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Native Americans also held some of the farmlands in the Southeast United States. Several of these tribes had already begun to farm these lands and earnest and make them productive. Both states and settlers wanted to seize these agricultural lands from the Native Americans. The states, such as Georgia, cared little that Native Americans had placed farms on these lands, purchased slaves, or built homes. The tribes did not recognize the states authority over their lands, because they viewed themselves as independent nations.

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A minority faction of the Cherokee nation led by John Ridge realized that there was little they could do to prevent removal from their lands. Instead of fighting it, they decided to negotiate a treaty with the United States to get the best terms possible. The Cherokee Nation divided on between Ridge's Treaty Party and John Ross's National Party. A delegation was sent to negotiate a Treaty and they ultimately were promised $5 million dollars and the right to hold the lands in modern-day Oklahoma in perpetuity. Ridge's group agreed to the terms and received approval from the Treaty Party in New Echota. Congress then ratified against the protests of Daniel Webster and Henry Clay in 1835. The Cherokee signing party represented only a faction of the Cherokee, and the majority followed Principal Chief John Ross in a desperate attempt to hold onto their land. This attempt faltered in 1838, when, under the guns of federal troops and Georgia state militia, the Cherokee tribe were forced to the dry plains across the Mississippi.

====Cherokee Removal and the Trail of Tears====

Cherokees had split on the issue of removal. Some members of the tribe left early and cherry-picked some of the best lands in Oklahoma while others resisted forced removal. Chief John Ross supported passive resistance, but it accomplished little. Martin Van Buren organized the removal of 18,000 Native Americans between 1838 and 1839. Anyone who resisted removal was imprisoned and then forcibly removed. Due to the lack of preparation and funding by the United States government, 4,000 Cherokees died from exposure, starvation, and disease on their way to Oklahoma. The Cherokees named this forced march "the trail on which we cried," aka the Trail of Tears.