The Cherokees were not the militant Indians portrayed in westerns. They had mostly assimilated into the young American culture. Still, their lands in the south were prime farmland that white planters coveted for themselves. The State of Georgia invalidated their rights to their property and seized it. The Cherokees defended their claims to the land with the law, not guns; they even won in the Supreme Court. President Jackson famously said of the Chief Justice, “Mr. Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it!” Federal troops marched 20,000 people at gunpoint to present-day Oklahoma, with almost 5,000 perishing from harsh conditions along the way. Guess which party still has Jefferson-Jackson fundraising dinners?