Worcester v. Georgia | Cherokee Nation

Samuel Worcester, a non-native missionary, arrived in New Echota to spread Christianity and help set up a printing operation for the Cherokee Nation. The state of Georgia passed a law, however, stating that outsiders had to receive a permit in order to live within the Cherokee Nation. When Worcester was arrested along with 11 other missionaries in 1831 for violating this law, he and others appealed their case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. While the court ruled that the Cherokee Nation was a sovereign nation, President Andrew Jackson refused to enforce that judicial ruling.