Andrew Jackson pursued a policy of removing Native Americans from lands in the east to new territories west of the Mississippi. Removal was popular, as it would result in the opening of hundreds of thousands of acres to white settlement and gold mining. Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, a federal law that empowered the President to negotiate treaties with Indian tribes with the goal of moving them west. Legislation designed to force Native Americans out was also passed at the state level. When Georgia ignored an 1831 Supreme Court ruling that state laws had no force against Indian tribes, Jackson turned a blind eye. Neither Jackson nor the US Senate listened when the Cherokee objected that the Treaty of New Echota was fraudulent. Jackson’s decisions regarding the enforcement of removal laws against Native Americans set the stage for the Trail of Tears, one of the most dishonorable events in American history.

Guiding Question:

• Did a series of President Andrew Jackson’s decisions regarding Indian Removal conflict with America’s constitutional principles and civic values? If so, how?

Objectives:

Students will:

• Understand some of the major events leading up to the Trail of Tears.
• Analyze American civic values and constitutional principles and their application to events during the Andrew Jackson administration.
• Assess the claim that the forced removal of American Indians from their native lands is one of the most dishonorable periods in American history.

• Handout A: Andrew Jackson and Indian Removal
• Handout B: America’s Constitutional Principles and Civic Values
• Handout C: Discussion Questions
• Second Message to Congress Extension Reading

To create a context for this lesson, students complete Constitutional Connection: The President as Enforcer of the Law.