256 Chapter 9 Jacksonian Democracy
Tocqueville was particularly moved by the sight
of an old woman whom he described in a letter to his
mother. She was “naked save for a covering which left
visible, at a thousand places, the most emaciated fig-
ure imaginable.. .. To leave one’s country at that age
to seek one’s fortune in a foreign land, what misery!”
A few tribes, such as Black Hawk’s Sac and Fox in
Illinois and Osceola’s Seminole in Florida, resisted
removal and were subdued by troops. One Indian
nation, the Cherokee, sought to hold on to their lands
by adjusting to white ways. They took up farming and
cattle raising, developed a written language, drafted a
constitution, and tried to establish a state within a state
in northwestern Georgia. Several treaties with the
United States seemed to establish the legality of their
government. But Georgia would not recognize the
Cherokee Nation. It passed a law in 1828 declaring all
Cherokee laws void and the region part of Georgia.
The Indians challenged this law in the Supreme
Court. InCherokee Nation v. Georgia(1831), Chief
Justice John Marshall had ruled that the Cherokee
were “not a foreign state, in the sense of the
Constitution” and therefore could not sue in a U.S.
court. However, inWorcester v. Georgia(1832), a case
involving two missionaries to the Cherokee who had
not procured licenses required by Georgia law, he
ruled that the state could not control the Cherokee or
their territory. Later, when a Cherokee named Corn
Tassel, convicted in a Georgia court of the murder of
another Indian, appealed on the ground that the crime
had taken place in Cherokee territory, Marshall agreed
and declared the Georgia action unconstitutional.Gulf of MexicoATLANTIC
OCEANKICKAPOOSAUK and FOXNEW YORK INDIANS
CHEROKEE
NEUTRAL LANDS
CHEROKEE OUTLET
CREEK andSEMINOLECHICKASAW
and CHOCTAWCHEROKEEQUAPAW
SENECAWEA and PIANKASHA
PEORIA and KASKASKIA
MIAMISAUK
FOXCHICKASAW
CHOCTAW CREEKCHEROKEESEMINOLEIndian tribes’ home territories
Land granted to Indians west
of the Mississippi River
Date and route of removal
Buffalo range1830183218321836183818301832New OrleansTEXASLOUISIANAARKANSASMISSOURIIowa
TerritoryNebraska
TerritoryKansas TerritoryINDIAN
TERRITORYINDIANAOHIO
ILLINOISMISSISSIPPIALABAMAFLORIDAGEORGIASOUTH
CAROLINANORTH
CAROLINAVIRGINIAKENTUCKYTENNESSEEIndian RemovalsDuring the decade after Jackson’s “Indian Removal Act” of 1830 was passed, nearly all of the major tribes east of the
Mississippi were transported to reservations in the Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska territories. The tribes turned over nearly 100 million acres in
all, most of it well-forested and teeming with game. In return, the tribes received 30 million acres of dry land, poorly suited to Indian life. About
50,000 Indians were relocated.