1. Jackson’s Policy Toward Native Americans
Main Idea:
During his presidency Native Americans were forced to move west of the Mississippi River, forever changing the lives of Native Americans in the United States.

2. Andrew Jackson Lawyer/Plantation owner from Tennessee.
Poor childhood, orphaned at 14, voters sympathized with his humble back ground.
Jacksonian Democracy: The idea of spreading political power to all and ensuring majority rule.
View on Native American Rights: U.S. had right to regulate where Native Americans lived.

3. Native Americans in the Southeast
1800’s- many tribes living in the southeast.
Whites hoped:
1. Native Americans would adopt white people’s way of life.
2. Native Americans would move farther west.

4. Jackson’s Removal Policy
Believed Native American Nations should not have their own governments with in the U.S. boarders.
Gold discovered in Cherokee land prompted whites to move there.
Laws passed so whites could take their land.
Viewed Native Americans as conquered subjects.
Indian Removal Act: Required U.S. government to negotiate treaties that made Native Americans relocate to the west.

5. Trail of Tears
Indian Territory: Area that covered what is now parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska.
Fall 1831 removal of Indians from the southeast.
Cherokee appealed to the Supreme Court- and won.
Jackson disregards the ruling.
By the Cherokee who remained in the southeast where forcibly removed- the journey became known as the Trail of Tears.