Memorial Of The Cherokee Nation Essay

Memorial of the Cherokee Nation is about the plight of the Cherokee Indians in the 1830s. Beginning after the War of 1812 when the white men were moving south in to states such as Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, five civilized Indian nations occupied these states and the Cherokees in particular were located in Georgia. This land was prime for growing cotton and the white farmers wanted the Indians off of the land so they could prosper from cotton growing. There were federal treaties in place granting the Cherokee and the other Indian nations in the area the right to live on the lands they occupied. There were two cases that went before the Supreme Court, Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1830) and Worcester v. Georgia (1832), where the Supreme Court upheld the rights of the Cherokees. “Chief Justice John Marshall defined Indian tribes as “dependent domestic nations” subject only to the authority of the federal government.” (Goldfield, p. 206-207). Andrew Jackson’s presidency was scarred by the plight of the Cherokees because of his disregard to the Supreme Court rulings. Jackson supported states’ rights in regards to removing the Indians. Jackson like many of his Southern supporters felt that the Indians were inferior to the white man and they could not live …show more content…
One of Jackson’s early moves in his presidency was the Indian Removal Act. Jackson’s support of state rights showed in his first message to the nation stating the Indians would be subject to the laws of the state in which they lived. By Jackson recommending voluntary removal, he was trying to appeal to the Indians to move on their own before the states took action against them. Jackson did not offer any federal protection for the Indians. He did send in the United States Army who gathered up Indians who were refusing to move