<P> This was compounded by the fact that while citizenship tests existed for Indians living in newly annexed areas before and after forced relocation, individual U.S. states did not recognize tribal land claims, only individual title under State law, and distinguished between the rights of white and non-white citizens, who often had limited standing in court; and Indian removal was carried out under U.S. military jurisdiction, often by state militias . As a result, individual Indians who could prove U.S. citizenship were nevertheless displaced from newly annexed areas . The military actions and subsequent treaties enacted by Jackson's and Martin Van Buren's administrations pursuant to the 1830 law, which Tennessee Congressman Davy Crockett had unsuccessfully voted against, are widely considered to have directly caused the expulsion or death of a substantial part of the Indian population then living in the southeastern United States . </P> <P> The Choctaw nation occupied large portions of what are now the U.S. states of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana . After a series of treaties starting in 1801, the Choctaw nation was reduced to 11,000,000 acres (45,000 km). The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek ceded the remaining country to the United States and was ratified in early 1831 . The removals were only agreed to after a provision in the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek allowed some Choctaw to remain . George W. Harkins wrote to the citizens of the United States before the removals were to commence: </P> <P> It is with considerable diffidence that I attempt to address the American people, knowing and feeling sensibly my incompetency; and believing that your highly and well improved minds would not be well entertained by the address of a Choctaw . But having determined to emigrate west of the Mississippi river this fall, I have thought proper in bidding you farewell to make a few remarks expressive of my views, and the feelings that actuate me on the subject of our removal...We as Choctaws rather chose to suffer and be free, than live under the degrading influence of laws, which our voice could not be heard in their formation . </P> <P> United States Secretary of War Lewis Cass appointed George Gaines to manage the removals . Gaines decided to remove Choctaws in three phases starting in 1831 and ending in 1833 . The first was to begin on November 1, 1831 with groups meeting at Memphis and Vicksburg . A harsh winter would batter the emigrants with flash floods, sleet, and snow . Initially the Choctaws were to be transported by wagon but floods halted them . With food running out, the residents of Vicksburg and Memphis were concerned . Five steamboats (the Walter Scott, the Brandywine, the Reindeer, the Talma, and the Cleopatra) would ferry Choctaws to their river - based destinations . The Memphis group traveled up the Arkansas for about 60 miles (100 km) to Arkansas Post . There the temperature stayed below freezing for almost a week with the rivers clogged with ice, so there could be no travel for weeks . Food rationing consisted of a handful of boiled corn, one turnip, and two cups of heated water per day . Forty government wagons were sent to Arkansas Post to transport them to Little Rock . When they reached Little Rock, a Choctaw chief referred to their trek as a "trail of tears and death". The Vicksburg group was led by an incompetent guide and was lost in the Lake Providence swamps . </P>

What was the cause of the trail of tears