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
Sarah Vowell's empathetic feelings for the Cherokee is very touching. You definitely sense her high degree of care and interest about this topic. I felt that Vowell's main concerns revolved heavily around the unjust treatment toward the Cherokee, Andrew Jackson's Indian removal policy that ultimately led to Trail of Tears, and how modern Americans (in general) thoughtlessly neglect this piece of history. I intend to expand on her concerns, while properly expressing my perspective on these issues, as well.
After being seriously injured in the Battle of Chancellorsville, Tom Bridwell spent some weeks in a hospital, and then went home to recuperate. Jem liked having his father home, but it seemed that they couldn’t even sit down to dinner without the conversation turning to war. Jem’s grandfather could never understand why Jem’s dad didn’t share his beliefs. Tom suddenly has to leave for the war again. Jem is being torn between the two men he loves. He comes to believe what his father believes in and wants to go fight for Mr. Lincoln, but chores at the farm, his age, and his grandfather is what keeps him home.
I found this book to be a rather interesting read. I enjoyed how Levathes researched this book and wrote it to try to explain about this specific period of time and how it is very non-fiction.
The Long, Bitter Trail: Andrew Jackson and the Indians was written by Anthony F.C. Wallace. In his book, the main argument was how Andrew Jackson had a direct affect on the mistreatment and removal of the native Americans from their homelands to Indian Territory. It was a trail of blood, a trail of death, but ultimately it was known as the "Trail of Tears".
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.
William Hogeland did a great job at finding hidden stories that the majority didn’t know about. I wish it was a easier read but the information was told correctly. He indeed completed his point of the book because sometimes the past is lost to us future readers and we need to know all the events our founding Americans did to give us the country we have today. Also the book show the reader where exactly the federal government started taking control and how the people tried to fight for what they thought was an unjust law.
The Highway of Tears is a stretch of pavement that runs through central British Columbia. This road has caused many devastating moments in the 19-20th century. There has been many first nation and metis women murdered or gone missing along this highway. this essay will be explaining why this highway is so devastating to first nations and metis.
The United States may be glamor of hope and prosperity for many nations still undergoing democratic maturity and development; however, her story is one that combines deadly struggles and an array of governmental decisions that defined the path to freedom of now the world’s most powerful country. One of the ways to understand the history of the United States is through revisiting the Trail of Tears, which is documented in the film. We Shall Remain: Trail of Tears. Notably, the film documentary with five parts in total highlighting the history of Native Americans from the 17th
At the beginning of the 1830s there was nearly 125,000 native Americans that lived on “millions of acres of the land of Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida”.(history.com) These lands had been occupied and cultivated by their ancestors for generations before. Then because of The Trail of Tears was an “800-mile forced journey marked by the cruelty of soldiers”. (Tindall P.434) and by the end of the forced relocations very few Native Americans remained anywhere in the southwest. “working on behave of the white settlers federal government forced them to leave their lands and walk miles to an “Indian territory””.(history.com) .This all happened because of the Indian Removal act of 1930, which authorized the relocation of the eastern Indians to the west of the Mississippi river. The Cherokee Indians tried to fight the relocation and even with the Supreme Court’s support Andrew Jackson still forced them to leave their land. By the 1840s there wasn't many Cherokee Indians that still remained in the southwest.
“An American Betrayal Cherokee Patriots And The Trail Of Tears.” Kirkus Reviews 79.17 (2011) : 1570-1571 Literary Reference Center, Web, 6 March 2014
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.
Perdue, Theda, and Michael Green. The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears. New York: Penguin Books, 2007. Print.
The Trail of Tears was a hard battled journey for the Cherokee Nation. The Cherokee were driven to move west. They had to compromise and sign treaties, which drove them out of their land by the U.S. government. This was unfair to the Cherokees; the white settlers wanted the land for gold. Trail of tears is historically monumental because it shows the U.S. government cruelty to the Native Americans. It was unfair rights because they basically stole Cherokees land to satisfy their hunger for gold.
Ellis, Jerry. Walking the Trail: One Man's Journey along the Cherokee Trail of Tears. New