What gave the U.S. the power to remove the Cherokee Indians?

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 is a law that exchanges Native American land west of the Mississippi for land within state borders. This caused mass migrations of Native Americans, including the Cherokee tribe. US soldiers escorted Cherokee people on the "Trail of Tears," on which approximately 4000 Cherokee Native Americans died.

The power to remove the Cherokee Indians from their ancestral lands in the southeastern United States was granted by the Indian Removal Act of 1830, signed into law by President Andrew Jackson. This legislation authorized the federal government to negotiate treaties with Native American tribes for their removal from lands east of the Mississippi River to lands in the west, specifically in present-day Oklahoma. Despite legal challenges and opposition from some members of Congress, the U.S. government, under Jackson's administration, forcibly removed thousands of Cherokee people from their homes in what became known as the Trail of Tears. This tragic event resulted in the displacement, suffering, and death of many Cherokee Indians as they were forcibly relocated to unfamiliar territory.