Indian Removal Act

Law authorizing the removal of Native Americans from US states

Not to be confused with Indian Relocation Act of 1956.

Indian Removal Act

Long title| An Act to provide for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing in any of the states or territories, and for their removal east of the river Mississippi.
Enacted by| the 21st United States Congress
Citations
Public law| Pub. L. 21–148
Statutes at Large| 4 Stat. 411
Legislative history

* Introduced in the Senate as S. 102
* Passed the Senate on April 24, 1830 (28–19)
* Passed the House on May 26, 1830 (101–97)
* Signed into law by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830

|  |

This article is part of
a series about

Andrew Jackson

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* * *

Personal

* Horses
* Indigenous household members
* Land speculation
* Legal affairs
* Robards–Donelson relationship controversy
* Slavery
* slave trade
* Violent incidents
* Wards

* * *

Military career

* Creek War
* Battle of New Orleans
* First Seminole War

* * *

7th President of the United States

* Presidency
* Inaugurations
* first
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* * *

Tenure

* Jacksonian democracy
* Spoils system
* Petticoat affair
* Maysville Road veto
* Indian Removal
* Trail of Tears
* Nat Turner's slave rebellion
* Bank War
* Nullification crisis
* Censure
* Specie Circular
* Attempted assassination
* Texas Revolution
* Panic of 1837
* Judicial appointments

* * *

Presidential campaigns

* 1824
* election
* corrupt bargain
* 1828
* election
* 1832
* convention
* election

* * *

Legacy

* Memorials
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* Manifest destiny
* The Hermitage
* Second Party System
* Bibliography

* * *

* v
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* e

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was signed into law on May 28, 1830, by United States president Andrew Jackson. The law, as described by Congress, provided "for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing in any of the states or territories, and for their removal west of the river Mississippi".[a][2][3] During the presidency of Jackson (1829‍–‍1837) and his successor Martin Van Buren (1837‍–‍1841), more than 60,000 American Indians[4] from at least 18 tribes[5] were forced to move west of the Mississippi River where they were allocated new lands. The southern Indian tribes were resettled mostly into Indian Territory (Oklahoma). The northern Indian tribes were resettled initially in Kansas. With a few exceptions, the United States east of the Mississippi and south of the Great Lakes was emptied of its American Indian population. The movement westward of Indian tribes was characterized by a large number of deaths due to the hardships of the journey.[6]

The U.S. Congress approved the Act by a narrow majority in the United States House of Representatives. The Indian Removal Act was supported by President Jackson and the Democratic Party,[7] southern politicians and white settlers, and several state governments, especially that of Georgia. Indian tribes and the Whig Party opposed the bill, as did other groups within white American society (e.g., some Christian missionaries and clergy). Legal efforts to allow Indian tribes to remain on their land in the eastern U.S. failed. Most famously, the Cherokee (excluding the Treaty Party) challenged their relocation, but were unsuccessful in the courts; they were forcibly removed by the United States government in a march to the west that later became known as the Trail of Tears. Since the 21st century, scholars have cited the act and subsequent removals as an early example of state-sanctioned ethnic cleansing or genocide or settler colonialism; some view it as all three.[8][9][10]

## Background

[edit]

President Andrew Jackson called for a Indian Removal Act in his first (1829) State of the Union address.

### History of European cultural assimilation in the New World

[edit]

Many European colonists saw American Indian tribes as savages. However, Euro-Indian relations varied, particularly between the French and British colonies.[11] New France, which was established in the Great Lakes region, generally pursued a cooperative relationship with the Indian tribes, through the existence of certain traditions such as the marriage à la façon du pays, a marriage between French-Canadian tradesmen (coureur des bois) and American Indian women. This tradition was seen as a fundamental social and political institution that helped maintain relations and bond the two cultures. Many of the missionaries are known to have taught the tribes how to use iron tools, build European-style homes, and improve farming techniques; the teachings of the Wyandot, who maintained a century long friendship with French Canadians, would spread on to other tribes as they relocated to the Maumee River.[12] Throughout the 17th and 18th century during the Beaver and French and Indian Wars, the greatest number of tribes—and the most powerful—tended to side with the French, though other tribes such as the Iroquois supported the British for various strategic reasons. For strategic economic and military purposes, the French had a practice of building forts and trading posts within tribal villages, such as that of Fort Miami in Indiana within the Miami village of Kekionga. However, the belief in European cultural, religious and technological superiority was generally widespread among high ranking European colonial officials and clergymen in this period.

During the colonial history of the United States, many European colonists felt their civilization to be superior to that of the Indians due to their own notions of private property as a superior system of land tenure in addition to their Christian practices. Colonial and frontier encroachers inflicted a practice of cultural assimilation, meaning that tribes such as the Cherokee were forced to adopt aspects of white civilization. This American acculturation was originally proposed by first President George Washington, and it was well underway among the Cherokee and the Choctaw people by the beginning of the 19th century.[13] Indian tribes were encouraged to adopt European customs. First, they were forced to convert to Christianity and abandon their traditional religious practices. They were required to learn to speak and read English, although there was interest in creating a writing and printing system for a few Native languages, especially Cherokee, exemplified by Sequoyah's Cherokee syllabary. The American Indians also had to adopt white settler values, such as monogamous marriage and abandon the idea of non-marital sex. Finally, they had to accept the concept of individual ownership of land and other property (including, in some instances, the ownership of black African people as slaves). Many Cherokee people adopted all, or some, of these practices, including Cherokee chief John Ross, John Ridge, and Elias Boudinot, as represented by the newspaper he edited, the Cherokee Phoenix.[14]

### Perceived failure of the policy

[edit]

Despite the adoption of white cultural values by many natives and tribes, the United States government began a systematic effort to remove Native peoples from the Southeast.[15] The Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee-Creek, Seminole, and original Cherokee nations[b] had been established as autonomous nations in the southeastern United States.

