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Trail of Tears

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Submitted By seneca73
Words 1243
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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 Cherokee people and Chief Junaluska. For all too soon we would find out that words had no more value to them than the wind that carried them. And treaties existed to cover a nation’s callous greed. What value does a man put on his heritage? What price does he put on his heart, his home, his family? Can any amount of money replace a man, a people, a nation’s ties to the land that go deeper than any trees roots? And yet the government of the United States thought that was all that was necessary to get our people to give up our homes. My family had lived, worked and fought for this land for generations. How could the “white man’s” courts say that we weren’t a nation? Had we not a set land, and a language that united us? And after our brother Guess designed it a written language. But when a man or a nation’s eyes are fixed on gold, there are no depths to which he or they will not sink. May the paper that is that abominable lie of a “ Treaty of New Echola” be the only protection afforded to those soulless men, should they ever stand before me. And so wrapped behind the “white man’s” law and treaty the robbery of our land, our homes, and the murder of our people began. On such a beautiful and bright day in May of 1838 the combined regular army, militia, and private soldiers under the command of General Winfield Scott executed their evil upon us. What I shall share with you are all things I personally witnessed. Know this, what I tell you are stories that can be told by every Cherokee that still lives. Indeed of those of us that survive there is not a one who has not personally seen a member of their family not die in their arms. We were forced out of our homes at the end of a gun and bayonet. Helpless, and unarmed men, women, and children driven out of their homes. Being prevented from taking anything with them. So many more of us may have survived this forced “migration” if we had only been able to take the warm clothes and shoes and provisions necessary for such a forced march. One family had lost a child the day before the soldiers came. The women of the area gathered in that families home to help prepare the body of the poor child for burial. It was amongst the tears of the family and this solemn process that the soldiers broke into that home. Seeing what was happening did these men leave and let this family have their time of mourning? No they “arrested” all instantly, and drove them from that scene leaving the dead child’s body lying in the open. Leaving the body of that poor child to be disposed of by nature. In another home I watched as a frail widow with three small children, one of which was a baby, being forced out of her home. She could hardly believe what was happening to her. Being yelled at in a language she didn’t understand. Yet even with the brutal treatment she was receiving she was able to gather her children about her and there before the soldiers she knelt and prayed. Then nobly she rose from that position and set off with her captors. My heart broke as it would so many more times over the following months. As for that mother, her heart wasn’t strong enough for the journey. She died with the baby on her back and her two other children holding on to her hands. Chief Junaluska and I both watched this happen. I shall never forget the tears pouring down that great man’s cheeks. He said to me “ Oh my God, if I had known at the battle of the Horse Shoe what I know now, American history would have been differently written.” How many families were separated, one can only guess. Having only the sky for a blanket and the earth for a pillow. On a crisp October day 645 wagons had finally arrived. These were to be the only homes we were to know till our journeys end in the so called “ Indian Territories” west of the Mississippi. Can I ever forget the sight of Chief John Ross as he led us in prayer, not knowing the fate that would befall us, and him. The cold call of the army bugler to set us on our way. Children waving good-by to the only homes they had ever known. Our Chief John Ross weeping at the sight, not knowing the price he would also pay for this accursed act. You see he had the most dearest Christian wife any man could hope for. It was this Christian compassion that would eventually cost her, her own life. For seeing the plight of a sick child she gave up her own blanket for the protection of that sick child. She rode thinly clad through a blinding sleet and snow storm, developed pneumonia and died on a bleak winter’s night. 4000 unmarked graves line our route. One wonders what would have been the difference if they had purposed to remove the entire Cherokee nation from the memory of man. What would our fate have been then? For if this is what this government can accomplish by “accident” it would be a fearful thing to see what can be done with a concerted effort. I close my account knowing that my stories can be given by any Cherokee you may find. I can only trust that future generations will hear of our plight and wep as we did. And that the great Judge of all will call into account those executed such an evil upon our nation.

Sources: Powersource.com/Cherokee/burnett.html.\ Thomas Legion.net/Cherokee_trail_of_tears_map_history.html.\ http://www.cherokee-nc.com/index.php?page=58

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