President Andrew Jackson and The Cherokee Nation 

Andrew Jackson was a very respected president who during the 2 terms he served was apart of major controversies of how he handled and followed through with the land disputes with the Cherokee Nation and other Native tribes in Georgia. With all of this starting with the United States finding gold in Georgia which ultimately led the U.S to want to recognize it as a state. But the problem with this was that many Native Americans inhabited Georgia but the Cherokee had the largest presence there with 17,000 Tribe members strong. This would lead to the Indian Removal Act that would be signed by Jackson on May 28th, 1830. These decisions made by Jackson would lead to avery controversial court cases called Cherokee Nation v. Georgia and Worcester v. Georgia.

The court case of Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, the Cherokees sued the state of Georgia because they were being forced out of their land. But the outcome came to the favor of cherokees with Chief Justice John Marshall presenting the majority opinion and decision of the Supreme court. Which was that the Cherokees are not considered a foreign nation within the US and for that reason don’t have to adhere to the rules of the constitution and therefore can’t be pushed out of their land that they rightfully own. This decision showed that The US didn’t have the authority or Jurisdiction to be able to push the cherokee out of Georgia.With the overall outcome stating that The cherokees did have entitlement to the 100 Million acres of land that they inhabited.

The court case Worcester also turned out to be a victory for the cherokee nation. Because it states how the laws that were in Georgia could not pertain to the Cherokees because they weren’t apart of the United States. And they were inside there own lands so it would make sense for them to have to obey the Constitution. These decisions showed how even the supreme court believed that the land was not theirs and Georgia should have stayed under their rightful inhabitants.

Andrew Jackson disagreed with the decisions that Chief Justice john Marshall and essentially ignored them and chose to make the government force the removal of the cherokees from their land called the Trail of Tears. The actions of Andrew Jackson were illegal because they went against the supreme courts chosen decision which was very unconstitutional. The President needs the backing of the supreme court to be able to enact his decision. But still did it either way because Jackson was a very popular president who was people feared to go against. This chosen action by Jackson should have not been able to have been done.

The Trail of tears was the result of the dissimilarity between Jackson and the Supreme Court. Because Jackson stated how he would let the supreme court enact their decision but still abide by his own ruling. Which was the relocation of the 17,000 indians that inhabited Georgia during the time,. That were forced by 7,000 US army soldiers, during the march from Georgia to Oklahoma 4,000 Cherokees lost their lives to Starvation and to the bitter weather conditions. The only person to blame for this atrocity was Jackson due to his foolish actions of enacting his own rules over the Supreme Court’s ruling.

The outcome should have been much more different then how it actually turned out to be. I think President Andrew Jackson should have abided by the Supreme Court’s ruling and understood that The U.S doesn’t have the power under the constitution because the Cherokee Nation is not apart of the U.S so they have the right to the land that they were on first. Jackson should have respected that ruling and allowed the Cherokee nation to stay in the lands that were rightfully theirs. Because by doing that he would have never caused the Trail of tears and retained a good relation with the Native Americans.

Cite this page