Indian Removal Act

US federal act signed by President Andrew Jackson on 28 May 1830 empowering him to offer land in Indian Territory to all American Indians situated east of the Mississippi River, in exchange for their lands there. Most northern American Indian peoples, except the Iroquois, were peacefully relocated, but the Five Civilized Tribes in the southeast refused. The Cherokees successfully challenged the removal laws in the US Supreme Court in 1832, but the ruling was ignored by President Andrew Jackson. The Florida Seminoles fought relocation for seven years in the second Seminole Wars 1835-42. Nearly 100,000 American Indians were forcibly relocated and between a quarter and a third died during the journey and resettlement. Tennessee Senator Davy Crockett was among those who spoke out against the Act.

The western expansion of settlers in the eastern and southern US states in the last decades of the 18th century and the first decades of the 19th brought the settlers into increasing conflict with American Indians living there. Georgia's population increased six-fold 1790-1830, and tensions grew when gold was discovered in Georgia in 1828. The Indian Removal Act was passed because it was felt that ‘no state could achieve proper culture, civilization, and progress, as long as Indians remained within its boundaries.’ Today 90% of all American Indians live west of the Mississippi.