In the 19th century, the federal government faced an embarrassing issue it was in dire need of resolving: treating the Native American tribes, particularly the Cherokee Nation. The policy of Indian Removal saw the removal of the Cherokee people from their original homelands in the Southeast to areas west of the Mississippi River; this was implemented during the reign of then-President Andrew Jackson. Thus, the basis of this program, of which the Trail of Tears was representative, centers on white settlers' land hunger and their belief that American society could not exist without Native American tribes. Debates over Cherokee removal highlighted a contest between rival notions of land expansion, culture, and self-determination. Whereas Jackson, …show more content…
"Negotiating treaties with Indians was absurd. they were not sovereign and the U.S. should not pretend they are," he said in one of his works. For Jackson, the removal of the Cherokee Nation from its then-current location was necessary to the very existence of American civilization, and the United States had a God-given right to expand westward. Jackson believed that the removal would spare Native Americans from the violence of European-American settlers, characterizing this as a moral necessity. He held that the United States government would be able to safeguard the Cherokee west of the Mississippi from settlers' continuous pressure and allow them to continue their way of life, minus white cultural influences. Jackson made this detail clear, "the twin themes of the sovereign rights of Georgia over the Cherokees and the moral imperative to protect Indians" would allow the Cherokee to live in peace. He believed that this would be beneficial and the people of Cherokee would have no reason to fear an attack if they were moved to areas beyond the Mississippi