Andrew Jackson sought to renew a policy of political and military action for the removal of Natives from these lands and worked toward enacting a law for "Indian removal".[16][17][14][18][19] In his 1829 State of the Union address, Jackson called for Indian removal.[20]

The Indian Removal Act was put in place to annex Native land and then transfer that ownership to Southern states, especially Georgia. The Act was passed in 1830, although dialogue had been ongoing since 1802 between Georgia and the federal government concerning the possibility of such an act. Ethan Davis states that "the federal government had promised Georgia that it would extinguish Indian title within the state's borders by purchase 'as soon as the such purchase could be made upon reasonable terms'".[21] As time passed, Southern states began to speed up the expulsions by claiming that the deal between Georgia and the federal government was invalid and that Southern states could pass laws extinguishing Indian title themselves. In response, the federal government passed the Indian Removal Act on May 28, 1830, in which President Jackson agreed to divide the United States territory west of the Mississippi River into districts for tribes to replace the land from which they were removed.

In the 1823 case of Johnson v. McIntosh, the United States Supreme Court handed down a decision stating that Indians could occupy and control lands within the United States but could not hold title to those lands.[22] Jackson viewed the union as a federation of highly esteemed states, as was common before the American Civil War. He opposed Washington's policy of establishing treaties with Indian tribes as if they were sovereign foreign nations. Thus, the creation of Indian jurisdictions was a violation of state sovereignty under Article IV, Section 3 of the Constitution. As Jackson saw it, either Indians comprised sovereign states (which violated the Constitution) or were subject to the laws of existing states of the Union. Jackson urged Indians to assimilate and obey state laws. Further, he believed he could only accommodate the desire for Native self-rule in federal territories, which required resettlement on Federal lands west of the Mississippi River.[23][24][25]

## Support and opposition

[edit]

Congressional debates concerning the Indian Removal Act, April 1830

The Removal Act was strongly supported in the American South, especially in Georgia, which was the largest state in 1802 and was involved in a jurisdictional dispute with the Cherokee. President Jackson hoped that removal would resolve the Georgia crisis.[26] Besides the Five Civilized Tribes, additional people affected included the Wyandot, the Kickapoo, the Potowatomi, the Shawnee, and the Lenape.[27]

The Indian Removal Act was controversial. Many Americans during this time favored its passage, but there was also significant opposition. Many white Christian missionaries protested against it, most notably missionary organizer Jeremiah Evarts. In U.S. Congress, New Jersey Senator Theodore Frelinghuysen, Kentucky Senator Henry Clay, and Tennessee Congressman Davy Crockett spoke out against the legislation. The Removal Act passed only after a bitter debate in Congress.[28][29] Clay extensively campaigned against it on the National Republican Party ticket in the 1832 United States presidential election.[29]

Jackson viewed the demise of Native nations as inevitable, pointing to the steady expansion of European-based lifestyles and the decimation of Native nations in the U.S.'s northeast region. He called his Northern critics hypocrites, given the North's history regarding Native nations within their claimed territory. Jackson stated that "progress requires moving forward."[30]

> Humanity has often wept over the fate of the aborigines of this country and philanthropy has long been busily employed in devising means to avert it, but its progress never has for a moment been arrested, and one by one have many powerful tribes disappeared from the earth... But true philanthropy reconciles the mind to these vicissitudes as it does to the extinction of one generation to make room for another... In the monuments and fortresses of an unknown people, spread over the extensive regions of the West, we behold the memorials of a once powerful race, which was exterminated or has disappeared to make room for the existing savage tribes… Philanthropy could not wish to see this continent restored to the condition in which it was found by our forefathers. What good man would prefer a country covered with forests and ranged by a few thousand savages to our extensive Republic, studded with cities, towns, and prosperous farms, embellished with all the improvements which art can devise or industry execute, occupied by more than 12,000,000 happy people, and filled with all the blessings of liberty, civilization, and religion?[31][32][33]

According to historian H. W. Brands, Jackson sincerely believed that his population transfer was a "wise and humane policy" that would save the Native Americans from "utter annihilation". Jackson portrayed the removal as a paternalistic act of mercy.[34]

According to Robert M. Keeton, those in favor of the bill would use biblical stories, including the Story of Creation and the Story of Jacob and Esau, to argue for the resettlement of Native Americans. This method was used by figures such as Wilson Lumpkin, Richard H. Wilde, and Andrew Jackson to justify the act from a righteous standpoint.[35]

## Vote

[edit]

On April 24, 1830, the Senate passed the Indian Removal Act by a vote of 28 to 19.[36] On May 26, 1830, the House of Representatives passed the Act by a vote of 101 to 97.[37] On May 28, 1830, the Indian Removal Act was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson.

