The Cherokee Nation Had a Constitution, a Newspaper, and a Supreme Court Before Andrew Jackson Decided That Did Not Matter

In 1817, the Cherokee Nation established a bicameral legislature. In 1827, they adopted a written constitution, modeled closely on that of the United States, with executive, legislative, and judicial branches. And in 1828, they launched a newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix, printed in both English and in Sequoyah’s newly invented Cherokee syllabary. They built a national capital called New Echota in northwestern Georgia, complete with a council house, a courthouse, and a public square. A visitor compared it to Baltimore. Andrew Jackson was elected president of the United States that same year.

Within a decade, the US Army had forcibly marched the Cherokee Nation 800 miles to present-day Oklahoma in winter conditions. Somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000 people died on the journey. John Ross, the principal chief, watched his wife Quatie die along the way. This happened after the Supreme Court of the United States told Georgia it had no authority over Cherokee territory. Jackson refused to enforce the ruling.

What the Cherokee Nation Built

The Cherokee Nation in the 1820s was doing exactly what the United States government had been telling Native nations to do for decades. As far back as George Washington‘s administration, federal policy encouraged Indigenous nations to adopt the practices of Euro-American civilization: settled agriculture, literacy, written law, private property. The Cherokee took this advice seriously and methodically.

By 1809 they had a permanent police force. A legislature followed in 1817. By 1825 they had a capital city. The 1827 constitution they adopted was not a rough attempt at self-governance. It was, in fact, a sophisticated document establishing three separate branches of government with defined powers and checks between them. The people who drafted it had studied American constitutional law carefully.

The Cherokee Phoenix, launched in February 1828, published news, editorials, and legal notices in two languages simultaneously. It covered Cherokee politics and reported on the growing threat from Georgia. Additionally, it circulated nationally and internationally, and readers in England subscribed to it.

Georgia, however, responded to the 1827 constitution by declaring the Cherokee government abolished and its citizens subject to Georgia state law. This was the opening move in what became a multi-year legal and political crisis.

Going to Court

The Cherokee Nation, led by Principal Chief John Ross, decided to fight through the American legal system. This was not a naive decision. The United States had signed treaties with the Cherokee Nation guaranteeing their territorial rights. Moreover, the Constitution made treaties the supreme law of the land. The Cherokee had lawyers, legal standing, and a legitimate case.

They hired William Wirt, a former United States Attorney General, to bring their case to the Supreme Court. In Cherokee Nation v. Georgia in 1831, Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the Cherokee were not a foreign nation and therefore the Court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case directly. He called them a “domestic dependent nation,” like a ward to a guardian. The ruling was a technical loss, but Marshall’s language still supported Cherokee sovereignty against state interference.

The following year, a second case gave Marshall another opportunity. Worcester v. Georgia arose from Georgia’s arrest of Samuel Worcester, a missionary living in Cherokee territory without the state license Georgia had started requiring. Consequently, Marshall ruled 5 to 1 that Georgia’s laws had no force within Cherokee territory. The federal government, not individual states, held authority over relations with Indian nations. It was an unambiguous legal victory.

What Jackson Did With It

Nothing. He refused to enforce the ruling. The quote most often attributed to Jackson, “John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it,” is probably apocryphal. It did not appear until decades later in a book by a Jackson critic. What is documented, however, is that Jackson made no effort to require Georgia to comply, and that he had been publicly advocating for Indian removal since long before he became president.

Jackson had a specific theory he articulated clearly: he did not believe the federal government had any obligation to protect Indian nations from state encroachment. If they wanted to maintain their government and their land, they had to move west. His position was not confusion or negligence. Instead, it was a policy decision he held and implemented deliberately.

In fact, Jackson had already signed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, authorizing him to negotiate removal treaties and relocate eastern tribes beyond the Mississippi. As a result, Georgia proceeded to extend its jurisdiction over Cherokee territory, survey the land, and distribute it through a lottery to white Georgians. The federal government did nothing to stop this.

The Treaty That Most Cherokee Did Not Sign

A small faction of Cherokee leaders, led by Major Ridge and his son John Ridge, concluded that removal was inevitable and that negotiating the best possible terms was preferable to waiting for forced removal under worse conditions. In 1835, this faction signed the Treaty of New Echota, exchanging all Cherokee lands east of the Mississippi for territory in what is now Oklahoma and five million dollars.

Principal Chief John Ross and the vast majority of the Cherokee Nation opposed the treaty and considered it fraudulent. Crucially, the treaty required approval from the full Cherokee Nation. The signers had no authority to bind the nation to it. The US Senate ratified it anyway, by a margin of one vote. Ross petitioned Congress. He gathered signatures from over 15,000 Cherokee, representing most of the nation’s members, protesting the treaty. Congress did nothing.

In 1838, President Martin Van Buren, Jackson’s successor, ordered General Winfield Scott to enforce removal. Scott’s troops rounded up Cherokee people into stockades and soldiers removed families from their homes. The forced march west began in the brutal winter of 1838 to 1839. Approximately 4,000 to 5,000 people died. The survivors called it Nunna daul Tsuny, which translates as “the trail where they cried.”

What Happened Afterward

The Cherokee Nation rebuilt in Indian Territory and drafted a new constitution in 1839. The people who had signed the Treaty of New Echota, which the majority had considered an act of betrayal, were killed by other Cherokee shortly after arrival in Oklahoma. The Ridge faction had known the treaty would likely cost them their lives. They had signed it anyway, believing it was the only way to preserve any part of the nation.

John Ross served as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation until his death in 1866. He never stopped protesting what had happened. Today, the Cherokee Nation has a constitution, a government, and approximately 450,000 enrolled citizens. The current Cherokee Nation constitution was adopted in 2003. The national capital was called New Echota. A visitor had compared it to Baltimore. Georgia razed it in 1834.