Alabama can trace its rich Native American history back at least 10,000 years. By the time Europeans arrived in the state, Native Americans had formed tribal groups that had unique linguistic and cultural characteristics. These tribal groups, such as the Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks had settled all across the state by the time of European arrival. Almost as soon as Europeans began to arrive in the sixteenth-century, Native Americans were subjected to the threat of white explorers and settlers moving onto their tribal homelands.

Native American removal has its origins in the earliest days of the American republic, beginning with the so-called Plan of Civilization. The Plan of Civilization was a federal development program with origins in the 1790’s which sought to teach Native American ranching, farming, and other small industries. The goal of the Plan of Civilization was to assimilate Native American people into American society. Assimilation, in turn, would cause Native Americans to settle on individual homesteads and thus be more willing to sell land to white settlers for farming purposes. The Plan failed to consider the resistance Native American tribes would present when forced to give up their culture. This was especially evident amongst the Creek tribe which was divided in its support of the Civilization Plan. The split in the tribe led to a civil war, called the Creek War which took place between 1813 and 1814. Fearing a rebellion, the United States sent federal troops, led by General Andrew Jackson to end the Creek War at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. This military conflict had changed the prevailing ideology of how to quickly deal with the “Indian Problem”. Instead of advocating for assimilation many American officials now sought the forcible removal of Native Americans off their tribal lands in the Southeast all the way to Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma.