Cherokee Tribe Research Paper

In 1839, the Cherokee Nation was forced to give up its land east of the Mississippi river and move to an area in present-day Oklahoma. This migration was a part of Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Policy. The Cherokee people often called this journey the “Trail of Tears”, because of its devastating effects. There were also four more tribes involved with the Indian Removal. The Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee, and Seminole tribes. Altogether they were called the Five Civilized Tribes.

The Five Civilized Tribes were indigenous people in the United States. The Cherokee were located in upland Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. They speak an Iroquoian language and their population today is around three hundred thousand. The Chickasaw lived along the Tennessee river, west of present-day Huntsville, Alabama, and different parts of Mississippi and Kentucky. They spoke French and English, and were the only tribe to receive compensation for the removal policy. The Choctaw tribe was predominantly farmers and lived in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. They only had around twenty thousand members. The fourth tribe was the Muscogee tribe. They lived in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Alabama. They spoke a Muskogean language, and were closely related to the Seminole tribe. The

They did not get to bring any of their belongings with them, they also had to leave unexpectedly and immediately. Most of the indian people left their homes without shoes or moccasins on. After a series of treaties starting in 1801, the Choctaw nation’s land was reduced to eleven million acres. Over twenty five percent of the Cherokee tribe perished, that’s over four thousand people. People often died of cold, hunger, and disease on their march to the western lands. Many people lost their friends and family members. Some Cherokee indians were sent to internment camps in