Trail Of Tears Summary

The American-Indian documentary film is based on the historical eviction of the Native Americans from their homelands. The documentary is a five part series that span from the 17th to the 20th century beginning with the arrival of the Puritans, the tensions with the Native Americans and their eventual eviction from their homelands. Part III ‘Trail of Tears’ is about tribal debates on how the Cherokee people accepted the policy of assimilation into the Western lifestyle in order to keep their lands and safeguard the Cherokee nation but the white Americas discriminated them regarding them as savages. Their removal was part of Andrew Jackson’s policy to forcefully evict the Indians from the east of the Mississippi River to Oklahoma. The journey is referred to as the ‘Trail of

The most noteworthy scene is the description of the Trail of Tears itself by exposing the deplorable conditions during the trail and in the remand prisons. During the fall and winter of 1838 and 1839, the Cherokee made their trip for over six months on the 800 miles trail through the Georgia countryside to Oklahoma Indian Territory (Burgan 4). While a few traveled by boats, many of the Cherokees travelled on land. The scene where the sick and the elderly succumbed to the journey and the struggles of women carrying their babies is touching. The Cherokee march through difficult weather conditions across the snowy trails during winter. Many of them died while others, who survived the journey, lived to tell about nu na hi du na tlo hi lu i or ‘the trail where they cried.’ Those held in the camps were among the last groups to move. They found that the trail resources had been depleted by marchers before them. Consequently, most of them succumbed to starvation and