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The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was a law passed by the United States Congress and signed by President Andrew Jackson to facilitate the removal of American Indian tribes living east of the Mississippi River in the United States to lands further west. The law was enacted on May 26, 1830, and was reflective of a long-standing U.S. government approach to dealing with Native American tribes by moving them; see Indian Removal.
The Removal Act did not actually order the removal of any Native Americans. Rather, it provided funds and lands so that the president could negotiate treaties that would exchange Indian tribal lands within the boundaries of existing states for lands in the West acquired in the Louisiana Purchase but not yet part of any state.
The Removal Act was strongly supported in the South, where states were eager to gain access to lands claimed by the "Five Civilized Tribes." In particular, Georgia, the largest state at that time, was involved in a contentious jurisdictional dispute with the Cherokee nation. President Jackson, who supported Indian removal primarily for reasons of national security, hoped removal would resolve the Georgia crisis. One of the opponents of the law was Congressman David Crockett of Tennessee.
The Removal Act was opposed by most Native Americans and numerous white humanitarians, notably Christian missionaries who worked among the Indians. However, some people who were sympathetic to the plight of the Indians were in favor of Indian removal, fearing that if the Indians remained within the states, violence and warfare would eventually destroy the tribes, as it had done to some tribes in the East.
The first removal treaty signed after the Removal Act was the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek on September 27, 1830, proclaimed on 24 February 1831, in which Choctaws in Mississippi ceded land east of the river in exchange for payment and land in the West. The Treaty of New Echota (signed in 1835) resulted in the removal of the Cherokee on the Trail of Tears.
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