...century, they claimed hunting grounds that extended into Kentucky, but they clustered their villages and agricultural fields in the valleys of upcountry South Carolina, western North Carolina, east Tennessee, north Georgia, and northeastern Alabama, they also spoke four mutually intelligible dialects of an Iroquoian. There were ten million Native Americans on this continent when the first non-Indians arrived. Over the next 300 years, 90 percent of all Native American original population was either wiped out by disease, famire, or warfare imported by the whites. Nineteenth century, the United States forced the Cherokee Nation to surrender its homeland and relocate west of the Mississippi witch is the event known as the trail of tears. The term “Trail of tears.” A rough translation of the Cherokee nunna dual tsung, describes the trek of heart broken people to their new homes in the west. The discovery of the new world by European explorers caused endless problems for American Indians, whose homelands were gradually taken from them and whose cultures were dramatically altered, and in some cases destroyed, by the invasion. By the next two centuries more and more white settlers arrived, and the native cultures responded to pressures to adopt the foreign ways, leading to the deterioration of their own culture. During the colonial period Indian tribes often became embroiled in European colonial wars. If they were on the losing side, they frequently had to give up parts of their...
Words: 740 - Pages: 3
...Native Americans ( Cherokee) Randall Cartright Eth/125 January/29/2012 Don Yost Abstract Native Americans ( Cherokee) They have faced migration, and annexation. Consequences: Extermination ( almost), expulsion, and segregation. Trail of Tears How? How could a horror have come from such an innocent act? A child sells a trader a rock. But greed unrestricted fears no God. And it has an appetite that can never be satiated. It has been my fate to have been involved in, and an observer of a nation turning it’s back on all of it’s most noble principles. How you recover from that will be left to posterity and the great Judge of all to address. For me it started when I was a young man back in the Smokey Mountain region of Tennessee. I was selected to go with the great Chief Junaluska to fight with the United States soldiers against the Creek. The Creek nation had aligned themselves with the invading British. Who could have believed that such bravery would be repaid someday with such treachery? It was Chief Junalusk’s idea alone to capture the Creek’s canoes at the battle of Horse Shoe and cut of their only means of retreat. It was Chief Junaluska’s quick action that saved Andrew Jackson’s life. I heard Andrew Jackson say to Chief Junaluska:” As long as the sun shines and the grass grows, there will be friendship between us, and the feet of the Cherokee shall be toward the east.” How quickly would those words become a mockery to the...
Words: 1243 - Pages: 5
...Trail Of Tears “Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race.” ― Martin Luther King Jr The Trail of Tears was an unjust and On September 15, 1830, at Little Dancing Rabbit Creek, the Chiefs of the Choctaw Nation and representatives of the U.S. met to discuss the impact of a bill recently passed by the Congress of the U.S. This bill with all the same good intentions of those today who believe they know better than we how to conduct our lives, allowed for the removal of all Indian peoples to the West of the Mississippi River. It had been made clear to the Choctaw, that the Whites in Washington cared little for the Native americans situation, that either they willingly moved, or by military force they would be moved. were not ignorant savages, but industrious farmers, merchants, and businessmen of all types. We were educated people, many were Christians. The native americans had an organized system of government and a codified body of law. Some of these people were not even Indians, many strangers and orphans had been taken in over the years. The Chiefs and Warriors signed the treaty, realizing they had no option.(of what nation?) For doing this the government officials guaranteed, in the body of the treaty, (what treaty?)safe conveyance to our new homes. (where did you find this information?)(Do not forget for a moment that in this treaty, the Choctaw traded 10.3 million acres of land...
Words: 836 - Pages: 4
...Trail of Tears At the beginning of the 1830’s about 100,000 Native Americans owned millions of acres of land throughout the southeast of the United States. These states were Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, and Florida, the Native Americans believed this land was the land their ancestors had, and their God had given to them. The southern Indians had plenty of land about twenty five million acres, virtually the entire inland south and were more numerous than the Northern Indian people. By the end of the decade very few Native Americans still remained in this land because the government forced them to leave their land because the white wanted their territory. White settles wanted Indian land because they wanted to grow cotton, and there was gold where the Cherokees inhabited. The Native Americans were forced to walk thousands of miles to Indian Territory, many of them died of diseases or hunger, and this is why it became known as the trail of tears. Most Native Americans belonged to the five tribes which were the: Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole. The Choctaw were the first to negotiate for their land with the federal government in 1830 they agreed to give up their property for western land. The government in the other hand had no experience in transporting large amount of people from state to state so on the journey to their new land many Native Americans died from exhaustion, exposure, malnutrition and disease while traveling. In 1828 Andrew...