Worcester v. Georgia

A legal case that took place in 1832 by the United States Supreme Court which held a final vote (5‍–‍1) affirming that the states did not have the right to impose regulations on Native American Land. Despite President Andrew Jackson's refusal to enforce the ruling, this ultimate decision led the formation basis for the subsequent law in the United States in regard to Native Americans.

Worcester v. Georgia involved a group of white Christian missionaries who were living in the Cherokee territory in Georgia, this included Cherokee messenger, Samuel Austin Worcester.

## Implementation

[edit]

Main article: Indian removal

The Removal Act paved the way for the forced expulsion of tens of thousands of American Indians from the Cherokee tribe in 1838-39 into the West in an event widely known as the "Trail of Tears," a forced resettlement of the Indian population.[38][39][40] This event has been characterized as a genocide.[41] The first removal treaty signed was the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek on September 27, 1830, in which Choctaws in Mississippi ceded land east of the river in exchange for payment and land in the West. The Treaty of New Echota was signed in 1835 and resulted in the removal of the Cherokee on the Trail of Tears.

The Seminoles and other tribes did not leave peacefully, as they resisted the removal along with fugitive slaves. The Second Seminole War lasted from 1835 to 1842 and resulted in the government allowing them to remain in south Florida swampland. Only a small number remained, and around 3,000 were removed in the war.[42]

## Legacy

[edit]

In the 21st century, scholars have cited the act and subsequent removals as an early example of state sanctioned ethnic cleansing or genocide or settler colonialism or as all three Forms of these.[43][44][45] Historian Richard White wrote that because of "claimed parallels between ethnic cleansing and Indian removal, any examination of Indian removal will inevitably involve discussions of ethnic cleansing."[46] Other scholarship has focused on the historical comparisons between the United States concept of manifest destiny and Nazi Germany's concept of Lebensraum and how American Indian removal policy served as a model for Nazi racial policy during the Generalplan Ost plan.[47]

An alternative view posits that the Indian Removal Act, despite the deaths and forced relocation, benefitted the removed peoples by saving their societies from a worse fate that likely awaited them were they to remain in their home territories to face a mass influx of settlers that the federal government was unable to prevent.[48] As Robert V. Remini stated:

> Jackson genuinely believed that what he had accomplished rescued these people from inevitable annihilation. And although that statement sounds monstrous, and although no one in the modern world wishes to accept or believe it, that is exactly what he did. He saved the Five Civilized Nations from probable extinction.[49]

Similarly, historian Francis Paul Prucha argued that removal was the best of the four options that presented themselves, the other three being genocide, assimilation into white culture, and protection of tribal lands against settler encroachment, the last of which Prucha, like Remini, saw as unachievable.[50]

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ The U.S. Senate passed the bill on April 24, 1830 (28–19), and the U.S. House passed it on May 26, 1830 (102–97).[1]
2. ^ These distinct ethnic and political groups were referred to in the United States as the "Five Civilized Tribes".

## References

[edit]

### Citations

[edit]

