As the U.S. population continued to grow and the demand for land on the east coast increased, the U.S. Government forced eastern tribes to move west.

The Indian Removal Act was signed by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830 to initiate the removal of tribes in the southeastern states.  In 1835, nearly all of the Cherokee Nation - some 17,000 people - were forced to leave their ancestral lands, homes, and possessions at gunpoint and forced to march from northern Georgia to present-day Oklahoma. The Trail of Tears, as it is known, killed over 4,000 Cherokee.  The Muscogee Creek, Choctaw and Chickasaw and many other tribes were also moved west without consent.