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The tragic events of the trail of tears
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Trail of Tears
In the early 1830’s, several Native Americans were removed from their homelands and forced to move further west of the Mississippi River. This horrible event was known as the Trail of Tears. It involved several different tribes, however, the most commonly known was the Cherokee Indians.
During this time, Andrew Jackson was the president and was a large advocate for Indian removal. Jackson did whatever he could to achieve political satisfaction. He led several campaigns promoting the transfer of land from Indian landowners to white farmers. As president, Jackson was supposed to do whatever benefitted the good of all people in his country, however he did just the opposite. “Jackson’s willingness to allow Georgia to ignore
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decisions of the Supreme Court persuaded extreme southern states’ righters that he would not oppose the doctrine of nullification should it be formally applied to the law of congress.” Meaning, people were influenced by Jacksons poor decisions because he was president, so their thoughts were that he was doing the right thing. By 1830, he signed the Indian Removal Act. This act stated that the Native Americans will be forced to leave their land to east of the Mississippi but will be guaranteed land further west of the Mississippi. Throughout this time, there was no government support for the Native Americans. The Americans only cared about the well-being of themselves and their family, there was no consideration that the Natives had families too. “To them, American Indians seemed to be an unfamiliar, alien people who occupied land that white settlers wanted (and believed they deserved).” One person who was in favor of the Indians becoming civilized was Thomas Jefferson. He believed that the Indians should be allowed to colonize with the white Americans under a few circumstances. The Indians must first be converted to Christianity and turned into farmers. Throughout some time, there were sightings of the Indians converting over, however, this transformation was not something that was going to happen overnight. It was a process that would take time, and many of the American’s views changed on whether the Indians were capable of fitting into the American way of life. State governments were in favor of pushing the Native Americans out of the south. Several of the state governments even developed laws prohibiting the Native Americans from certain things. For example, Georgia had laws against Cherokees that stated they could not testify against whites, could not sell land, could not mine gold, and no public dissent. One of the main reasons for the removal of Indians was because of the gold discovery in Georgia. The Americans were very selfish during this time and did not was to see the Natives prosper more than themselves. In 1835, the government came up with the Treaty of Echota to justify the removal of the Natives. However, a group of about 100 Cherokees known as the Treaty Party debated the contents within this document and they finally came to the agreement to leave their land to the whites and move west of the Mississippi in exchange for five million dollars. John Ross was a member of the treaty party and he spoke out for his people stating they felt betrayed by the treaty. One man who John Ross clashed heads with that Elias Boudinot.
Boudinot was a Cherokee Indian who went to a missionary school of color in Connecticut. Joining him at this school was his cousin John Ridge. While away at schooling, they both fell in love with American women. Elias has a strong relationship with Harriet Gold and they soon ended up marrying. The town was furious with this marriage and demanded that the school would be shut down immediately. Elias was a supporter of the Indian removal which caused disputes with John Ross. Ross created a petition that protested the treaty with nearly 16,000 Cherokee signatures. However, Boudinot plead for removal during this signing which made people think of him as a traitor. Ross and Boudinot’s relationship with one another continued to worsen. They attempted to form an agreement, however one could not be agreed upon. Once Elias’ wife Harriet died, he made his movement west before the Trail of Tears had even started. After settling in a new Cherokee nation, Boudinot was caught unexpectedly by a few Cherokee men who then murdered him by stabbing and tomahawking him right near his new house that he was building with his new …show more content…
wife. Once the Native Americans rejected the Treaty of Echota, it was time for military action to be taken in order to get them to leave the lands.
