Who invaded the Cherokee nation and forced the Cherokee to travel from Georgia to Oklahoma in 1838?
1 Answer
Southerners and the US under Andrew Jackson
Explanation:
By the early 19th century, there were generally two types of Native Americans. Some Native American tribes fought back against the United State's westward push(well you know how those turned out.)
Other Native American tribes "civilized" themselves to fit in Americans, in part so they won't get kicked out of their and in part because they were converted to Christianity, developed a western education system, and learned to live a sedentary plantation lifestyle. You'll notice that these tribes were often in the South.
One such tribe was the Cherokees. They remained in US territory for a long amount of time because of this. In fact, they legally owned the land they were on, so it wasn't part of the US. However over time, Caucasian plantation/farm owners in the South wanted more land to cultivate, and racism against Natives also existed. Also, people found gold in the Cherokee land. So they were like "get out of our land" even though the land belonged to the Cherokees. To get rid of them, these people who wanted the land appealed to the Georgia state government, which approved.
Since the Cherokees had formal education, they knew when the state was being unconstitutional. They fought against Georgia in the famous Cherokee Nation v. State of Georgia case and won. The supreme court judge at that time, John Marshall (in my opinion one of my favorite judges), stated that Native Americans are separate from the US and are allowed to do whatever they want on their land because of it; the US can not interfere with them. So he basically ruled that the Georgia government couldn't move the natives.
(Another famous case pertaining to this was Worcester v. Georgia)
But the president at this time was Andrew Jackson, a super abrasive president that pretty much followed his own rules. So in a famous quote, "John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it," Jackson was essentially telling the Supreme court that their opinion didn't matter. So Jackson preceded to enact the Indian Removal Act with the US military, which caused the infamous Trail of Tears.
(His reasoning though, which actually made some sense, was that no matter what, the southerners and Americans in general were so headstrong that they would probably get into a little conflict like war with the Cherokees. So to prevent the conflict, he would move the Cherokees out. The bad location and treatment on the Trail of Tears make his intentions debatable though)
So overall, pressure from the South caused president Andrew Jackson to relocate the Cherokees.
