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the events of the trail of tears
Cherokee Trail of Tears
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Following a Trail of Tears
For yet another third period, I walked through the faded pink door into the fluorescent-lit room. I walked along the back wall, past the poster of the “Pledge of Allegiance” spelled out with license plates. I sat down in my seat. This would be my first of two periods in a row with Mrs. Sorenson, the quirky history/English teacher who would bring out her fiddle and sing songs based on the unit of U.S. history we were working on. This day, Mrs. Sorenson wasn’t singing any songs. There weren’t many songs she knew about the Trail of Tears. She reminded us about how the American Indians had owned the land before the Europeans came and how the new settlers wanted to keep the natural resources found in the Indians’ homelands. Mrs. Sorenson explained that the Cherokee Indians, a tribe of Native Americans, were forced off their land and marched thousands of miles on foot to be moved to the designated Indian Territory. She mentioned that many died, but more Cherokees cried. To me, this was merely information to be absorbed for the test, and then squeezed out to make room for the next unit. I had bigger problems than mere thousands of people in the past being paraded to some other place. Little did I know that in five years I would study literature extensively on the Trail of Tears for my college English class.
The Trail of Tears was the Cherokee removal in 1838 from the southeast states of the United States into Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma. Remembering back to eighth grade, I vaguely recall the Indians being forced off their land and moved to Indian Territory with the violent assistance of soldiers; however, all the research I have done point out that only a few were moved under sol...
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...te. This knowledge could keep Iraqi citizens from dying today. It could keep Iraqi and American soldiers alive. It could feed and house homeless all around the world. I want to be able to make a difference. If getting information is all we as people need to do to make a difference, we should try and stay informed. Information is the key to a healthy and peaceful world, which is why I will make an effort to keep informed.
Works Cited
Anderson, William L. Cherokee Removal: Before and After. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia P, 1991. 75-83.
Jackson, Andrew. "Andrew Jackson's Second Annual Message." PBS. Comp. James D. Richardson. 4 Apr. 2007 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h3437t.html.
Johnston, Carolyn R. Cherokee Women in Crisis: Trail of Tears, Civil War, and Allotment, 1838-1907. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama P, 2003. 56-78.
In the essay, “The Trail of Tears” by author Dee Brown explains that the Cherokees isn’t Native Americans that evaporate effectively from their tribal land, but the enormous measure of sympathy supported on their side that was abnormal. The Cherokees process towards culture also the treachery of both states and incorporated governments of the declaration and promises that contrived to the Cherokee nation. Dee Brown wraps up that the Cherokees had lost Kentucky and Tennessee, but a man who once consider their buddy named Andrew Jackson had begged the Cherokees to move to Mississippi but the bad part is the Indians and white settlers never get along together even if the government wanted to take care of them from harassment it shall be incapable to do that. The Cherokee families moved to the West, but the tribes were together and denied to give up more land but Jackson was running for President if the Georgians elects him as President he agreed that he should give his own support to open up the Cherokee lands for establishment.
McNamara, Robert. "Indian Removal and the Trail of Tears." About.com. N.p., 2014. Web. 24 Feb. 2014. .
In The Cherokee Removal, Perdue and Green show the trials that the Cherokee faced in the years from 1700 to 1840. This book shows how the Americans tried to remove these Indians from the southeastern part of the United States. The Cherokees tried to overcome the attempts of removal, but finally in 1838, they were removed from the area.
“Quantie’s weak body shuddered from a blast of cold wind. Still, the proud wife of the Cherokee chief John Ross wrapped a woolen blanket around her shoulders and grabbed the reins.” Leading the final group of Cherokee Indians from their home lands, Chief John Ross thought of an old story that was told by the chiefs before him, of a place where the earth and sky met in the west, this was the place where death awaits. He could not help but fear that this place of death was where his beloved people were being taken after years of persecution and injustice at the hands of white Americans, the proud Indian people were being forced to vacate their lands, leaving behind their homes, businesses and almost everything they owned while traveling to an unknown place and an uncertain future. The Cherokee Indians suffered terrible indignities, sickness and death while being removed to the Indian territories west of the Mississippi, even though they maintained their culture and traditions, rebuilt their numbers and improved their living conditions by developing their own government, economy and social structure, they were never able to return to their previous greatness or escape the injustices of the American people.
To many the trail of tears has no meaning or relevance in their life, but for some the Trail of Tears has great meaning since many of the native ancestors endured the hardships of this time. In the 1830s, Native Americans occupied many acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, and Florida. The main reason for the Trail of Tears was because the Americans wanted the Indians’ land for themselves so they could raise their cattle, and because of the good soil so they could grow and harvest crops. Their ancestors had lived on and cultivated this land for generations, and by the end of that generation very few Native Americans remained anywhere in the Southeastern United States. Many think that The Trail of Tears was just the “Five Civilized Tribes”, but there were many other smaller tribes involved too. Some tribes agreed to sign, and others were forced into it, but either way it went they all had to leave. Many Native Americans suffered from exposure, disease, and starvation on their way to their destinations, making The Trail of Tears one of the greatest hardships in Native American history.
The United States government's relationship with the Native American population has been a rocky one for over 250 years. One instance of this relationship would be what is infamously known as, the Trail of Tears, a phrase describing a journey in which the Native Americans took after giving up their land from forced removal. As a part of then-President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act, this policy has been put into place to control the natives that were attempting to reside peacefully in their stolen homeland. In the viewpoint of the Choctaw and Cherokee natives, removal had almost ultimately altered the culture and the traditional lifestyle of these people.