The new president Martin Van Buren sent 7,000 soldiers into Cherokee lands to gather them up and put them in stockades. A familiar stockade was called Fort Butler in Tennessee where nearly 3,000 Cherokee Indians passed through on their way West. There was about 30 different stockades spread out throughout the states of North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee but were only temporary living spots for the Cherokee Indians. Most of the stockades were packed with people and full of mud that was 6-8 inches high. The living conditions in these areas were horrid. The people were infested with disease ranging from measles, diarrhea, typhus, and small pox. Another contagious disease spread among the trail was Malaria. “Malaria was caused by insects or bug bites from certain animals.” The sanitation was also very low which allowed for the sicknesses to spread
rapidly. The Trail of Tears covered thousands of miles of land. It was a long journey to Oklahoma including over 250,000 Indians ranging from 25 different tribes. The most commonly known tribe was the Cherokees who were led by Major Ridge. He thought by copying everything the Americans did then they would be okay, however that was not the case. The Cherokees were striving to fit in. They built European style homes, built farms, had farm land and fields, developed an alphabet and written language, had newspapers, and even wrote a constitution. But still, after viewing this all, the Americans still fought for their removal and there were several thousands of deaths before the actually journey West began. The Americans wanted two things from the Natives, peace and land. “To them, American Indians seemed to be an unfamiliar, alien people who occupied land that white settlers wanted (and believed they deserved).” There was probably never going to be peace between the two considering all the harm the Americans caused to the Native Americans. Henry Knox stated that the Indian soil could not be taken from them without their consent. Although that did not stop the determined Americans. Once they had their mind set on something, there was really no way to change to outcome. The Cherokee Indians moved West throughout several different waves. The first waves were known as the old traditional settlers and then the newer waves were known as the new settlers. The old waves still did everything they knew traditionally, like cooking, cleaning, hunting. However, the new settlers were an outcast when getting to these old tribes. The new settlers practiced their way of living like the Americans did. They were trying their best to fit into the American way of life that they forgot what their old traditions were. When making this movement West, the Cherokee tribes traveled through the present day states of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. The first few tribes who made this journey started out in the early 1830s. There was about 16 different detachments containing 1,000 Indians each to travel with each other. There was not just one route you could follow on the travel West. The Trail of Tears was traveled along several different routes however, they almost all ended near the same place of present day Oklahoma. Throughout this gruesome walk, disease spread like a wild fire. The types of diseases included measles, small pox, malaria, fevers, and typhus. The disease to spread most quickly was typhus, however it was not the deadliest of the diseases. Typhus was a type of rash that spread rapidly from person to person. The thing that caused the most deaths was small pox. It killed the majority of Native Americans along the trail. Fevers were most common in children and could get as high as 106 degrees. Some of the diseases were curable with antibiotics, however some you just had to wait out and hope for the best. The Native Americans were very skilled at making new medicines to try and cure the sickness. No matter how sick the person was, they had to keep pushing through on their journey. The Native Americans walked this long trail in harsh weather conditions. The winters were too cold to hunt for food so they only had “two cups of hot water, corn bread and only on turnip per day”. As a result of this malnourishment, many people died of starvation because they were too weak to keep moving forward. Another cause of death was dehydration because they could only drink fresh water when they came across a stream, river or lake which happened rarely. The Native Americans were kept on track by American guards. These guards caused a lot of conflict with the Natives for a few different reasons. If the guards felt threatened that the Cherokees were going to take their land back, they would kill them. If the Cherokees stopped to cry over a dead loved one, they’d get shot too because the guards felt the need to keep everything moving along. The guards were not the only thing harassing the Cherokees. The Native Americans were get tortured by nature too. For nearly six months, the Native Americans were tortured by the weather outside. It got so bad at times that they would rather be dead than making the walk. The aftermath of the Trail of Tears was horrific. The Cherokee tribe lost 4,000 out of their 15,000 tribal members from the weather, diseases, and poor sanitation. The name Trail of Tears was given because it literally was one big, long trail containing thousands of tears. People cried because of leaving their homes, their loved ones, or in fear for the future. Many people knew they were not going to survive the long walk, however they still pushed through. Another reason contributing to the name of the trail is that when the Natives cried, their tears turned into crystals by the water which created the pathway or trail. There are currently still Cherokee Indians spread throughout America and living well. Although this event happened several hundred years ago, “the Cherokees have sought to maintain much of their cultural identity”. There are nearly 20,000 Cherokee speaking Indians still around who live primarily in North Carolina and Oklahoma. There are more Cherokees in those state because that is where their homeland was after the Trial of Tears. Although most live there, some have moved and explored more than what their traditions call for. Overall, the Trail of Tears was a long agonizing time period for the Native Americans. It made them feel worthless, intimidated, scared, worried, and anxious all at the same time. The Trail of Tears was something that never should have happened. The Americans were selfish people who needed to think about their actions before actually portraying them. In fact, there are still Cherokee tribe members around today who will never forgive the Americans for all that they did to the Cherokee ancestors. Native Americans deserved a lot more respect than what they received from the Americans.
