Indian Removal Act

Under President Andrew Jackson, the Indian Removal Act of 1830 authorised the government to negotiate the removal of Indigenous peoples from eastern lands to territory west of the Mississippi. In practice, many removals were forced. Eastern peoples, including the Cherokee and Choctaw, were displaced into Indian Territory, much of it in what is now Oklahoma.

In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, backing this relocation policy. The destination was land designated by the US government as Indian Territory, in what later became Oklahoma.