<P> In 1830, the majority of the "Five Civilized Tribes"--the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole, and Cherokee--were living east of the Mississippi . The Indian Removal Act of 1830 implemented the federal government's policy towards the Indian populations, which called for moving Native American tribes living east of the Mississippi River to lands west of the river. While it did not authorize the forced removal of the indigenous tribes, it authorized the President to negotiate land exchange treaties with tribes located in lands of the United States . </P> <P> On September 27, 1830, the Choctaw signed the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek and by concession, became the first Native American tribe to be removed . The agreement represented one of the largest transfers of land that was signed between the U.S. Government and Native Americans without being instigated by warfare . By the treaty, the Choctaw signed away their remaining traditional homelands, opening them up for European - American settlement in Mississippi Territory . When the Choctaw reached Little Rock, a Choctaw chief referred to the trek as a "trail of tears and death". </P> <P> In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville, the French historian and political thinker, witnessed an exhausted group of Choctaw men, women and children emerging from the forest during an exceptionally cold winter near Memphis, Tennessee, on their way to the Mississippi to be loaded onto a steamboat, and wrote: </P> <P> In the whole scene there was an air of ruin and destruction, something which betrayed a final and irrevocable adieu; one couldn't watch without feeling one's heart wrung . The Indians were tranquil, but sombre and taciturn . There was one who could speak English and of whom I asked why the Chactas were leaving their country . "To be free," he answered, could never get any other reason out of him . We...watch the expulsion...of one of the most celebrated and ancient American peoples . </P>

Which of the five civilized tribes was able to resist removal somewhat