The Indian Removal Act
By Mason Quinn
Map Of US Today
Map Of US in 1830
Map of Indian land lost in 1830
What is the Indian Removal Act?
Why Was It Created?
Andrew Jackson's Talk To The Indians On Why This Was Good
‘You are now placed in the midst of a white population …. You are now subject to the same laws which govern the citizens of Georgia and Alabama. You are liable to prosecutions for offenses, and to civil actions for a breach of any of your contracts. Most of your people are uneducated, and are liable to be brought into collision at all times with your white neighbors. Your young men are acquiring habits of intoxication. With strong passions . . . they are frequently driven to excesses which must eventually terminate in their ruin. The game has disappeared among you, and you must depend upon agriculture and the mechanic arts for support. And yet, a large portion of your people have acquired little or no property in the soil itself …. How, under these circumstances, can you live in the country you now occupy? Your condition must become worse and worse, and you will ultimately disappear, as so many tribes have done before you.’
Who were the main people involved?
William Wirt - The person that the Cherokee nation hired to take there case to the supreme court with the Cherokee Nation vs Georgia case and petitioned that the Indians should be able to remain in Georgia as a sovereign state.
John Marshall - Supreme Court chief justice who ruled that the Indians were part of the US but should be able to stay in Georgia and be protected by the state.
Dr. Elizer Butler and Samuel A. Worchester - Missionaries to the Cherokee Nation who ignored the law not to go into Indian lands and were arrested. After refusing pardon from the governor and saying they would not enter Indian lands again, they went to the supreme court in Worchester vs Georgia and had all laws put on the Cherokee nation made void. They also were strong advocates for the Indians during the time when the Indian removal act was being enforced.
Wilson Lumpkin - Governor of Georgia during the Indian Removal Act
John Ross - Leader of the Cherokee Nation and pressed them not to surrender their homelands
John Ridge - A leader of the Cherokee Nation who pressed for the nation to accept the Removal act and leave peacefully
Martin Van Bruen - Andrew Jackson's hand picked successor for president who enforced the Indian Removal Act
John F Schermerhorn - The person that Andrew Jackson had negotiate the Treaty of New Echota with the unofficial representatives of the Cherokee Nation