USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Negotiated in 1835 by a minority party of Cherokees, challenged by the majority of the Cherokee people and their elected government, the Treaty of New Echota was used by the United States to justify the forced removal of the Cherokees from their homelands along what became known as the Trail of Tears.

Detailed explanation-2: -Congress responded by tabling the petitions and memorials (laying them aside). The Senate ratified the treaty by a margin of one vote on May 17, 1836, and President Andrew Jackson signed it into law.

Detailed explanation-3: -Working on behalf of white settlers who wanted to grow cotton on the Indians’ land, the federal government forced them to leave their homelands and walk hundreds of miles to a specially designated “Indian Territory” across the Mississippi River.

Detailed explanation-4: -During the fall and winter of 1838 and 1839, the Cherokees were forcibly moved west by the United States government. Approximately 4, 000 Cherokees died on this forced march, which became known as the “Trail of Tears."

Detailed explanation-5: -The removal of the Cherokees was a product of the demand for arable land during the rampant growth of cotton agriculture in the Southeast, the discovery of gold on Cherokee land, and the racial prejudice that many white southerners harbored toward American Indians.