Indian Removal Act

The Indian Removal Act gave the federal government the authority to negotiate new treaties with Native American nations in the eastern and southeastern parts of the United States and move them west of the Mississippi River. The Indian Removal Act followed decades of attempts on the part of white Americans to take the lands that Native Americans held in the eastern United States. As white settlers in southeastern states increasingly encroached on Native American lands, groups like the Cherokee reorganized their governments, adopted Christianity, and tried to work within the U.S. legal system to preserve their rights to their land. In response, state governments ramped up their efforts to remove Native American nations and distribute their land among white Americans, despite the treaties that Native Americans had with the federal government.