s Indian Removal Act. According to this law, the president
M’Intosh. The court ruled that Native Americans had a basic right to live on their tribal lands. However, the court decided that these lands were really the property of the U.S. government.
The state of Georgia tried to put an end to Cherokee tribal government. The Cherokee claimed they had the right to sue the state. They believed they had the right to sue in federal court because they were a free foreign nation.
The federal government under Andrew Jackson refused to enforce the court’s ruling. The government refused to take seriously its role of protecting the Native Americans Meanwhile, Georgia pressured the federal government to make sure the Indian Removal Act was put into effect.
Settlers called a particular group of southeast Native American groups the “Five Civilized Tribes.” These five groups were the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole.
The five groups established representative governments. In 1827, three years before Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, the Cherokee established the Cherokee Nation. They created a government based on their own
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to allow the Cherokee Nation to sue a state. Settlers continued to desire valuable farmland. The Cherokee farmland was valuable, and the settlers wanted it.

For many years, Native American groups had tried to get their rights recognized and respected. After many years of disappointment, Native Americans gradually decided that the settlers were unstoppable. The United States signed land exchange treaties with small groups of Seminole and Cherokee. However, the people who signed did not officially represent their groups. Because of this, the treaties were not valid, or legal, according to the law. In that year, the U.S. military began to force them out. However, the Seminole stayed and fought. They were led by four chiefs, including Osceola.During the war, the United States promised to discuss ways to end the fighting.
Like the Seminole, the Cherokee refused to obey a false treaty. They did not want to leave their homes and move to the West. Chief Ross worked within the U.S. system of law to fight being forced to move.

In 1835, the Treaty of New Echota was created between the United States and the Cherokee. The treaty required the Cherokee to leave their Georgia homeland. However, the Cherokee refused to