In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, a measure that President Jackson supported and signed into law in May. Technically, the law called for the voluntary removal of various native tribes from the southeastern part of the United States in states such as Georgia. In practice, the law led to the forced removal of the Native Americans from their lands. The most famous of these removals was by the Cherokees from Georgia to what later became Oklahoma. This arduous journey became immortalized in history as the “Trail of Tears.”