By Emily McCutchan The Trail of Tears

GREEN MEANS IMPORTANT FACT There are more than five of these

Indian Removal Act- 1830 The Indian Removal Act stated that the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee- Creek, and Seminole Indians had to move West of the Mississippi River. The Washington and Jefferson administrations had left these five tribes East because they had adopted civilized behavior President Jackson had believed that the time for them to be there had passed, and that they had to be removed, forcibly. The forced removal of these five tribes is called the Trail of Tears.

Choctaw-1831 The Choctaw moved peacefully Treaties, starting in 1801, reduced the Choctaw Nation to 11 million acres In 1831, the Choctaw signed the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, which gave the US government their land, under the provision that some of their people could stay About 25% died on the journey

Seminole-1833 The Seminole had an armed resistance against movement The Seminole disregarded the Treaty of Payne’s Landing, which caused the Second Seminole War. Over a period of about 20 years, the war was won by the Seminole, and they were allowed to keep their land as a reservation. The Seminole still are in Florida today, won through arms.

Muscogee-Creek - 1832 The Muscogee-Creek Indians were forced out by unnecessary military action The Treaty of Indian Springs took the Creek out of their territory This treaty was later nullified, but Georgia acted as if it was not President Adams called out the Army after Georgia, but didn’t fight due to fear of a civil war The Creek went to the territory Alabama later signed a treaty to force the Creek from their territory, and the natives looked for help from the national government, which was denied by President Jackson The Creeks ended up with individual lots of land which they could sell The Secretary of War pushed the natives out with the military due to frequent arguments with the Alabama citizens

Chickasaw- 1836 The Chickasaw sold their territory They took the money that they had received and bought land off of the Choctaw They followed the routes established by the Creek and Choctaw

Cherokee - 1838 There was gold found on Cherokee land, and people started invading in 1829, and Georgia tried to impose state laws on them The Cherokee went to the Supreme court over this, which the Court promptly squashed with the fact that they were a dependent nation A missionary was later able to convince the court that only the national government had any kind of jurisdiction over the Cherokee President Jackson had militias gathered up with his powers from the Indian Removal Act, and they forced a march on the Cherokee people to the Indian Territory

Six Facts The Trail of Tears was the forced removal of the Choctaw, Seminole, Muscogee-Creek, Chickasaw, and Cherokee Indians The Choctaw moved peacefully The Seminole won their territory through armed resistance The Muscogee-Creek Indians were forced out through military force The Chickasaw sold their territory President Jackson forced a march on the Cherokee using his powers from the Indian Removal Act

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