On February 15, 1837, Congress ratifies treaties number 211 and 217, designed to remove Indigenous people from their ancestral homelands in the Midwest to make way for white settlement. One agreement had been negotiated with the Iowa, Sauk and Fox nations; the second, with the Oto, Omaha, Missouri and Santee Sioux and Yankton Sioux tribal people. The agreements represented just two of nearly 400 treaties—nearly always unequal—concluded between various Indigenous nations and the U.S. government between 1788 and 1883.
American population growth and exploration of the west in the early to mid-1800s amplified conflicts over territory inhabited by Native American tribes who held different views of land and property ownership than white settlers. During this time, Andrew Jackson played a major part in shaping U.S. policy toward Native Americans. A hero of the War of 1812, he earned equal recognition as an Indian fighter and treaty negotiator. In fact, he brokered nine treaties before becoming president in 1829.
In 1830, as part of his zealous quest to acquire new territory for the nation, President Jackson pushed for the passing of the Indian Removal Act. It was this act that allowed for the 1838 forced removal by the U.S. military of Cherokee from their Georgia homeland to barren land in the Oklahoma territory. The march at gunpoint—during which 4,000 Cherokee died from starvation, disease and the cold—became known as the Trail of Tears. Jackson’s policies toward Indians reflected the general racist view among whites of the time that Indigenous people were an inferior race who stood in the way of American economic progress.