Along the way 4,000 Indians died because of the harsh terrane and the cruelty of the soldiers and many of them are buried in unmarked graves along the trail of tears. The trail of tears has been Know according to a white Georgian the “Cruelest work I ever knew”(Tindall pg 343).A few Cherokees Indians hide in the mountains and became knew as the Eastern Band of Cherokees. Later the Creeks and the Chickasaws went back to try to take back control of their lands. During the trail of tears nearly 100,000 Indians were forced to relocate to the west. The government during that time sold about 100 million acres of Native American lands, and most of the land was prime cotton growing
The Trail of Tears was a horrific time in history from the Cherokee Indians. May 18, 1830 was the beginning of a devastating future for the Cherokee Indians. On that day congress officially passed Andrew Jackson’s Indian removal act. This policy granted President Andrew Jackson the right to force the Cherokee tribe consisting of about 13,000 people off of their reservations consisting of about 100 million acres east of the Mississippi River in the Appalachian Mountains and to attend a long and torturous journey consisting of about 1,200 miles within nine months until they reached their new home, a government-mandated area with in present-day Oklahoma. They left their land which was home to the “Five Civilized Tribes” which were assimilated
The removal of the Cherokee Indians from their lands in the southeast is the largest Indian relocation in American history (Sides 362). It was unjust for the Americans to seize Indian land in order to make room for more Americans and immigrants. The Indians had done nothing to deserve this type of brutal treatment. These Indians had no way of fighting back to the Americans, so it was both unfair and unjust. The Trail of Tears, or as Indians called it The Trail where the Wept, was a trail of sickness and despair (Ehle 385). No person should ever have to go through what the Cherokees and other tribes went through. Even though the Americans had some viable reasons to desire the Indian land, they had no right of forcibly removing the Indians out without all of their consent.
The Removal Act of 1830 paved the way for the hesitant and generally—journey of ten of thousands of Native Americans to move more westward. The very first removal treaty was signed after the Removal Act of 1830. This treaty made Choctaws in Mississippi ceded land east of the river. The U.S. government would give money in exchange for land in the east of the river for land in the west. The Choctaw chief quoted to Arkansas Gazette that in 1831 Choctaw Removal was a Trail of Tears and downfalls. The treaty signed in 1835 was known as the Treaty of Echota, which resulted in the removal of the Cherokees on “The Trail of Tears.” The Seminoles decided not to leave also as the other tribes left peacefully. The Seminoles resisted leaving their homeland. In winter of 1838-39, fourteen thousand were marched one thousand two hundred miles through Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas. Roughly estimated four thousand died from lack of food, exposure and disease. The government soldiers would appear without notice at a Cherokee front door and order the people inside the home, men women and children, to immediately evacuate and take only what each could carry. They were forced marched to thoughtlessly assembled barriers like cattle and le...
The Cherokee Indians, the most cooperative and accommodating to the political institutions of the united states, suffered the worst fate of all Native Americans when voluntarily or forcibly moved west. In 1827 the Cherokees attempted to claim themselves as an independent nation within the state of Georgia. When the legislature of the state extended jurisdiction over this ‘nation,’ the Cherokees sought legal actions, not subject to Georgia laws and petitioned the United States Supreme Court. The case became known as Cherokee Nation vs. Georgia in 1831. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall denied their claim as a republic within Georgia, he then deemed the Cherokee as a ‘domestic dependent nation’. One year later through the case of Worcester vs. Georgia, the Cherokee’s were granted federal protection from the molestation by the state of Georgia. Through the Indian Removal act in 1830 President Andrew Jackson appropriated planning and funding for the removal of Native Americans, Marshall’s rulings delayed this for the Cherokee Nation, and infuriated President Jackson. Marshall’s decision had little effect on Jackson and ignoring this action the president was anxious to see him enforce it.
During the earlier years of the 1800’s many Native Americans were relocated to the west of the Mississippi. This event was known as The Removal of 1838. In the book, “Voices from The Trail of Tears,” by Vicki Rozema, there are many stories and journals by a range of people that were involved in the removal of the Native Americas. The pictures that emerge about the Trail of Tears vary depending on who the document is written by.
Natives were forcefully removed from their land in the 1800’s by America. In the 1820’s and 30’s Georgia issued a campaign to remove the Cherokees from their land. The Cherokee Indians were one of the largest tribes in America at the time. Originally the Cherokee’s were settled near the great lakes, but overtime they moved to the eastern portion of North America. After being threatened by American expansion, Cherokee leaders re-organized their government and adopted a constitution written by a convention, led by Chief John Ross (Cherokee Removal). In 1828 gold was discovered in their land. This made the Cherokee’s land even more desirable. During the spring and winter of 1838- 1839, 20,000 Cherokees were removed and began their journey to Oklahoma. Even if natives wished to assimilate into America, by law they were neither citizens nor could they hold property in the state they were in. Principal Chief, John Ross and Major Ridge were leaders of the Cherokee Nation. The Eastern band of Cherokee Indians lost many due to smallpox. It was a year later that a Treaty was signed for cession of Cherokee land in Texas. A small number of Cherokee Indians assimilated into Florida, in o...
Unconcerned about the legitimacy of their actions, European colonisers took lands unjustifiably from indigenous people and put original inhabitants who had lived on the land for centuries in misery. The United States also shared similarities in dealing with native people like its distant friends in Europe. Besides the cession of vast lands, the federal government of the United States showed no pity, nor repentance for the poor Cherokee people. Theda Perdue, the author of “Cherokee Women and Trail of Tears,” unfolds the scroll of history of Cherokee nation’s resistance against the United States by analyzing the character of women in the society, criticizes that American government traumatized Cherokee nation and devastated the social order of
Ellis, Jerry. Walking the Trail: One Man's Journey along the Cherokee Trail of Tears. New