When President Jackson made his first speech to Congress on December 8, 1829, he declares that he will pass a bill through Congress that will require all the Indian tribes in the southeast to move west of the Mississippi River.¹ The Cherokees believe that the one thing that will prevent their removal from their Nation's land is unity. What most shocks the Cherokees is not this declaration by President Jackson, but what happens as a result in the state of Georgia. Only eleven days later, on December nineteenth, the Georgia legislature enacts a number of laws against the Cherokee Nation. These laws did things such as allow the state of Georgia to take a large piece of the Cherokee Nation's land and create Hall, Habersham, Gwinnett, Carroll and De Kalb counties. The laws also made Cherokee law obsolete in the confiscated land and threaten arrest and prison time against any Cherokee who refuses to move west of the Mississippi River. The state of Georgia also realizes the economic importance of the Cherokee land when the gold fields were discovered on their land and did not allow any Cherokee to dig for gold in fear of losing the valuable resource. These laws are only the beginning of the fight against the Cherokees by the United States and Georgia governments to obtain the valuable land that the Cherokee Nation rests on.

    President Jackson kept his promise to Congress that he made in his first speech and in 1830 passes the Indian Removal Act. The law provides that each individual tribe should sign their own removal treaty with the United States government. The Cherokee Nation see many other tribes, including the Choctaws, the Chickasaws, the Creeks and the Seminoles sign away their land in treaties with the government, but the Cherokees held fast under the strong leadership of Chief Ross and refuses to sign a treaty with the government. This is the first sign of Cherokee opposition to the United States and Georgia governments to remove the Cherokee Nation from its land. In a proclamation, made in New Echota in July of 1830, the Cherokee Legislative Council declares that "[they] have no desire to see the President on the business of entering into a treaty for exchange of lands."² Instead, the Cherokees ask President Jackson for protection in accordance with federal treaties.³ This first defiance shows that the Cherokee Nation has strong leadership that is willing to fight to keep the land that it possesses. The Cherokee Nation will go on to challenge President Jackson one more time over actions he took to weaken its hold on the land that it possesses east of the Mississippi River.

    In the same proclamation made in New Echota, the Cherokee Nation argues that President Jackson has no right to allow Colonel Hugh Jackson to stop paying the Nation the six thousand dollars a month for land that the government had previously taken from the Cherokee Nation. Without this money, the Cherokee Nation has no way to pay for the legal council it needs to initiate a court battle against the United States government. The Cherokee Nation has many influential allies that help them in their fight against the government including William Writ, a former attorney general of the United States and Senator Daniel Webster. Chief Ross obtains legal council on the advice of both Writ and Webster. Chief Ross decides that instead of giving in and signing a treaty like many of the other southeaster Indian tribes, the Cherokee Nation should take their cause to the Supreme Court.  With the Cherokee Nation v. Georgia case, Writ attempts to argue that the Cherokee Nation is "an independent sovereign nation and therefore could not be subjected to Georgia laws".⁴ If this law is passes the Cherokee Nation will be free to stay on its land in Georgia that that government had tried to confiscate with its laws in 1929. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court does not agree that the Cherokee Nation is its own sovereign nation.⁵ As one of the nation's last major attempts to remain on the land it possesses east of the Mississippi River, the Nation soon finds itself with only one last choice, to give its land to the United States.

    By the time of the signing of the New Echota Treaty on December 29, 1835, the Cherokee Nation is splintered into two factions. Chief Ross, the leader of the National Party desire that no treaty be signed with the United States government that will give away the Cherokee Nation land. The other faction, known as the Treaty Party, is lead by John Ridge, and favors selling of all Cherokee Nation land east of the Mississippi River and removal of all Indians west of the river.⁶ When the treaty is finally signed in December of 1835, Chief Ross is in Washington and plays no role in its signing.⁷ The Cherokee Nation has been duped by its own people. The Treaty of New Echota, signed by only 100 people, gave all Cherokee land east of the Mississippi River to the United States government for five million dollars. The treaty is signed by a small group of delegates; a minority group of people in the Cherokee Nation who favor removal.

    The Cherokee Indians are forced off the land that they have possessed for hundreds of years. The Cherokees are bullied out of their land by the United States and Georgia governments headed by President Jackson and Governors Forsyth and Wilson Lumpkin. In the end it is internal dissonance that drives the Cherokees off of their land east of the Mississippi river, but without all the help from President Jackson this never would have happened. It takes only six year from the time when Jackson declares to Congress that he will do everything in his power to remove Indians from land in the southeastern United States for the Cherokees to succumb to his power and give up their land. With the passing of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the refusal to pay Cherokee funds for previously given up lands and local laws passes in the state of Georgia, President Jackson manages to break the Cherokees down enough to run the Nation west of the Mississippi river. Under the leadership of Chief Ross, the Cherokees try in vain to stop their own removal by refusing to sign a treaty after the passing of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and hiring lawyers to take their cause all the way to the Supreme Court. In the end, it is the greed of a small, minority group in the Cherokee nation, lead by Ridge that drives the Cherokee Nation apart and off their land. Ridge signs the New Echota Treaty in December of 1835 without the consent of Chief Ross and with the aid of President Jackson which gave up all Cherokee land to the United States. Thus began the Trail of Tears and the removal of the Cherokee Nation west of the Mississippi river.

1. Remini, Robert V. The Legacy of Andrew Jackson. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press) 61.
2. Woodward, Grace Steele. The Cherokees. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1972) 161.
3. Woodward 161.
4. Woodward 165.
5. Woodward 162 - 166.
6. Woodward 179
7. Cuyler, Telamon. [Copy of New Echota] Treaty [between] the Cherokees [and the] United States, 1865. (The University of Georgia Libraries: Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, 1835)