The Rise And Fall Of The Cherokee Nation Sparknotes

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Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation by John Ehle is all about the events and the people that were involved in the Trail of Tears. The Trail of Tears was the removal of the whole Cherokee Nation to “Indian Territory” in which they would never “bother” whites again. Ehle puts the main focus on a particular group in order to gain the readers attention more. I think that he did this on purpose, because I definitely think that I was more sympathetic towards this group of people than I would have been if it was a bunch of random people through out the novel. The novel starts out with background of the Ridge family. Ridge was a cherokee man who was born not to long before the American Revolutionary war. Ridge became a warrior …show more content…

And this is where the beginning of the trail really started. Ehle informs the readers that after a gold strike in Georgia, the Americans began to view the Cherokee, Choctaw, and Creek as simply “wasting” the land that the whites were somehow entitled to. There were many Indians in various states who “had not been given citizenship or the rights of a freeman.” (Page 149) The legislature in Georgia began passing laws against the Cherokees. These laws included forbidding council meetings and proclaiming that the Indians were simply tenants of the land. This idea spread and it became apparent that the whites were going to take over the land, it was just a matter of time. John Ross is in complete denial that the native land is going to be taken. The Cherokee nation took their case to the Supreme Court. This was something I never knew either. The Supreme Court ruled that is was legal for the Cherokees to have their own nation. But Andrew Jackson ignored this ruling all together. John Ross is still in complete denial that the land is going to be taken. The readers never really discover how he thought the Cherokees would be able to defeat the white supremacy without a fight. Although, the Treaty of 1835 that initially “seals the deal.” The readers gather that Ross believed he could ease his way out of removing his people, but Andrew Jackson had everything already set and stone. After this treaty was signed, …show more content…

In May of 1838, General Winfield Scott brought soldiers in to carry out the Indians. One of the things I learned from reading this book was the fact that the leader of the Cherokee nation didn’t have to endure the same hardships as his people. The Cherokees were forced to travel through a very long, treacherous, and time-consuming land route that resulted in hundreds of deaths while Ross and his family went a much simpler water route. The Indians were initially brought to “collection camps” near river ports and this is where the dying began. Diseases were spreading like wildfire in these camps. I also couldn’t help but think of the horrific concept of concentration camps that occurred during the Holocaust. It is said that deaths have been as high as one in every four people during the trail. There was 11,000 people who had to endure this harsh journey to the Indian Territory, and once they arrived, the deaths did not stop. The journey itself was 1200 miles long which is something that is hard for me to even comprehend. The weather conditions were brutal during this time, and the book tells us that there is an estimated 4,000 Native Americans that died during this journey. The name of the trail even describes the harshness of this endeavor. I learned that the name came from the Indians themselves, and in their language, means the “trail where we

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