Indian Removal: A Timeline

1828 Cherokee in Georgia tried to secure their lands by adopting a constitution. Georgia refused to recognize the constitution and declared that the Cherokee were subject to state laws.
1830 Congress voted funds to enable Jackson to negotiate treaties for removal of all Indian tribes then living east of the Mississippi River.
1831 In Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, the Supreme Court ruled that the Cherokee Nation lacked standing to request an injunction.
1832 In Worcester v. Georgia, the Supreme Court ruled that the Cherokees were "a distinct community . . . in which the laws of Georgia can have no force, and which the citizens of Georgia have not right to enter, but with the assent of the Cherokees themselves, or in conformity with treaties, and with acts of Congress" and that the federal government had an obligation to enforce its treaty obligations.

Resistance of Sac and Fox Indians in Illinois and Wisconsin crushed.
1835 Beginning of war against the Seminoles.
1836 Texas wins independence from Mexico.

Anglo-Saxon Texans assert that Indians have no right to possession of Texan land.
1838 Federal troops forced 15,000 Cherokees into detention camps.
1844 Only a few pockets of Native Americans remain east of the Mississippi River, mostly in backcountry areas of New York, Michigan, and Florida.
1845 Texas is annexed as a state. Texans reaffirm that Indians have no right to possession of Texan land and demand removal of 25,000 Apaches.
1854 Texans accept Indian reservations under federal jurisdiction.
1851 Indian Appropriations Act consolidates western tribes on agricultural reservations to enable westward migration of non-Indians and to facilitate the transcontinental railroad.