Words: 913 - Pages: 4
...Trail of Tears The book The Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation by John Ehle was published on September 22, 1988 by Anchor Books. The book has 424 pages. John Ehle, the author, has written over seventeen books. Most of his books deal with civil rights, the Cherokee Nation, French wine and cheese and Irish whiskey. This book specifically deals with the Cherokee Nation during around the 1790s to the 1840s. The book did not seem to really discuss the actual trail of tears but rather the Cherokees Nation rise and fall. However, the book seemed to focus on the more successful or richer Cherokees. Reflecting on the title, it is called the rise and fall of the Cherokee nation but Ehle only seems to cover the rise and fall of specific people and events. The Trail of Tears focuses mainly on Major Ridge and his family, specifically his son John Ridge and his nephews Elias Boudinot and Stand Waite and other missionaries who were sent to convert the Cherokees to Christianity. Major Ridge would not convert to Christianity but did accept some of the white ways for his family. The principal chief of the Cherokee was named John Ross who was believed by many to be in state of denial. Ross and his followers blame Ridge and his followers for selling the Cherokee out when they sign the Treaty of 1835 that puts the seal on the removal. . Major Ridge was born around 1771 and died on June 22, 1839. Ridge married Sehoya who was a mixed-blood Cherokee in 1792. Ridge could not...
Words: 378 - Pages: 2
...Trail of Tears California College San Diego HIS220 October 4, 2014 Will Palmer Trail of Tears Long before Amerigo Vespucci and other European explorers reached the New World, Native Americans successfully inhabited the land. There has been much debate as to how many people were here. It has been documented as high as 16 million to as low as under four million (Brinkley, 2008). The Europeans’ relationship with the Native Americans was that of give and take. Both taught each other techniques for cultivating crops, the introduction of domestic livestock and basic survival. The Europeans not only bought with them diseases that killed millions of Native Americans, but also their conviction that their own civilization was greatly superior to that of the natives (Brinkley, 2008). This discussion will include Andrew Jackson’s opinion and policy concerning Native Americans, white Americans’ opinion of Native Americans, the “Five Civilized Tribes,” and the Trail of Tears. Before becoming the President of the United States, Andrew Jackson had already made a name for himself in history. He was a lawyer, politician and judge, wealthy planter and merchant, and in 1801 received the appointment of the commander of the Tennessee militia. During the War of 1812, white settlers near the Spanish owned Florida border were under attack by the Creek Indians. According to Brinkley (2008), on March 27, 1814, in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, Jackson and his men retaliated and slaughtered...
Words: 993 - Pages: 4
...Sara Watson HIST 1301-325 Trail of Tears Major General Winfield Scott arrived May 8 to take command of the military operation of the removal of the Cherokee Indians. His May 10, 1838 address to the Cherokee people basically said that the president had sent him with an army to make them obey the Treaty of 1835 to move to the other side of the Mississippi. He says that they need to leave with haste but hopefully without disorder. Scott states that his troops are coming to help “assist” the Cherokees if they are refusing or not leaving fast enough. Scott really did want them to leave without having to shed any blood or have any resistance. Scott had told his troops to be kind to the Cherokees and compatible with their removal. His intentions were humane but the larger portion of his army was state levies unaccustomed to discipline and without his professional susceptibilities. Most of the Cherokee to be removed were inhabitants of Georgia and their apprehension was conducted by Georgia militia who had long as a matter of policy been habituated to dealing harshly with Indians. Cherokee were to be herded and confined while awaiting transportation west. There was little to no likelihood of attempted resistance. Within days nearly 17000 Cherokee had been crowded into the stockades. Sanitation measures were inadequate and many inmates sickened. Many lost any will to live and lost all glimmer of hope. In the first and second weeks of June 2 detachments of some 800 exiles...
Words: 653 - Pages: 3
...The Trail of Tears: Cherokee Tribe November 16th, 2015 The Trail of Tears remains one of the worst human rights disaster in United States history. At the beginning of the 1830’s, more than ten thousand Cherokees were taken from their homes. They were forced by the United States government to leave their homelands because of the white settlers. They ended up in the future State of Oklahoma. By the end of the decade very few Native Americans remained in the Southern United States. However due to the horrid conditions, masses of them died due to starvation during relocation. It caused a large amount of stress among the Cherokee people. This difficult journey was known as the Trail of Tears. Migration from the original Cherokee nation began in the early 1800’s. Some Cherokees moved west on their own and settled in other areas of the country. A group known as the old settlers had voluntarily moved in 1817 to lands given to them in Arkansas. While there, they established a government. Later, however, they were forced to migrate to Indian Territory. They were not given an alternative if they “wanted” to move or not. It wasn’t up to them as far as decision making. The move was extremely difficult and treacherous. In 1835 the United States government used the Treaty of New Echota to justify the removal. Known as the Treaty Party, signed by approximately one hundred Cherokees, it relinquished all lands, and the promise of livestock, various precision tools, and other benefits...
