Analysis Of The Trail Of Tears By Raphäel Lemkin

Before the 1940’s the word genocide was nonexistent as it was first coined in the book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe by Raphäel Lemkin in 1944. The word genocide meaning geonos from the Greek prefix of race or tribe and cide from the Latin prefix for killing was developed by Lemkin's in response to the Holocaust and the multiple instances of targeting of particular groups that had occurred. Lemkin not only founded a term that would define tragedy in history; he led a campaign to recognize and organize genocide as an international crime One event which has been debated over the years as fitting into the definition of genocide is the Trail of Tears. The Trail of Tears was the forced removal of the Cherokee nation to the west of the Mississippi

As explained by Dale Van Every in his book the Disinherited, “ …. he [ indian] loved the land with a deeper emotion than could any proprietor. He felt himself as much a part of it as the rocks and trees, the animals and birds. His homeland was holy ground, sanctified for him as the resting place of the bones of his ancestors and the national shrine of his religion”. By uprooting from their spiritual home, many faced lasting mental impact. In the new land ( a dry, infertile undesirable land) the Cherokee were faced with the tasks of rebuilding their life and culture from scratch. The home where the ancestors were buried, the one place that had all the memories of their life was gone to the white settler. To make matter worse, immediately after the people were rounded up and being transported to their new location. The Cherokees white neighbors looted the abandoned houses, stole personal items like pots and pan, and some even vandalized scared graves in search of gold and silver. In some cases, while the Indians were being forced out of their land, behind them they could see fire engulfing their homes by the white settlers who followed the tail of the soldier pushing the people out of the area. In addition, the people were startled and physically removed from their land. Accounts from survivors described how troops unexpectedly invaded and searched every corner of the land taking anyone and everyone they saw as prisoners. Families at dinner were interrupted with a bayonet at the doorway, men were taken from the road, or the field, women, spinning the wheel and children at plan were stopped and forced to walk to the stockade. The events that unfolded as a