1. ^ Prucha, Francis Paul, The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indians, Volume I, Lincoln: the University of Nebraska Press, 1984, p. 206.
2. ^ The Congressional Record; May 26, 1830; House vote No. 149; Government Tracker online; retrieved October 2015
3. ^ "Indian Removal Act: Primary Documents of Americas History". Library of Congress. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
4. ^ "Andrew Jackson was called 'Indian Killer'". Washington Post, November 23, 2017. Retrieved November 10, 2022.
5. ^ Native American Removal. The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Social History. 2012. ISBN 978-0-19-974336-0. Retrieved November 10, 2022. `{{cite book}}`: `|website=` ignored (help)
6. ^ Lewey, Guenter (September 1, 2004). "Were American Indians the Victims of Genocide?". Commentary. Archived from the original on August 15, 2017. Retrieved March 8, 2017. Also available in reprint from the History News Network.
7. ^ Carlson, Leonard A.; Roberts, Mark A. (July 2006). "Indian lands, "Squatterism," and slavery: Economic interests and the passage of the indian removal act of 1830" (PDF). Explorations in Economic History. 43 (3): 486–504\. doi:10.1016/j.eeh.2005.06.003.
8. ^ Hixson, Walter L. (2016). "Policing the Past: Indian Removal and Genocide Studies". Western Historical Quarterly. 47 (4): 439–443\. doi:10.1093/whq/whw092. ISSN 0043-3810. JSTOR 26782722.
9. ^ Anderson, Gary Clayton (2016). "The Native Peoples of the American West: Genocide or Ethnic Cleansing?". Western Historical Quarterly. 47 (4): 407–433\. doi:10.1093/whq/whw126. ISSN 0043-3810. JSTOR 26782720.
10. ^ Perdue, Theda (2012). "The Legacy of Indian Removal". The Journal of Southern History. 78 (1): 3–36\. ISSN 0022-4642. JSTOR 23247455.
11. ^ Esarey, Logan. The Indiana Home. p. 8.
12. ^ Esarey, Logan. The Indiana Home. p. 6.
13. ^ Thor, The Mighty (2003). "Chapter 2 "Both White and Red"". Mixed Blood Indians: Racial Construction in the Early South. The University of Georgia Press. p. 51\. ISBN 978-0-8203-2731-0.
14. ^ a b Perdue, Theda; Green, Michael (2007). The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears. New York: Viking. p. 47\. ISBN 978-0-670-03150-4. OCLC 74987776.
15. ^ "Indian Removal". PBS Africans in America: Judgment Day. WGBH Educational Foundation. 1999.
16. ^ Jefferson, Thomas (1803). "President Thomas Jefferson to William Henry Harrison, Governor of Indiana Territory". Archived from the original on January 20, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2012.
17. ^ Jackson, Andrew. "President Andrew Jackson's Case for the Removal Act". Mount Holyoke College. Archived from the original on June 1, 2013. Retrieved May 28, 2013.
18. ^ Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne (2014). An indigenous peoples' history of the United States. Boston. ISBN 978-0-8070-0040-3. OCLC 868199534.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
19. ^ Gilio-Whitaker, Dina (2019). As long as grass grows : the indigenous fight for environmental justice, from colonization to Standing Rock. Boston, Massachusetts. ISBN 978-0-8070-7378-0. OCLC 1044542033.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
20. ^ "Andrew Jackson calls for Indian removal – North Carolina Digital History". www.learnnc.org. Archived from the original on April 12, 2015. Retrieved April 7, 2015.
21. ^ Davis, Ethan. "An Administrative Trail of Tears: Indian Removal". The American Journal of Legal History. 50 (1): 50–55.
22. ^ "Indial Removal 1814–1858". Public Broadcasting System. Retrieved August 11, 2009.
23. ^ Brands 2006, p. 488.
24. ^ Wilson, Woodrow (1898). Division and Reunion 1829–1889. Longmans, Green and Co. pp. 35–38. "Indian question."
25. ^ "Milestones in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations - Office of the Historian". history.state.gov. Retrieved April 4, 2025.
26. ^ "Indian Removal Act". A&E Television Networks. 2011. Archived from the original on March 8, 2010. Retrieved February 20, 2012.
27. ^ "Timeline of Removal". Oklahoma Historical Society. Retrieved January 18, 2019.
28. ^ Howe, Daniel Walker. What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848. (2007) ISBN 978-0-19-507894-7 pp. 348–352.
29. ^ a b Farris, Scott (2012). Almost president: the men who lost the race but changed the nation. Internet Archive. Guilford, CN: Lyons Press. p. 32\. ISBN 978-0-7627-6378-8.
30. ^ Brands 2006, pp. 489–498.
31. ^ Brands 2006, p. 490.
32. ^ "Statements from the Debate on Indian Removal". Columbia University. Retrieved March 21, 2014.
33. ^ Mintz, Steven, ed. (1995). Native American Voices: A History and Anthology. Vol. 2\. Brandywine Press. pp. 115–116.
34. ^ Brands 2006, p. 489-493.
35. ^ Keeton, Robert M. (July 10, 2015). 5\. "The Race of Pale Men Should Increase and Multiply". New York University Press. pp. 125–149\. doi:10.18574/nyu/9781479876778.003.0006. ISBN 978-1-4798-9573-1.
36. ^ "To Order Engrossment and Third Reading of S. 102". GovTrack. July 7, 2013. Retrieved October 21, 2013.
37. ^ "To Pass S. 102. (P. 729)". GovTrack. July 7, 2013. Retrieved October 21, 2013. "The bill passed 101–97, with 11 not voting"
38. ^ Greenwood, Robert E. (2007). Outsourcing Culture: How American Culture has Changed From "We the People" Into a One World Government. Outskirts Press. p. 97.
39. ^ Molhotra, Rajiv (2009). "American Exceptionalism and the Myth of the American Frontiers". In Rajani Kannepalli Kanth (ed.). The Challenge of Eurocentrism. Palgrave MacMillan. pp. 180, 184, 189, 199. ISBN 9780230612273.
40. ^ Finkelman, Paul; Kennon, Donald R. (2008). Congress and the Emergence of Sectionalism. Ohio University Press. pp. 15, 141, 254.
41. ^ BKiernan, Ben (2007). Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur. Yale University Press. pp. 328, 330.
42. ^ Foner, Eric (2006). Give me liberty. Norton. ISBN 9780393927825.
43. ^ Hixson, Walter L. (2016). "Policing the Past: Indian Removal and Genocide Studies". Western Historical Quarterly. 47 (4): 439–443\. doi:10.1093/whq/whw092. ISSN 0043-3810. JSTOR 26782722.
44. ^ Anderson, Gary Clayton (2016). "The Native Peoples of the American West: Genocide or Ethnic Cleansing?". Western Historical Quarterly. 47 (4): 407–433\. doi:10.1093/whq/whw126. ISSN 0043-3810. JSTOR 26782720.
45. ^ Perdue, Theda (2012). "The Legacy of Indian Removal". The Journal of Southern History. 78 (1): 3–36\. ISSN 0022-4642. JSTOR 23247455.
46. ^ White, Richard (2002). "How Andrew Jackson Saved the Cherokees" (PDF). Green Bag: 443–444. Retrieved April 14, 2023.
47. ^ Miller, Robert J. (2020). "Nazi Germany's Race Laws, the United States, and American Indians". St. John's Law Review. 94. Retrieved April 14, 2023.
48. ^ "American History [ushistory.org]". ushistory.org. Retrieved April 9, 2025.
49. ^ Remini, Robert V. (Robert Vincent), Andrew Jackson and his Indian Wars, p.281 (New York: Penguin Books, 2001) (retrieved Oct. 6, 2024).
50. ^ Prucha, F.P. "Andrew Jackson's Indian Policy: A Reassessment," The Journal of American History, 56, no.3 (1969): 527–539. https://doi.org/10.2307/1904204.

