USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -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.

Detailed explanation-2: -The Great Intrusion. In 1828, European-Americans discovered gold in the Appalacian Mountains of Georgia. This land was part of the Cherokee Nation. Members of the Nation first discovered this gold in the early 1700s and it remained virtually untouched for 100 years.

Detailed explanation-3: -The tribe argued that the treaties provided for sovereignty and federal protection, and therefore the Cherokee Nation lands should be outside the state’s jurisdiction.

Detailed explanation-4: -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-5: -In the late 1820s, gold was discovered on Cherokee land. Click on the image below to see a map of where it was found. People from the neighboring state of Georgia wanted that gold. Georgia passed laws that took away Cherokee rights and started giving away Cherokee land to Georgians.