Question: The Murrell Home in Oklahoma is one of the few buildings to survive which now-infamous historical event, a series of forced removals of Native Americans from the Southeastern U.S. to designated Indian Territory?

Context paragraphs:
Jennie Ross Cobb: Jennie Ross Cobb (Cherokee, 1881–1959) is the first known Native American woman photographer in the United States, who began taking pictures of her Cherokee community in the late 19th century.  The Oklahoma Historical Society used her photos of the Murrell Home to restore that building, which is now a museum.  Trained as a teacher, Cobb worked as a florist in Texas before returning to Oklahoma to spearhead the restoration of the Murrell Home.

State of Sequoyah: The State of Sequoyah was a proposed state to be established from the Indian Territory in the eastern part of present-day Oklahoma.  In 1905, with the end of tribal governments looming (as prescribed by the Curtis Act of 1898), Native Americans of the Five Civilized Tribes—the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek (Muscogee), and Seminole—in Indian Territory proposed to create a state as a means to retain control of their lands.  Their intention was to have a state under Native American constitution and governance.  The proposed state was to be named in honor of Sequoyah, the Cherokee who created a writing system in 1825 for the Cherokee language.

Oklahoma Organic Act: An Organic Act is a generic name for a statute used by the United States Congress to describe a territory, in anticipation of being admitted to the Union as a state.  Because of Oklahoma's unique history, (much of the state was a place where aboriginal natives have always lived and after forced removal many other tribes were relocated here), an explanation of the Oklahoma Organic Act needs a historic perspective.  In general, the Oklahoma Organic Act may be viewed as one of a series of legislative acts, from the time of Reconstruction, enacted by Congress in preparation for the creation of a unified State of Oklahoma.  The Organic Act created Oklahoma Territory, and Indian Territory that were Organized incorporated territories of the United States out of the old "unorganized" Indian Territory.  The Oklahoma Organic Act was one of several acts whose intent was the assimilation of the tribes in Oklahoma and Indian Territories through the elimination of tribal reservations and the elimination of the tribes' communal ownership of property.

Murrell Home: The Murrell Home, also known as the George M. Murrell Home, is a historic house museum at 19479 E Murrel Rd in Murrell Home Park, Park Hill, near Tahlequah, Oklahoma in the Cherokee Nation.  Built in 1845, it is one of the few buildings to survive in Cherokee lands from the antebellum period between the Trail of Tears relocation of the Cherokee people and the American Civil War.  It was a major social center of the elite among the Cherokee in the mid-nineteenth century.  It has been owned by the state since 1948, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1974.

Indian removals in Indiana: Indian removals in Indiana followed a series of the land cession treaties made between 1785 and 1846 that led to the removal of most of the native tribes from Indiana.  Some of the removals occurred prior to 1830, but most took place between 1830 and 1846.  The Lenape (Delaware), Piankashaw, Kickapoo, Wea, and Shawnee were removed in the 1820s and 1830s, but the Potawatomi and Miami removals in the 1830s and 1840s were more gradual and incomplete, and not all of Indiana’s Native Americans voluntarily left the state.  The most well-known resistance effort in Indiana was the forced removal of Chief Menominee and his Yellow River band of Potawatomi in what became known as the Potawatomi Trail of Death in 1838, in which 859 Potawatomi removed to Kansas and at least forty died on the journey west.  The Miami were the last to remove from Indiana, but tribal leaders delayed the process until 1846.  Many of the Miami were permitted to remain on land allotments guaranteed to them under the Treaty of St. Mary's (1818) and subsequent treaties.

Indian Territory in the American Civil War: During the American Civil War, Indian Territory occupied most of what is now the U.S. state of Oklahoma.  It served as an unorganized region set aside for Native American tribes of the Southeastern United States following the Indian Removal Act.  It was occupied by captured Native Americans who had been removed from their lands.  The area was the scene of numerous skirmishes and seven officially recognized battles involving Native American units allied with the Confederate States of America, Native Americans loyal to the United States government, and Union and Confederate troops.

United States v. Ramsey (1926): United States v. Ramsey, 271 U.S. 467 (1926) , was a U.S. Supreme Court case in which the Court held that the government had the authority to prosecute crimes against Native Americans (Indians) on reservation land that was still designated Indian Country by federal law.  The Osage Indian Tribe held mineral rights that were worth millions of dollars.  A white rancher, William K. Hale, devised a plot to kill tribal members to allow his nephew, who was married to a tribal member, to inherit the mineral rights.  The tribe requested the assistance of the federal government, which sent Bureau of Investigation agents to solve the murders.  Hale and several others were arrested and tried for the murders, but they claimed that the federal government did not have jurisdiction.  The district court quashed the indictments, but on appeal, the Supreme Court reversed, holding that the Osage lands were Indian Country and that the federal government therefore had jurisdiction.  This put an end to the Osage Indian murders.

Trail of Tears: The Trail of Tears was a series of forced removals of Native American nations from their ancestral homelands in the Southeastern United States to an area west of the Mississippi River that had been designated as Indian Territory.  The forced relocations were carried out by various government authorities following the passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830.  The relocated people suffered from exposure, disease, and starvation while en route, and more than four thousand died before reaching their various destinations.  The removal included members of the Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw nations.  The phrase "Trail of Tears" originated from a description of the removal of the Cherokee Nation in 1838.

Indian removal: Indian removal was a policy of the United States government in the 19th century whereby Native Americans were forcibly removed from their ancestral homelands in the eastern United States to lands west of the Mississippi River, thereafter known as Indian Territory.  In a matter that remains one of debate by scholars, description of the policy—which clearly contributed to devastation in numbers, freedom and prosperity for those displaced—is sometimes elevated to being one of long-term genocide of Native Americans, in any case, a consequence of actions first by European settlers to North America in the colonial period, then by the United States government and its citizens until the mid-20th century.  The policy traced its direct origins to the administration of James Monroe, though it addressed conflicts between European Americans and Native Americans that had been occurring since the 17th century, and were escalating into the early 19th century as white settlers were continually pushing westward.  The Indian Removal Act was the key law that forced the removal of the Indians, and was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830.

Major Crimes Act: The Major Crimes Act (U.S. Statutes at Large, 23:385) is a law passed by the United States Congress in 1885 as the final section of the Indian Appropriations Act of that year.  The law places certain crimes under federal jurisdiction if they are committed by a Native American in Native territory.  The law follows the 1817 General Crimes Act, which extended federal jurisdiction to crimes committed in Native territory but did not cover crimes committed by Native Americans against Native Americans.  The Major Crime Act therefore broadened federal jurisdiction in Native territory by extending it to some crimes committed by Native Americans against Native Americans.  The Major Crimes Act was passed by Congress in response to the Supreme Court of the United States's ruling in "Ex parte Crow Dog" (109 U.S. 556 (1883)) that overturned the federal court conviction of Brule Lakota sub-chief Crow Dog for the murder of principal chief Spotted Tail on the Rosebud Indian Reservation.

Supporting paragraphs: Murrell Home Trail of Tears
Answer: Trail of Tears