The Trail of Tears is the name given to the forced migration of the Cherokee people from 
their ancestral lands in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina to new territories west 
of the Mississippi River.Jackson 
supported Georgia's aggressive actions toward the Cherokee and had no intention of interfering 
to protect the nation, even after the Worcester ruling.Georgia's state government asserted 
jurisdiction over the entire Cherokee territory, annulled the nation's laws, annexed the land, and 
began distributing plots by lottery
The Cherokee Nation took its case to the United States Supreme Court.The legal battles 
that ensued raised profound questions concerning states' rights, the status and sovereignty of 
indigenous nations, and the separation of powers between branches of the federal government.This law authorized the president to designate lands west 
of the Mississippi for tribal use and to negotiate treaties ensuring their movement.The 
expansion of white settlements in North America started encroaching on Native-American lands, 
ultimately creating the pressures that led to the removal of Native Americans.However, in Worcester v. Georgia (1832), Marshall 
held that Georgia could not extend its law over the sovereign lands of the Cherokee nation, and 
had no authority to displace the indigenous people.Many of them adopted Western dress and gave up hunting and gathering for a market 
economy based on export-oriented agriculture and became literate.Nonetheless, the prevailing sentiment in Georgia favoured expelling the Cherokee.Earlier in his career, Jackson had defeated the 
Creeks and Seminoles on the battlefield, leading to the appropriation of their lands.President Thomas 
Jefferson and others proposed setting aside tracts of the western lands for the indigenous nations.