in the area if they so decided. In reality, many were still forced off of their ancestral lands, often by coercion and force.

Furthermore, many white Americans felt that those Native peoples who were relocated would have more freedom in the end. In the 1820s and 1830s, many thought that the western boundary of the country would remain the Mississippi River. They argued that the Native peoples moving to the West would free them from conflict with white settlers. Their new location would allow them to establish their own nations in an area where they would be free to govern themselves without interference. Of course, this proved not to be the case as the country quickly expanded west and pushed the recently relocated Native peoples onto increasingly smaller and less hospitable reservations.

There were many opponents of the Indian Removal Act who claimed that it violated the freedom and sovereignty of Native peoples. The precedent of recognizing tribes as sovereign nations had been long established. Many argued that as a sovereign nation, it was up to the individual tribes to cede or maintain control over their own lands. The Cherokee nation attempted to use this notion to fight their removal. In 1831, the Supreme Court ruled that the Cherokee were a sovereign nation with the right to self-government. However, the state of Georgia and President Jackson refused to enforce this ruling.