After all, the United States had not always been quite loyal to the Choctaws. In the previous century, the tribe, then living mostly in what is now Alabama and Mississippi, had been one of the first to sign a treaty of friendship with the newly independent American colonies; in the War of 1812, they had fought bravely alongside Gen. Andrew Jackson against the British at New Orleans. In 1831, General Jackson – by then president – had repaid his debt by making the Choctaws the first Indian nation to be forced west along the Trail of Tears. Thousands died along the way.
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