ANSWER: President Andrew Jackson urged Congress to pass the Indian Removal Act, which it did in 1830. This act gave the federal government the authority to remove any southeastern tribes from their ancestral homelands and relocate them to the distant, barren land of what is now called Oklahoma. For the next decade the Five Civilized Tribes of the southeast were forcibly marched 800 miles in harsh weather without adequate food or shelter. Over 100,000 natives were forced from their homes, and it’s estimated that over 15,000 died on the long, brutal marches. White settlers seized all their lands.
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