Precisely right! Then came gold - and we all know what greed can to do a civilization! The second largest gold rush in the United States (and first largest for Georgia) came with the discovery of gold in 1829, found near what is known today as Lumpkin County. This period would be referred to as the “Georgia Gold Rush.” News spread like wildfire and almost immediately white man moved in to take charge of land occupied by the Cherokee. All treaties previously established between the Cherokee and the United States government were tossed to the wind and Indian villages were set on fire and destroyed. The man they had once considered an ally was of no help as President Andrew Jackson ignored the pleas of the Cherokee and even withdrew all federal troops from their sacred territory. Nothing but gold was sacred to the Jacksonian democracy.
One year after the discovery of gold in 1830, political officials in Georgia decided to force their state laws upon the Cherokees. While the Supreme Court first
…show more content…
He signed this Act in 1830. While most other Indian tribes chose to take their grievances with Jackson’s Act to the battlefield, the Cherokee were more civilized and knowledgeable about the legal system of the United States and decided to challenge The Removal Act in court. The way of the Cherokee was almost always one which sought for peaceful resolution first. This did not mean every Cherokee tribe chose to make the same decisions. In 1835, a group of Cherokee leaders and made an agreement -a treaty- with the U.S. government to accept payment and land in the west with the promise to relocate. This treaty was known as the Treaty of New Echota. Not all Cherokees were happy about this treaty and joined Cherokee leader, Chief John Ross, in a bitter, fierce, but futile