When the United States won its freedom from Great Britain, colonies became states, subjects became citizens, and the nation's leaders faced a complex question: How did the native people of the United States fit into this new picture? Government leaders concluded that they did not. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 sparked intense moral and political debate, led to the near-destruction of five powerful Southeastern tribes, and exposed the widening gap between the young country's ideals and its actions.