It is important to approach the history of removal as a period of “many removals” because it’s in fact the removal of many communities due to colonists. Native communities were severely affected. There are many examples such as The Louisiana Purchase. It was the acquisition of Louisiana from France in 1803. Native American communities were not compensated in this transaction and it was land largely occupied by Native American peoples. There was increased settlement in the Northwest territory as well as throughout the Southeast.
From the years 1829 to 1837, Andrew Jackson took the most dramatic action due to being in favor of Indigenous removal. In school, we are taught about the Trail of Tears from 1838 to 1839, however I don’t remember my high school teacher emphasizing the intensity of it. In 1838, federal troops and state militias gathered Cherokee people into stockades. Stockades are often used to confine animals and in this case they were used on Indigenous people. There were 12 groups of 1,000 that had to walk 800 miles towards the west. An estimate of about 4,000 people died. Moreover, many enslaved people also endured the trail of tears.
The case for Worcester v. Georgia is a major case that took place in 1832. It involved Christian missionary Samuel Worcester, who was preaching on Cherokee lands. He filed a lawsuit against the state of Georgia claiming that the state didn’t have the authority to control activity on Cherokee lands. It’s important to know that the Cherokee nation is a sovereign nation. Chief Justice John Marshall emphasized the Cherokee Nation’s sovereignty and the boundaries of state power over Native American territory. Marshall stated, “The Cherokee nation, then, is a distinct community occupying its own territory in which the laws of Georgia can have no force. The whole intercourse between the United States and this nation, is, by our constitution and laws, vested in the government of the United States.”
His statement conveys that Georgia’s statute, which sought to control the actions of non-Native Americans on Cherokee territories, was therefore unconstitutional and the state’s laws had no jurisdiction within Cherokee territory. Marshall highlighted that, under the Constitution, the only authority with which to engage and negotiate with Native American nations was the federal government.
Citation: “Worcester v. Georgia.” Oyez, www.oyez.org/cases/1789-1850/31us515