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.
Under the Jackson Administration, the changes made shaped national Indian policy. Morally, Andrew Jackson dismissed prior ideas that natives would gradually assimilate into white culture, and believed that removing Indians from their homes was the best answer for both the natives and Americans. Politically, before Jackson treaties were in place that protected natives until he changed those policies, and broke those treaties, violating the United States Constitution. Under Jackson’s changes, the United States effectively gained an enormous amount of land. The removal of the Indians west of the Mississippi River in the 1830’s changed the national policy in place when Jackson became President as evidenced by the moral, political, constitutional, and practical concerns of the National Indian Policy.
... the unwilling tribes west of the Mississippi. In Jackson’s letter to General John Coffee on April 7, 1832, he explained that the Cherokees were still in Georgia, and that they ought to leave for their own benefit because destruction will come upon them if they stay. By 1835, most eastern tribes had unwillingly complied and moved west. The Bureau of Indian Affairs was created in 1836 to help out the resettled tribes. Most Cherokees rejected the settlement of 1835, which provided land in the Indian territory. It was not until 1838, after Jackson had left office, that the U.S. Army forced 15,000 Cherokees to leave Georgia. The hardships on the “trail of tears” were so great that over 4,000 Cherokees died on their heartbreaking westward journey. In conclusion, the above statement is valid and true. The decision the Jackson administration made to remove the Cherokee Indians to lands west of the Mississippi River was a reformulation of the national policy. Jackson, along with past Presidents George Washington, James Monroe, and Thomas Jefferson, tried to rid the south of Indians This process of removing the native people was continuous as the years went on.
Trail of Tears was the description of the journey Indians had to endure. The Indians were forced to leave their homes and families and move to the west, which is now known as Oklahoma. The Trial was not one specific road, trail, route or river traveled, the Indians traveled different routes to get to Oklahoma. Some of the Indians traveled upriver with steamboats (Sloan). Some of the Indians formed large Caravans that carried wagons full of their belongings and animals (Sloan). A lot of the Indians traveled through Arkansas to get to Oklahoma (Sloan). Tribes and other people would leave food, supplies and firewood along the way to help the Indians out (Sloan). Weather was often cold in the winter and very dry during the summer (Sloan). A lot of the Indians did not make it to Oklahoma due to them catching Diseases such as Cholera, dysentery, measles and smallpox (Sloan). They do not know exactly where “Trail of Tears” originated from some say, it started with the Choctaw since they were the first ...
President Andrew Jackson was a very controversial man. At times, he fights for the common man with a clear head and a sharp mouth, but at others, his rage blinds him from what is truly happening around him. Nevertheless, he fought valiantly for keeping the Union together and for the ordinary citizen's rights as an American. The "black mark" of his presidency was the forced relocation of Native American peoples, from lands which they had live for many generations. Andrew Jackson was a living oxymoron. As James Patron wrote in Jackson's biography, Jackson was "the most law-defying, law-obeying citizen. A stickler for discipline, he never hesitated to disobey his superior."
...convince us Indians that our removal was necessary and beneficial. In my eyes, the agreement only benefited Andrew Jackson. It is apparent that Jackson neglected to realize how the Indian Removal act would affect us Indians. When is the government justified in forcibly removing people from the land they occupy? If you were a Native American, how would you have respond to Jackson? These questions need to be taken into consideration when determining whether or not Jackson was justified. After carefully examining these questions and considering both the pros and cons of this act, I’m sure you would agree that the removal of Native Americans was not justified under the administration of Andrew Jackson. Jackson was not able to see the damaging consequences of the Indian removal act because of his restricted perspective.
...(Perdue 20). It gave them two years to prepare for removal. Many of the Cherokees, led by John Ross, protested this treaty. However, in the winter of 1838-1839, all of the Cherokees headed west toward Oklahoma. This removal of the Cherokees is now known, as the Trail of Tears was a very gruesome event. During the trip from the southern United States to current day Oklahoma, many of the Cherokees died. Shortly after their arrival in Oklahoma, they began to rebuild. They began tilling fields, sending their children to school, and attending Council meetings (Perdue 170).
