In Worcester v. Georgia, the Supreme Court ruled that Native American tribes were sovereign states. How did this affect Cherokee
removal? The federal government had to allow the Cherokee to vote on removal.
The federal government removed the Cherokee anyway.
The state of Georgia allowed some Cherokee to remain.
The state of Georgia was required to pay the Cherokee for their land.
The right answer is The federal government removed the Cherokee anyway. Now Georgia faced down the Supreme Court with the implicit consent of another president. Andrew Jackson did nothing to enforce the Court’s decision, claiming that he had no authority to intervene in Georgia. In fact, Jackson regarded any treaties with Indians as “an absurdity.” Under the circumstances, there was nothing for the Cherokees to do but give in and sign a treaty, which they did in 1835. They gave up their land in the Southeast (about 100 million acres) in exchange for tracts in the Indian Territory west of Arkansas, $5 million from the federal government, and expenses for transportation. By 1838, seventeen thousand Cherokees had departed westward on the “Trail of Tears,” following other tribes on an eight-hundred-mile journey marked by the cruelty and neglect of soldiers and private contractors and scorn and pilferage by whites along the way.
