Editing Trail of Tears (section)

==== Treaty of New Echota ====
Jackson chose to continue with Indian removal, and negotiated the [[Treaty of New Echota]], on December 29, 1835, which granted the Cherokee two years to move to Indian Territory (modern-day Oklahoma). The Chickasaws and Choctaws had readily accepted and signed treaties with the U.S. government, while the Creeks did so under coercion.<ref>{{cite web |last=Feller |first=Daniel |date=October 4, 2016 |title=Andrew Jackson: Domestic Affairs |url=https://millercenter.org/president/jackson/domestic-affairs |access-date=June 11, 2022 |website=[[Miller Center]] |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240701054020/https://millercenter.org/president/jackson/domestic-affairs |archive-date=July 1, 2024}}</ref>

The negotiation of the Treaty of New Echota was largely encouraged by Jackson, and it was signed by a minority Cherokee political faction, the Treaty Party, led by Cherokee leader [[Elias Boudinot (Cherokee)|Elias Boudinot]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Clair |first=Robin Patric |date=September 1997 |title=Organizing silence: Silence as voice and voice as silence in the narrative exploration of the treaty of New Echota |journal=Western Journal of Communication |volume=61 |issue=3 |pages=315–337 |doi=10.1080/10570319709374580 |issn=1057-0314}}</ref> However, the treaty was opposed by most of the Cherokee people, as it was not approved by the Cherokee National Council, and it was not signed by Principal Chief [[John Ross (Cherokee chief)|John Ross]]. The Cherokee National Council submitted a petition, signed by thousands of Cherokee citizens, urging Congress to void the agreement in February 1836.<ref>{{cite book |last=Carroll |first=Clint |chapter=Shaping New Homelands: Landscapes of Removal and Renewal |date=May 15, 2015 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.5749/minnesota/9780816690893.003.0003 |title=Roots of Our Renewal: Ethnobotany and Cherokee Environmental Governance |pages=57–82 |publisher=[[University of Minnesota Press]] |doi=10.5749/minnesota/9780816690893.003.0003 |isbn=9780816690893 |access-date=June 10, 2022}}</ref> Despite this opposition, the Senate ratified the treaty in March 1836, and the Treaty of New Echota thus became the legal basis for the Trail of Tears. Only a fraction of the Cherokees left voluntarily. The U.S. government, with assistance from state militias, forced most of the remaining Cherokees west in 1838.<ref>{{cite book |last=River |first=Charles |title=The Trail of Tears: Forced Removal of Five Civilized Tribes}}</ref>{{full citation needed|date=November 2022}}

The Cherokees were temporarily remanded in camps in eastern Tennessee. In November, the Cherokee were broken into groups of around 1,000 each and began the journey west. They endured heavy rains, snow, and freezing temperatures.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Perdue |first1=Theda |title=The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears |last2=Green |first2=Michael D. |publisher=Viking |year=2008 |isbn=9780670031504 |pages=137}}</ref> When the Cherokee negotiated the Treaty of New Echota, they exchanged all their land east of the Mississippi for land in modern Oklahoma and a $5 million payment from the federal government. Many Cherokee felt betrayed that their leadership accepted the deal, and over 16,000 Cherokee signed a petition to prevent the passage of the treaty.

By the end of the decade in 1840, tens of thousands of Cherokee and other Indian nations had been removed from their land east of the Mississippi River. The Creek, Choctaw, Seminole, and Chicksaw were also relocated under the Indian Removal Act of 1830. One Choctaw leader portrayed the removal as "A Trail of Tears and Deaths", a devastating event that removed most of the Indian population of the southeastern United States from their traditional homelands.<ref name="history.com">{{Cite web |title=Trail of Tears |url=http://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/trail-of-tears |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141214040657/http://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/trail-of-tears |archive-date=December 14, 2014 |access-date=December 15, 2014 |publisher=[[History Channel]]}}</ref>