The trail of tears was a hideous harsh horrible time that the Native Americans will not forget the 1830s about 100,000 Native Americans peacefully lived on 1,000,000 and 1,000,000 of akers. They have been on this land generations before the wight men arrived. There was gold found in Gorga and the land was for ital. They used huge cotton plantations because the people would get rich off of them. In 1830 Andrew Jackson privily sinned the removal act. Te removal act gave the Government the power to trade the land for the land that the Native Americans were on. The Native Americans did not want to move, but the precedent sent troops to force the removal. Solders who looted there homes traveled 15,000 Cherokees, and gunpoint marched over 12,000
The United States government's relationship with the Native American population has been a rocky one for over 250 years. One instance of this relationship would be what is infamously known as, the Trail of Tears, a phrase describing a journey in which the Native Americans took after giving up their land from forced removal. As a part of then-President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act, this policy has been put into place to control the natives that were attempting to reside peacefully in their stolen homeland. In the viewpoint of the Choctaw and Cherokee natives, removal had almost ultimately altered the culture and the traditional lifestyle of these people.
The Indian removal was so important to Jackson that he went back to Tennessee to have the first negotiations in person. He gave the Indians a couple simple alternatives. Alternatives like to submit to state authority, or migrate beyond the Mississippi. Jackson Offered generous aid on one hand and while holding the threat of subjugation in the other. The Chickasaws and Choctaws submitted quickly. The only tribe that resisted until the end was the Cherokees. President Jackson’s presidency was tarnished by the way the U.S. government handled the Native Americans. Although financially, and economically Jackson truly was a good leader, some people view him in a negative way because of the “Indian Removal Act.”
Along the way 4,000 Indians died because of the harsh terrane and the cruelty of the soldiers and many of them are buried in unmarked graves along the trail of tears. The trail of tears has been Know according to a white Georgian the “Cruelest work I ever knew”(Tindall pg 343).A few Cherokees Indians hide in the mountains and became knew as the Eastern Band of Cherokees. Later the Creeks and the Chickasaws went back to try to take back control of their lands. During the trail of tears nearly 100,000 Indians were forced to relocate to the west. The government during that time sold about 100 million acres of Native American lands, and most of the land was prime cotton growing
President Jackson singlehandedly led the destruction of the Native Americans with his aggressive actions and hostile decisions. President Jackson shirked his responsibility to protect the Native Americans of the United States by ignoring the Supreme Court’s decision, promoting legislation to bring about the separation of Native Americans and whites, and his decision to involve the United States Armed Forces against Indian Tribes. If it was not for President Jackson’s actions, the future of the Native Americans would have been different, or at least the American settlers wanted Indian land for many reasons. These reasons include geography and terrain, location, resources, and old grudges. First, the geography was perfect for farmers with fertile land.
At the time Andrew Jackson was president, there was a fast growing population and a desire for more land. Because of this, expansion was inevitable. To the west, many native Indian tribes were settled. Andrew Jackson spent a good deal of his presidency dealing with the removal of the Indians in western land. Throughout the 1800’s, westward expansion harmed the natives, was an invasion of their land, which led to war and tension between the natives and America, specifically the Cherokee Nation.
The tragedy of the Cherokee nation has haunted the legacy of Andrew Jackson"'"s Presidency. The events that transpired after the implementation of his Indian policy are indeed heinous and continually pose questions of morality for all generations. Ancient Native American tribes were forced from their ancestral homes in an effort to increase the aggressive expansion of white settlers during the early years of the United States. The most notable removal came after the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The Cherokee, whose journey was known as the '"'Trail of Tears'"', and the four other civilized tribes, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole, were forced to emigrate to lands west of the Mississippi River, to what is now day Oklahoma, against their will. During the journey westward, over 60,000 Indians were forced from their homelands. Approximately 4000 Cherokee Indians perished during the journey due to famine, disease, and negligence. The Cherokees to traveled a vast distance under force during the arduous winter of 1838-1839.# This is one of the saddest events in American history, yet we must not forget this tragedy.
The Trail of Tears is a historical title given to an event that happened in 1838.In this event, the Cherokee community of Native Americans was forced by the USA government to move from their native home in the Southern part of the contemporary America to what is known as the Indian territories of Oklahoma. While some travelled by water, most of them travelled by land. The Cherokees took 6 months to complete an 800 miles distance to their destination.