Indian Removal
Five nations expelled by statute, with the Supreme Court overruled
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The Indian Removal Act of 1830 gave the president authority to exchange the lands of Indigenous nations east of the Mississippi for land to the west. Worcester v. Georgia in 1832 held that the states had no authority over Cherokee territory. The ruling was not enforced, and the case is therefore a standard example of what happens when a court decision lacks executive backing. The Cherokee at this point were a state with a written script, a constitution and a newspaper; what was removed was not "wilderness" but a functioning neighbouring nation with coveted land. An estimated four thousand of sixteen thousand Cherokee died.
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The United States passed a law in 1830 forcing Indigenous nations east of the Mississippi to move west. The Cherokee Nation took the case to the Supreme Court and won — but the president carried out the removal anyway. Thousands died on the marches.
Sources
- Perdue & Green, The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears (2007)
- Worcester v. Georgia, 31 U.S. 515 (1832)
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