The Indian Removal Act

589 Words2 Pages

The Indian Removal Act Within a year of taking office, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act on May 28, 1830. A longtime supporter of removing Indians from the lands they occupied, Jackson’s Indian Removal Act gave him the authority to negotiate directly with Native American Indian tribes to exchange their land with land west of the Mississippi River. Within ten years of the signing of the Act more than 70,000 Indians were relocated, many with force, and thousands died during the process. Those that benefited most from the Indian Removal Act were the State of Georgia, the Country as a whole and Indians. Georgia Twenty-five million acres of land east of the Mississippi that had been occupied by Indians became available due to the Indian Removal Act. The State of Georgia had a particularly contentious relationship with the Cherokee Indians occupying land within their state. The State of Georgia pushed the Federal government to remove the Cherokee Indians from their state because they wanted the land due to the recent discovery of gold and the desire to expand co...

Open Document