The Trail of Tears is the journey of Native Americans that were forced to leave their home in Southeast Georgia and move to the new Indian Territory in moderate-day Oklahoma. People in Georgia continued to take American lands and force both Cherokee Indians and Creek Indians out of Georgia. By 1825 the Lower Creek was completely gone. In 1827 the Creek was gone.
In 1838, the Cherokees were the fifth major tribe to be forced to relocate to Indian Territory. More than 15,000 Indians were forced out by the U.S. Army. The name of the other five tribes that were forced to leave their homeland were the Choctaw, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Creek. 16,000 of the Choctaw Indians who journeyed across the Trail of Tears between 5,000 and 6,000 died in route.
The “Trail of Tears” got its name because of the devastating effects it had on the Cherokee people. The Cherokee faced hunger, diseases, and exhaustion on the forced removal. Over …show more content…
Even with physicians, many died from diseases such as cholera, dysentery, measles, and smallpox. No one knows how many people were buried on the trail or even how many survived.
The U.S. Government’s American removal policy devastated Indian cultures. The reason for the removal was because they lived on valuable land and the whites wanted it for growing cotton and other valuable crops. Some of the relocations were peaceful but others military force was required in some instances which made it more deadly for the Natives. The Chickasaw and Choctaw accepted the removal treaties and began marching west. But the other three tribes all tried to resist the relocation.
The Creeks resisted but were eventually forced through Alabama and across the Mississippi in 1836. The Seminoles went into war which was known as the Second Seminole War from 1835 until 1842. But they eventually lost their battle and following seven thousand deaths they relocated west of the Mississippi