To some President Jackson was a hero but to many he was a villain. Jackson was a very controversial president because even though he was a military hero to the Americans and supported their beliefs he was a villain to the Native Americans. He was a villain because he pushed for the Indian Removal Act which caused many of them to die.
There are many reasons he is a villian to the Native Americans. There were Five Civilized Tribes that lived in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. White people were not happy with the land they were on and Jackson forced them to move to the Great Plains because he believed there would be no conflict with them there. In 1830 Jackson pushed for the Indian Removal Act which allowed Native Americans to move west. In 1790 the federal government recognized the Cherokee as a separate nation which led to Georgia taking their land in 1830. The Cherokee went to the United States Supreme Court and they said they had the right to be on that land but President Jackson did not agree which caused the Trail of Tears.
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They did not really have any other options so they ended up giving up their land and signing the Treaty of New Echota in 1838. Cherokee Chief John Ross stated that it was not fair if only a few people were signing it. In 1836 the Senate approved a treaty by a single vote. In 1838 when the treaty arrived only 2,000 Cherokee people had moved. Martin Van Buren told the army to get the rest of them out and in 1838 General Winfield got to the Cherokee nation with a lot of troops and told them to get out and it would get bad if they didn’t so they left. In June through December 1838 the Cherokees started to face many hardships which included diseases which killed as many as 2,000 Cherokees, hunger and exposure to the elements that killed them. At the end of the trail the Cherokee called it the trail where they cried. It was a very rough time for the Native