In 1830 the Congress of the United States passed the "Indian Removal Act." It

was this denial of the Indians most fundamental rights that led to a celebrated

confrontation between two branches of the federal government in the persons of

the venerable chief justice of the United States, John Marshall, and the president,

Andrew Jackson The Cherokee would have to agree to removal in a treaty that

would need ratification by the Senate.

In 1835 Treaty of New Echota gave President Jackson the legal document he

needed to remove the Cherokee. Though few Senators vocally opposed the law, it

passed by a single vote and the ratification sealed the Cherokee’s fate.  Though

initially delayed by General Wool’s resignation, General Winfield Scott, arrived at

New Echota on May 17, 1838 with 7000 men and early that summer began the

invasion of the Cherokee Nation.


The Trail of Tears

  1. -Painted in 1942 by Robert Lindeux (1871-1970), it depicts the forced removal of the Cherokee Indians from their lands east of the Mississippi to present day Oklahoma.