Understanding the Origins and Culture of Native Americans

Native Americans were known to be indigenous people because they were always settling in particular regions, so they were known as natives to the lands of America. Later on, Native Americans were known as American Indians. The Native Americans got their name from the first explorer of America, named Christopher Columbus. Christopher Columbus thought that he reached the Indies when he first came to America and so he decided to call the group native residents or “people of India” (Schaefer). Some of the Indian groups are The Cherokees, Navajos, Latin American Indians, Choctaw, Sioux, Chippewa, Apache, Blackfeet, Iroquois and Pueblo (Schaefer). There are many cultures that are related to Native Americans, but today I will discuss only one which is the Cherokee

The Trail of Tears happened between 1831-1939 in the states Virginia, West Virginia, North and South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida (Vann). A variety of Native Americans were a part of this terrible episode in Native American history and the Cherokees were one of them. In the Trail of Tears event, many Cherokee families that consisted of men, women and children died from being exposed to traumatic events such as starvation and fevers. The federal government had ordered the Native American tribes out of their lands and into other lands (Vann). They were removed from their lands by horrible politicians and military officials. As a result, many Cherokee Indians and their families lost their lives and didn’t make it all the way to their destinations. The reason why the government ordered many of the Native American groups out of the lands they had already owned was because the settlers argued for more land and the Cherokee Indians didn’t want to give up the land they had occupied and made their whole life (Vann). This whole event called the Trail of Tears demonstrated