Words: 489 - Pages: 2
...Adsila: Journal Entry from the Trail of Tears There were ten million Native Americans on this continent when the first non-Indians arrived. Over the next 300 years, 90% of all Native American original population was either wiped out by disease, famine, or warfare imported by the whites. By 1840 all the eastern tribes had been subdued, annihilated or forcibly removed to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi (Cherokee By Blood; Trail of Tears, 2003). My name is Adsila, and this is my story. The year is 1839, but just barely. It is the second week of the New Year and cold here in Kentucky. We were all forced to leave our homelands in North Carolina and travel, mainly by foot, to the state of Oklahoma. Some of the elders, the sick and the young, have been permitted to ride in the wagons. Many have died from sickness, and I fear that most of the rest of us will not make it on the rest of this journey, which is only about half over with now (Cherokee North Carolina; Trail of Tears, 2010). Being that I am young, only 12 summers old, I do not understand why we have been forced to leave the lands of our birth. From things that I have heard the elders say, most of the reason we were forced to leave was because of the yellow rocks. The white man wants these rocks, because these rocks bring them money (Cherokee North Carolina; Trail of Tears, 2010) Money that they spend on our lands! The white man has brought nothing but trouble since they first stepped onto our lands. The...
Words: 1161 - Pages: 5
...the United States as the land of immigrants. In the U.S., migrants from all around the world come to America for a better life or better opportunities. What ever the reason migrants left their homeland for whether it was due to famine, lack of economic success, or escaping a debt, most migrants left because they had chosen this path for a better life. Unfortunately for one group of peoples, this choice was not left for them to decided and they had to suffer the loss of their sacred homeland which they had lived on for ages before any European had set foot in the Americas. These people were the Native American nations of the southeastern part of the the U.S., and the name of this migration was given the name the Trail of Tears. The migration of the Trail of Tears started i when President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act in 1930, which was setup up to rid the new American land of all natives and free it for all the new English settlers. This gradual process of removing these 46,000 natives tribes took place over a seven year span, between 1930-1937. This inter-regional migration of the the Native American tribes included the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and the Seminole peoples. They were all from the southeastern areas of the newly colonized United States. Though the natives were not removed immediately when the English settlers arrived to America, because most of them did feel the natives did have a right to their land. For example, when the Europeans arrived...
Words: 869 - Pages: 4
...This essay will talk about “We Shall Remain” epoxide 3 which talks about the trails of tears. The Trail of Tears is not a specific place, rather, it is the journey of those Native Americans who were forced from their homelands in the southeastern United States to Indian Territory, west of the Mississippi. To begin with, The Trail of Tears stays for a champion among the most terrible periods ever. It was the begin of destruction of Indian tribe the Cherokee. The Cherokee lived in what transformed into the United States quite a long while preceding the primary European set foot in the New World. Related to the Iroquois, they had moved to the southern Appalachians from the Great Lakes area. Following t American Revolution and the presentation...
Words: 531 - Pages: 3
...The Trail of Tears was a brutal encounter with nature, disease and the American government. It was an unjust tragedy that forced Native Americans to leave their homelands and endure unthinkable misfortune. The events leading up to the actual exile of the Native Americans was felt prior to the Trail of Tears and the repercussions of these events were felt far after the journey. Many unimaginable laws were passed to benefit the colonists in their pursuit of a better life at the expense of the Native Americans. Even though the Trail of Tears occurred in 1838 the events leading up to it started long before that time. 25,000 Native Americans lived on such lands as Florida, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina and Tennessee and included various tribes...
Words: 1490 - Pages: 6
...The Bureau of Indian Affairs have done many wrong doings in the past. Up until this day, Indians were treated unfairly by the BIA. The organization has many consequences for what the agency did in the past, even though they weren't the same people who enforced the rules and horrible actions of relocating the tribes. The Trail of Tears was a devastating, lengthy walk across the country for many Indian tribes. They were ordered to relocate to assigned Indian territory so that Americans could expand their land. The BIA played a big role in this, and they will most likely not be forgiven. The current employees of the BIA have to carry the consequences and criticism that the previous generation of workers did to the Indian tribes. No matter...
Words: 636 - Pages: 3
...Do not get me wrong, the Trail of Tears was an amazing experience because that was where the story of America began, where our Founding Fathers made history and changed the course of the American Revolution. Visiting the place where the Declaration of Independence was signed, the place where the Boston Massacre took place, and where Benjamin Franklin walked was an amazing experience. It helped that we had just watched National Treasure and took some of the same paths that Nicholas Cage took. What made the experience not so vogue was the graveyards. The first three were pretty neat since these gravesites are some of the oldest documented in America, however once you have seen eight graveyards in a day you have seen them all. Mile after mile we traveled in the heat of Boston...
Words: 1374 - Pages: 6
...In Trail of Tears , John Ehle draws and creates images of the people and the events and problems that led up to the trail of tears also known as the removal and killing of thousands of Cherokee Indians . This Act was put into place to make the indians move to Indian Territory in Arkansas and Oklahoma . This book takes place in the time periods of 1771 through about 1841. The settings takes place during the time when white settlers were trying to take over the Cherokee lands. Many of the lessons in this book helped shaped the world today , most importantly it keeps us to correct the past mistakes and not let these problems reoccurs .The Cherokee were a very religious tribe. They mainly worshipped the sun and prayed for great harvests. The...
Words: 454 - Pages: 2