### Cited works

[edit]

* Brands, H.W. (2006). Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times. Anchor. ISBN 978-1-4000-3072-9.

## External links

[edit]

* Indian Removal Act and related resources, at the Library of Congress
* 1830 State of the Union on Indian Removal; Text at 100 Milestone Documents

English Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Indian Removal Act

* v
* t
* e

Indian removal

Battles and military incidents
(chronologically)|

* Battle of Burnt Corn (1813)
* Fort Mims massacre (1813)
* Battle of Horseshoe Bend (1814)
* Battle of Negro Fort (1816)
* Battle of Fowltown (1817)
* Scott Massacre (1817)
* Attack at Fort Hughes (1817)
* Battle of Ocheesee (1817–1818)
* Seminole Wars

Policies and laws|

* Removal Act
* Georgia Land Lotteries
* Manifest destiny
* Worcester v. Georgia

Removals (chronologically)|

* Indian removals in Indiana
* Choctaw Trail of Tears (1831–1833)
* Trail of Tears (1831–1838)
* Cherokee removal (1836–1839)
* Potawatomi Trail of Death (1838)
* Sandy Lake Tragedy (1850)
* Nome Cult Trail (1863)
* Long Walk of the Navajo (1864)
* Burt Lake burn-out (1900)

American politicians
and military officials|

* John C. Calhoun
* Lewis Cass
* James Gadsden
* George Rockingham Gilmer
* Andrew Jackson
* Thomas Jefferson
* James Monroe
* Winfield Scott
* John Tipton
* David Wallace

People who helped Indians
or documented removals|

* Robert C. Ambrister
* George Arbuthnot
* Benjamin Hawkins
* Edward Nicolls
* Benjamin Marie Petit
* George Winter

Land cession treaties
(chronologically)|

* Fort Stanwix (1st) (1768)
* Fort Stanwix (2nd) (1784)
* Fort McIntosh (1785)
* Buffalo Creek (1st) (1788)
* New York (1st) (1790)
* Greenville (1795)
* New York (2nd) (1796)
* Forbes Purchase (1804–1811)
* Fort Jackson (1814)
* Creek Agency (1818)
* Doak's Stand (1820)
* Indian Springs (1821)
* Prairie du Chien (1st) (1825)
* Prairie du Chien (2nd) (1829)
* Prairie du Chien (3rd) (1829)
* Dancing Rabbit Creek (1830)
* Prairie du Chien (4th) (1831)
* Cusseta (1832)
* Payne's Landing (1832)
* Pontotoc Creek (1832)
* New Echota (1835)
* Buffalo Creek (2nd) (1838)
* La Pointe (1st) (1842)
* Buffalo Creek (3rd) (1842)
* La Pointe (2nd) (1854)
* Buffalo Creek (4th) (1857)

Landbases|

* Former reservations
* in Oklahoma
* Indian Territory
* Indian barrier state (proposed)
* Indian Reserve (1763)
* Unassigned Lands

Related topics|

* Aboriginal title
* in the Thirteen Colonies
* Land claims settlements
* Native American genocide in the United States
* Reservation checkerboarding
* Reservation diminishment
* Reservation politics
* Treaty of Nicolls' Outpost

* v
* t
* e

Rights of Native Americans in the United States

Case law|

* Johnson v. McIntosh (1823)
* Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831)
* Worcester v. Georgia (1832)
* Fellows v. Blacksmith (1857)
* New York ex rel. Cutler v. Dibble (1858)
* Standing Bear v. Crook (D. Neb. 1879)
* Ex parte Crow Dog (1883)
* Elk v. Wilkins (1884)
* Seneca Nation of Indians v. Christy (1896)
* Talton v. Mayes (1896)
* Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock (1903)
* United States v. Santa Fe Pacific Railroad Co. (1941)
* Tee-Hit-Ton Indians v. United States (1955)
* Williams v. Lee (1959)
* Federal Power Commission v. Tuscarora Indian Nation (1960)
* Menominee Tribe v. United States (1968)
* McClanahan v. Arizona State Tax Commission (1973)
* Oneida Indian Nation of New York v. County of Oneida (1974)
* Bryan v. Itasca County (1976)
* United States v. Antelope (1977)
* Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez (1978)
* Merrion v. Jicarilla Apache Tribe (1982)
* Solem v. Bartlett (1984)
* County of Oneida v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York State (1985)
* South Carolina v. Catawba Indian Tribe, Inc. (1986)
* Hodel v. Irving (1987)
* Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians v. Holyfield (1989)
* Duro v. Reina (1990)
* South Dakota v. Bourland (1993)
* Idaho v. Coeur d'Alene Tribe of Idaho (1997)
* Idaho v. United States (2001)
* United States v. Lara (2004)
* City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York (2005)
* Cobell v. Salazar (D.C. Cir. 2009)
* Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl (2013)
* Sharp v. Murphy and McGirt v. Oklahoma (2020)
* Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta (2022)

