Voices From The Trail Of Tears Summary

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Introduction:
Voices from The Trail of Tears by Vicki Rozema is a convenient collection of primary sources from the period right before and after the forced removal of the Cherokee Indians to the trail of tears. The book begins with a fairly long overview that summarizes the history of the Indian Removal period. Like the collection of primary sources as a whole, the overview is more concerned with showing the facts concerning Cherokee Removal rather than taking a detailed historical spot.
Rozema clearly states her opinion on the legacy of the Removal, stating that “While each of the five civilized tribes has shown incredible resilience in fighting back from the decimating effects of their removal, the terrible injustice of broken treaties, discriminatory laws, unenforced court rulings, land grabbing, and ethnocentric intolerance, all done in the name of western expansion, …show more content…

The Treaty of forced the Natives to exchange their rich, fertile lands in the East for unfertile and poorly sustained lands in the West of the Mississippi River. Nearly 300 Indians were forced to sign this treaty. The men were not really representatives of the Cherokee tribe, and they had no authoritative power amongst their tribe members. The Indians in the region did not accept the signing of the treaty. They took it to the Supreme Court of Law and won their case. President Andrew Jackson was determined to get the natives from the region and earn benefits from it. He used force from the military and powerfully removed thousands of Indian tribes from their homeland. These tribes were forced to walk through inhuman grounds. They were placed in temporary camps that were unsanitary and unhealthy. Thousands died due to the spread of various diseases amongst the many tribe members. There was about 4,000 estimated due to the forceful

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