Indian Removal Act Law and Legal Definition
Indian Removal Act of 1830 is a federal law enacted to provide for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing in any of the states or territories, and for their removal west of the river Mississippi. It called for the removal of all American Indians from East of the Mississippi River to reservations in Oklahoma Territory.
The act authorized the president to grant unsettled lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for Indian lands within existing state borders. It is the lawful for the President of the U.S. to cause so much of any territory belonging to the U.S., west of the river Mississippi, not included in any state or organized territory, and to which the Indian title has been extinguished, as he may judge necessary, to be divided into a suitable number of districts, for the reception of such tribes or nations of Indians as may choose to exchange the lands where they now reside, and remove there; and to cause each of said districts to be so described by natural or artificial marks, as to be easily distinguished from every other.
