President Jackson and the Removal of the Cherokee Indians "The decision of the Jackson administration to remove the Cherokee Indians to lands west of the Mississippi River in the 1830's was more a reformulation of the national policy that had been in effect since the 1790's than a change in that policy." The dictum above is firm and can be easily proved by examining the administration of Jackson and comparison to the traditional course which was carried out for about 40 years. After 1825the federal government attempted to remove all eastern Indians to the GreatPlains area of the Far West. The Cherokee Indians of northwestern Georgia,to protect themselves from removal, made up a constitution which said thatthe Cherokee Indians were sovereign and not subject to the laws of Georgia.When the Cherokee sought help from the Congress that body only allottedlands in the West and urged them to move. The Supreme Court, however, inWorcester vs. Georgia, ruled that they constituted a "domestic dependentnation" not subject to the laws of Georgia. Jackson, who sympathized withthe frontiersman, was so outraged that he refused to enforce the decision.Instead he persuaded the tribe to give up it's Georgia lands for areservation west of the Mississippi. According to Document A, the map shows eloquently, the relationshipbetween time and policies which effected the Indians. From the Colonial andConfederation treaties, a significant amount of land had been acquired fromthe Cherokee Indians. Successively, during Washington's, Monroe's, andJefferson's administration, more and more Indian land was beingcommandeered. The administrations during the 1790's to the 1830's hadgradually acquired more and more land from the Cherokee Indians. Jacksonfollowed that precedent by the acquisition of more Cherokee lands. According to Document B, "the first of which is by raising an army,and [destroying the resisting] tribes entirely or 2ndly by forming treaties...
