DID YOU KNOW THAT? 


In 1829 the state of Georgia enacted a law that extended state boundaries over a sizable section of the Cherokee Nation. The law stated that all Cherokee laws became null, and anyone within the area was subject to Georgia laws.... The act also stated that no indigenous person could be a witness in court. The laws was entitled: “An act to add the territory lying within the chartered limits of Georgia, now in the occupancy of the Cherokee Indians, to the counties of Carroll, De Kalb, Gwinett, Hall, and Habersham, and to extend the laws of this State over the same, and to annul all laws and ordinances made by the Cherokee Nation of Indians, and to provide for the compensation of officers serving legal processes in said territory, and to regulate the testimony of Indians, and to repeal the ninth section of the Act of 1828 on this subject.” The following year the Indian Removal Act was passed, which resulted in the forced removal of Native peoples from the southern U.S. to federal territory west of the Mississippi River.