While the United States had expanded westward by the 1830s, large numbers of Native Americans still lived in the eastern part of the country. In Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida lived the “Five Civilized Tribes”: the Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw. The tribes had established farming societies with successful economies. Because the area west of the Mississippi was dry and seemed unsuitable for farming, few white Americans lived there. Many settlers wanted the federal government to relocate Native Americans living in the Southeast. They proposed to force the Native Americans to leave their land and move west of the Mississippi River.

President Andrew Jackson, a man of the frontier himself, supported the settlers’ demand for Native American land. Indian Removal Act Congress responded by passing the Indian Removal Act in 1830. The act allowed the federal government to pay Native Americans to move west. Jackson then sent officials to negotiate treaties with Native Americans of the Southeast. Most felt compelled to accept payment for their lands. In 1834, Congress created the Indian Territory, an area in present-day Oklahoma, for Native Americans from the Southeast.

The Cherokee Nation, however, refused to give up its land. In treaties of the 1790s, the federal government had recognized the Cherokee people in the state of Georgia as a separate nation with their own laws. Georgia, however, refused to recognize Cherokee laws. The Cherokee sued the state government and eventually took their case to the Supreme Court. In Worcester v. Georgia (1832), Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that Georgia had no right to interfere with the Cherokee. Only the federal government had authority over matters involving the Cherokee. Jackson supported Georgia’s efforts to remove the Cherokee. He vowed to ignore the Supreme Court’s ruling. “John Marshall has made his decision,” Jackson reportedly said. “Now let him enforce it.”

In 1835, the federal government persuaded a few Cherokee to sign The Echota Treaty giving up their people’s land. Yet most of the 17,000 Cherokee refused to honor the treaty. They wrote a protest letter to the government and people of the United States. The Cherokee plea for understanding did not soften the resolve of Jackson or the white settlers of the area. In 1838, General Winfield Scott and an army of 7,000 federal troops came to remove the Cherokee from their homes and lead them west. Scott threatened to use force if the Cherokee did not leave. He told them he had positioned troops all around the country so that resistance and escape were both hopeless. The Cherokee knew that fighting would only lead to their destruction. Filled with sadness and anger, their leaders gave in, and the long march to the West began. Brutal weather along the way claimed thousands of Cherokee lives. Their forced journey west became known to the Cherokee people as the Trail Where They Cried. Historians call it the Trail of Tears.

In 1832, the Sauk chieftain Black Hawk led a force of Sauk and Fox people back to Illinois, their homeland. They wanted to recapture this area, which had been given up in a treaty. The Illinois state militia and federal troops responded with force, gathering nearly 4,500 soldiers. They chased the Fox and Sauk to the Mississippi River and slaughtered most of the Native Americans as they tried to flee westward into present-day Iowa.

The Seminole people of Florida were the only Native Americans who successfully resisted their removal. Although they were pressured in the early 1830s to sign treaties giving up their land, Seminole chief Osceola and some of his people refused to leave Florida. The Seminole decided to go to war against the United States instead. In 1835, the Seminole joined forces with a group of African Americans who had run away to escape slavery. Together, they attacked white settlements along the Florida coast. They used guerrilla tactics, making surprise attacks and then retreating back into the forests and swamps.

In December 1835, Seminole ambushed soldiers under the command of Major Francis Dade. Only a few of the 110 soldiers survived the attack. The Dade Massacre pressured the call for more troops and equipment to fight the Seminole. By 1842 more than 1,500 American soldiers had died in the Seminole wars. The government gave up and allowed some of the Seminole to remain in Florida. Many Seminole, however, had died in the long war, and many more were captured and forced to move westward.

After 1842, only a few scattered groups of Native Americans lived east of the Mississippi. Most had been removed to the West. Native Americans had given up more than 100 million acres of eastern land to the federal government. They had received in return about $68 million and 32 million acres in lands west of the Mississippi River. There they lived, divided by tribes, in reservations. Eventually, these reservations, too, would face intrusion from white civilization. The area of present-day Oklahoma became part of the United States in 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase. The United States set aside this area as the home for various Native American groups.

The Five Civilized Tribes were relocated in the eastern half of present-day Oklahoma on lands claimed by several Plains groups, including the Osage, Comanche, and Kiowa. United States Army leaders got agreements from the Plains groups to let the Five Civilized Tribes live in peace. Settled in their new homes, the Five Tribes developed their governments, improved their farms, and built schools. The Five Tribes also developed a police force called the Lighthorsemen. This law enforcement unit maintained safety for the region.