In the 1800s the country was conflicted about how the Native Americans should be handled, some believed that assimilating them into American culture was the right way, while others, like President Andrew Jackson believed that forcing them farther west and away from American land was the only way. In 1817 Jackson reached a treaty with the Cherokee tribe they ceded 2 million acres of land. They were all removed from the land then, except those that wished to be American citizens, who were given 640 acres to live off of. Catherine Beecher, a woman who fought against the Indian Removal Act; she believed that the Natives were not savages nor were they lesser beings. She fought for their rights as people, and encouraged many women to do the same.
