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Indian Removal
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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