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it would mean an end to the clashing of cultures. The Choctaws were the first tribe to sign the treaty. They wanted to finally be left alone by the government, and they believed that would occur if they relocated (PBS). However, they often failed to receive the rations due them because of the government's corruption. By 1834, thirteen to fifteen thousand had been removed (Weeks 121). The Seminoles were next to feel the effects of the Indian Removal Act. The government had not fully gained Florida, and some Seminoles were still present. Again, Jackson suggested they join the Creeks further west, and again they refused. The second Seminole war broke out in 1835, and cost the Jackson Administration $30,000, to $40,000, and to commit forty thousand men to the cause (132). It wasn't until the Trail of Tears that the Seminoles and the Cherokee were almost completely removed.

Rather than using force, like the Seminoles, the Cherokee relied on legal means to try and hold firm to their land. Strictland's article, "Native American Removal," describes how in 1831 they presented The Cherokee Nation v. Georgia to the Supreme Court, which would have made it possible for the Cherokee land to become a sovereign nation. Supreme Court justice John Marshall dismissed the case, saying the Indians should not turn to the Supreme Court. Marshall believed they should confer with the state. The Cherokees attempted again in 1832 with Worcester v. Georgia which would void the state's laws over the Cherokee people. Marshall ruled in favor of the Natives in this trial (meaning the state of Georgia would have no jurisdiction on Indian affairs), and the decision raised the hopes of the tribe. They felt as if they finally had a victory. This victory was short lived, however, because the newly reelected Jackson refused to enforce the law. He proclaimed that he was powerless to help them and their only hope was to "accept their fate, cede their eastern territory and move west" (Weeks 192).
Utterly defeated, the Cherokees signed a treaty ceding their lands to the government. Although the Trail of Tears was not during the Jackson administration, there is no denying that he paved the way for such a terrible trek. In May of 1838, seventeen thousand Native Americans were gathered together and held in detention camps, awaiting their expulsion. The troops took them from their work or play, and placed them in the holding cells where they would be confined for months. The Trail of Tears began in autumn

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