* List of United States Supreme Court cases involving Indian tribes

Legislation|

* Blood quantum laws (1705 onwards)
* Nonintercourse Act (1790,1793,1796,1799,1802,1834)
* Civilization Act (1819)
* Indian Removal Act (1830)
* Dawes Act (1887)
* Curtis Act (1898)
* Burke Act (1906)
* Indian Citizenship Act (1924)
* Indian Reorganization Act (1934)
* Indian arts and crafts laws (1935–2019)
* Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act (1936)
* Nationality Act (1940)
* Public Law 280 (1953)
* Indian Relocation Act (1956)
* Indian Civil Rights Act (1968)
* Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (1971)
* Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (1975)
* American Indian Religious Freedom Act (1978)
* Indian Child Welfare Act (1978)
* Diminishment (1984)
* Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (1988)
* Native American Languages Act (1990)
* Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (1990)
* Indian Arts and Crafts Act (1990)
* Cherokee Nation Truth in Advertising for Native Art (2008)

Federal and
State recognition|

* Federal recognition of Native Hawaiians
* Legal status of Hawaii
* Federally recognized tribes
* State recognized tribes

Tribal sovereignty|

* Aboriginal title
* Bureau of Indian Affairs
* Civil rights
* Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
* Domestic dependent nations
* Indian Preference
* Gaming
* Hunting license
* Indian country
* Indian reservations
* In the Courts of the Conqueror
* Self-determination
* Treaty rights

Related|

* Cherokee Commission
* Dawes Rolls
* Eagle feather law
* Eagle-bone whistle
* Long Walk of the Navajo
* National Indian Gaming Commission
* Native American Rights Fund
* Recognition of sacred sites
* Seminole Wars
* Survivance
* Trail of Tears
* United States Congressional Joint Special Committee on Conditions of Indian Tribes

* v
* t
* e

Aboriginal title in the United States

Statutes|

| Colonial era|

* Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions (1629 New Netherland)
* Royal Proclamation of 1763 (British North America)
* Confederation Congress Proclamation of 1783

|
|

United States|

* Northwest Ordinance (1787)
* Nonintercourse Act (1790, 1793, 1796, 1799, 1802, and 1834)
* Removal Act (1830)
* Dawes Act (1887)
* Diminishment
* Curtis Act of 1898
* Reorganization Act (1934)
* Indian Claims Commission Act (1946)
* Indian Land Claims Settlements (1978–2006)
* Indian Claims Limitations Act (1982)

Precedents|

| Marshall Court|

* Johnson v. McIntosh (1823)
* Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831)

|

Taney Court|

* Fellows v. Blacksmith (1857)
* New York ex rel. Cutler v. Dibble (1858)

1890—1950|

* Seneca Nation of Indians v. Christy (1896)
* United States v. Santa Fe Pacific Railroad Co. (1941)

Warren Court|

* Tee-Hit-Ton Indians v. United States (1955)
* Federal Power Commission v. Tuscarora Indian Nation (1960)

Burger Court|

* Oneida Indian Nation of New York v. County of Oneida (1974)
* Wilson v. Omaha Indian Tribe (1979)
* County of Oneida v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York State (1985)
* South Carolina v. Catawba Indian Tribe (1986)

Rehnquist Court|

* Idaho v. Coeur d'Alene Tribe of Idaho (1997)
* Idaho v. United States (2001)
* City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York (2005)

By state|

* Alaska
* California
* Hawaii
* Indiana
* Louisiana
* Maine
* Michigan
* New Mexico
* New York
* Oklahoma
* Rhode Island
* Vermont

Compare|

* Indigenous land rights
* Aboriginal title
* in Australia
* Tribal sovereignty in the United States
* List of federally recognized tribes
* Domestic dependent nations
* Indian country
* Federal recognition of Native Hawaiians
* Legal status of Hawaii

* v
* t
* e

Cherokee

Tribes|

* Cherokee Nation
* Eastern Band
* United Keetoowah Band

Culture|

* Society
* National holiday
* Calendar
* Clans
* Chiefs
* Gadugi
* Ghigau
* Green Corn Ceremony
* Language
* history
* syllabary
* Cherokee (Unicode block)
* Cherokee Supplement (Unicode block)
* Cherokee Immersion School
* New Kituwah Academy
* Marbles
* Spiritual beliefs
* Moon-eyed people
* Ethnobotany
* Black drink
* Kanuchi
* Stomp dance
* Booger dance
* Flag of the Cherokee Nation

Legends|

* Ani Hyuntikwalaski
* Deer Woman
* Horned Serpent
* Moon-eyed people
* Nun'Yunu'Wi
* Nûñnë'hï
* Kâ'lanû Ahkyeli'skï
* U'tlun'ta
* Tsul 'Kalu

