USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Division Among the Cherokees John Ross, the principal chief of the Cherokees, led the tribal government and majority of Cherokees opposed to removal. The “Ross Party” argued that the Cherokees should defend their legal rights as a sovereign nation under treaties going back to George Washington.

Detailed explanation-2: -Impact and Legacy Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Cherokee Nation was sovereign. According to the decision rendered by Chief Justice John Marshall, this meant that Georgia had no rights to enforce state laws in its territory.

Detailed explanation-3: -Guided by policies favored by President Andrew Jackson, who led the country from 1828 to 1837, the Trail of Tears (1837 to 1839) was the forced westward migration of American Indian tribes from the South and Southeast. Land grabs threatened tribes throughout the South and Southeast in the early 1800s.

Detailed explanation-4: -The New Echota Treaty of May 1836 fixed the time after which Cherokee Indians who refused to leave their land in Alabama and Georgia voluntarily would be removed by force. In 1838 the War Department issued orders for General Winfield Scott to removed the remaining 2, 000 Cherokees to the Indian Territory (Oklahoma).