alternatehistory.com

For those of you unfamiliar, the Trail of Tears was a rather traumatic event in American history that resulted in the forced removal of Amerindians in the Deep South. However, it wasn't even entirely legal. WorcestervGeorgia, a famous court case, gave the United States federal government power over Native Americans, and made the actions of Georgia and other states in removing Amerindians unconstitutional. Unfortunately, the sitting president at the time was the much loved Andrew Jackson, who is famously quoted as saying "John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it." The Trail of Tears continued.

But what if a Whig or a more constitutionally minded Democrat was in office at the time, and took actions to stop the forced relocations? Could this save (at least some) of the Five Civilized Tribes, or would something eventually happen to destroy them as white settlers sought their prime cotton growing land?

If the Amerindians could be saved, results would certainly be interesting. These tribes, especially the Cherokee, where actually making a large effort to integrate into American society, adopting White customs and holding slaves just like their European-descended neighbors. The culture they could form would be a very interesting mix of Native American And Southern culture, which could lead to a lot of interesting possibilities.

What are your thoughts on this? Is it too late to save these tribes, or can timely government intervention and assimilation keep them alive? If there is an alt civil war, could the Cherokee, Creek, etc. form a pro-Union block, even creating their own influential voting block out of the ashes of the Civil War (there were only about 11-12K Indians at the time of the Trail of Tears, so having their own state is doubtful)?
Top