History|

* History
* timeline
* military
* Treaties
* Kituwa
* Ani-kutani
* skiagusta (rank)
* outacite (rank)
* Raven of Chota
* Wars
* Tribal Wars
* Battle of Taliwa
* Anglo-Cherokee War
* Siege of Fort Loudoun
* Battle of Echoee
* Cherokee War of 1776
* Cherokee–American wars
* Battle of Hightower
* Battle of Lindley's Fort
* Nickajack Expedition
* American Civil War
* 1st Cherokee Mounted Rifles
* Cherokee treaties
* Treaty of New Echota
* Treaty of Tellico
* Treaty of Turkeytown
* Treaty of Dewitt's Corner
* Treaty of Hard Labour
* Treaty of Lochaber
* Treaty of Hopewell
* Treaty of Holston
* Jackson and McMinn Treaty
* Transylvania Purchase
* Chickamauga Cherokee
* Overhill Cherokee
* Cherokee Phoenix
* Cherokee Nation (1794–1907)
* Removal
* Trail of Tears
* Indian Removal Act
* Cherokee descent
* Jacob Brown Grant Deeds
* Texas Cherokees

Organizations|

* Heritage Center
* Cherokee Preservation Foundation
* Warriors Society
* Original Keetoowah Society
* Keetoowah Nighthawk Society
* Youth Choir
* Heritage groups
* Cherokee Southwest Township
* Oconaluftee Indian Village
* Unto These Hills
* Education
* Female Seminary
* Male Seminary
* Cherokee Central Schools
* Cherokee High School
* Sequoyah Schools
* Sequoyah High School

Politics and law|

* Principal Chiefs
* Blood Law
* Slavery
* 1842 revolt
* freedmen controversy
* Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831)
* Worcester v. Georgia (1832)
* The Cherokee Tobacco case (1871)
* Cherokee Nation v. Leavitt (2005)
* Cherokee Commission
* Cherokee Strip
* in Kansas
* Sequoyah Constitutional Convention

Tribal rolls|

* Hester Roll
* 1896 Rejected Applications
* Guion Miller Roll
* Dawes Rolls
* Baker Roll
* United Keetoowah Band Base Roll

Towns and
villages|

* Cherokee Towns (pre-Removal)
* Amoyeligunahita
* Brasstown
* Chatuga
* Chilhowee
* Chota
* Conasauga
* Cowee
* Coyotee
* Crowtown
* Dirt town
* Ducktown
* Etowah
* Frogtown
* Hiwassee
* Hiwassee Island
* Island town
* Isunigu
* Joara
* Keowee
* Kituwa
* Kulsetsiyi
* Long Swamp
* Mialoquo
* Nacoochee
* Nantahala
* NewEchota
* Nickajack
* Nikwasi
* Nununyi
* Ocoee
* Oconee
* Oostanaula
* Red Clay
* Settico
* Spike Bucktown
* Talisi
* Talulah
* Tanasi
* Tellico
* Tomassee
* Tomotley
* Toqua
* Toxoway
* Tsatanugi
* Tuckasegee
* Tugaloo
* Turkeytown
* Turtletown
* Tuskegee
* Running Water
* Titsohili
* Cherokee Nations
* Western Cherokee Nation
* Cherokee Nation
* Tahlequah
* Tahlonteeskee
* Eastern Band
* Cherokee
* Qualla Boundary

Landmarks and
memorial sites|

* Cherokee National Capitol
* Cherokee Removal Memorial Park
* Chieftains Museum
* First Cherokee Female Seminary Site
* Judaculla Rock
* Long Island
* John Ross House
* Ross's Landing
* Sequoyah's Cabin
* Tellico Blockhouse
* Trail of Tears State Park
* Brainerd Mission
* Rattlesnake Springs
* Fort Cass
* Red Clay State Historic Park
* Hair Conrad Cabin
* Nancy Ward Tomb
* Blythe Ferry
* Bussell Island
* Chief Vann House Historic Site
* Mantle Rock
* Museum of the Cherokee People
* Untokiasdiyi
* Standing Stone
* Stick Ball Grounds
* Cullasaja River
* Tuckasegee River
* Oconaluftee valley
* Oconaluftee River
* Abrams Creek
* Sycamore Shoals
* The Great Trading Path
* The Great War Path
* Hiwassee River Heritage Center
* Chatata
* Tuckaleechee
* Fort Smith Historic Site
* Port Royal State Park
* Five Civilized Tribes Museum
* Tlanusiyi
* Cherokee Path

People|

* Early leaders
* Moytoy of Tellico
* Attakullakulla
* Amouskositte
* Old Hop
* Moytoy of Citico
* Standing Turkey
* Outacite of Keowee
* Oconostota
* Savanukah
* Old Tassel
* Little Turkey
* Dragging Canoe
* Kunokeski
* Incalatanga
* Tagwadihi
* Cherokee Nation East (1794–1839)
* Enola
* Pathkiller
* Big Tiger
* Charles R. Hicks
* William Hicks
* John Ross
* Cherokee Nation West (1810–1839)
* The Bowl
* Degadoga
* Tahlonteeskee
* John Jolly
* Sam Houston
* John Looney
* John Rogers
* Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (1824–present)
* Yonaguska
* Salonitah
* Tsaladihi
* Gerard Parker
* Joyce Dugan
* Patrick Lambert
* Richard Sneed
* Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory (1839–1907)
* Lewis Downing
* Degataga
* William P. Ross
* Utselata
* Dennis Bushyhead
* Joel B. Mayes
* Johnson Harris
* Samuel Houston Mayes
* Thomas Buffington
* William Charles Rogers
* Cherokee Nation (1975–present)
* J. B. Milam
* W. W. Keeler
* Ross Swimmer
* Wilma Mankiller
* Joe Byrd
* Chadwick "Corntassel" Smith
* Bill John Baker
* Chuck Hoskin Jr.
* United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians (1939–present)
* James L. Gordon
* John W. Hair
* Other notable Cherokee
* Nancy Ward
* Tsali
* Tahlonteeskee (warrior)
* Turtle-at-Home
* Junaluska
* Goingsnake
* Elias Boudinot
* Wauhatchie
* James Vann
* David Vann
* Joseph Vann
* Bob Benge
* Nunnahitsunega
* Ned Christie
* John Martin
* Markwayne Mullin
* Yvette Herrell
* Sequoya
* Major Ridge
* Jenny McIntosh
* Sam Sixkiller
* Clement V. Rogers
* Redbird Smith
* Durbin Feeling
* Hastings Shade
* Kimberly Teehee
* Shawna Baker

See also: Cherokee-language Wikipedia

* v
* t
* e

Andrew Jackson

* 7th President of the United States (1829–1837)
* Senator from Tennessee (1797–1798, 1823–1825)
* Federal Military Commissioner of Florida (1821)
* U.S. Representative for Tennessee at-large (1796–1797)

Life|

* Slave trading
* Land speculation
* Horse racing
* Violent incidents
* Fatal duel
* Legal affairs
* Plantations:
* Poplar Grove
* Hunter's Hill
* The Hermitage

Military and
diplomatic|

* 1813–14: Natchez Expedition
* Creek War
* Fort Strother
* Battle of Talladega
* Battles of Emuckfaw and Enotachopo Creek
* Battle of Horseshoe Bend
* Treaty of Fort Jackson
* 1814–15: Southern theater of the War of 1812
* Battle of Pensacola
* Arrest of Hall and Louaillier
* Battle of New Orleans
* 1816: Jackson's Military Road
* Battle of Negro Fort
* Treaty of Turkeytown
* 1818: Treaty of Tuscaloosa
* Salt Lick Reserve
* Jackson Purchase
* 1818: First Seminole War
* Arbuthnot and Ambrister incident
* 1819: Adams–Onís Treaty
* Congressional investigation of Seminole War
* 1820: Treaty of Doak's Stand
* 1823: Treaty of Moultrie Creek

Presidency|

* First inauguration
* Second inauguration
* State of the Union
* 1829
* 1830
* 1831
* 1832
* 1833
* 1834
* 1835
* 1836
* Judicial appointments
* Taney Court
* Executive actions
* Vetoes
* Pardons
* Foreign policy
* First Sumatran expedition
* Snow Riot
* Assassination attempt
* Governance: Spoils system
* Swartwout–Hoyt scandal
* Petticoat affair
* Kitchen Cabinet
* Indian policy: Indian removal
* Indian Removal Act
* Trail of Tears
* Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek
* Treaty of New Echota
* Treaty of Pontotoc Creek
* Treaty of Payne's Landing
* Treaty of Chicago
* Treaty of Cusseta
* Black Hawk War
* Second Creek War
* Second Seminole War
* Supreme Court decisions: Cherokee Nation v. Georgia
* Worcester v. Georgia
* Economic policy: Bank War
* Senate censure
* Banking in the Jacksonian Era
* Hard money
* Specie Circular
* Maysville Road veto
* Nullification crisis
* Tariff of 1832
* Ordinance of Nullification
* Proclamation to the People of South Carolina
* Force Bill
* Tariff of 1833
* Pet banks
* Panic of 1837

Politics|

* 1824 United States presidential election
* "Corrupt Bargain"
* 1828 United States presidential election
* 1828 Jackson campaign
* Coffin Handbills
* 1832 United States presidential election
* 1832 Democratic National Convention
* Establishment of the U.S. Democratic Party
* History of the U.S. Whig Party
* Anti-Jacksonian Party

Slavery|

* Jackson and slavery
* Gilbert
* Alfred Jackson
* Hannah Jackson

Public image|

* List of memorials to Andrew Jackson
* January 8 (holiday)
* "Half Horse and Half Alligator"
* "King Andrew the First" (1832)
* Portraits of Andrew Jackson
* Equestrian statue in Washington, D.C., and New Orleans
* Jackson, Mississippi statue
* U.S. Capitol statue
* Films about Andrew Jackson
* Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
* U.S. military vessels named after Jackson
* Jackson Square (New Orleans)
* Andrew Jackson State Park (South Carolina)
* Andrew Jackson Centre (Ireland)
* Jefferson–Jackson Dinner
* Black Jack stamp
* USD$20
* Jackson on other U.S. currency
* Confederate States dollar

Historiography|

* Jacksonian democracy
* Bibliography of Andrew Jackson
* The Age of Jackson
* Robert V. Remini § Andrew Jackson
* American Lion

Family|

* Rachel Jackson
* Marriage controversy
* Donelson family
* Andrew Jackson Jr.
* Acting First Ladies: Emily Donelson
* Sarah Yorke Jackson
* Wards:
* Edward G. W. Butler
* Andrew Jackson Donelson
* Daniel Smith Donelson
* A. J. Hutchings
* Indigenous "adoptees":
* Theodore
* Charley
* Lyncoya Jackson
* Poll (parrot)

* ← John Quincy Adams
* Martin Van Buren →

* Category

Portals:

* United States
* Modern history
* Indigenous peoples of the Americas

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* Germany
* United States
* Israel

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