Trail Of Tears: Removal Of Native Americans

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How would you feel if your homeland was taken away from you? This happened to the Cherokee Indians in the early 1800s. They fought to keep their land but they eventually lost the battles. They were then forced to embark on a journey known as the Trail of Tears where many families have died.
There were many events that lead to the removal of the Indian tribes. The first contact between the southeast American Indians and the Europeans was in 1540 during the expedition of Hernando de Soto. Right of the bat, the Native Americans weren’t treated properly.They were taken as captives for slave labor. Others were abused because they were deemed as savages. They continued living peacefully until the early 1800s when the U.S. started expanded into the …show more content…
There, they were separated into sixteen detachments of one thousand people each. They had to oversee their own removal that started in May of 1838 by General Winfield Scott and President Martin Van Buren. The Cherokee that lived on privately owned land before the act was implemented were not forced to move. The Trail of Tears started in Red Clay, Tennessee and it extended about 1,000 miles. It went through Tennessee, Kentucky, Southern Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas,and finally into Indian Territory. The Cherokee had to travel by foot or rode on horseback. They also traveled by boat when the got to rivers like the Tennessee River, Ohio River, Mississippi River, and the Arkansas River. One Cherokee leader that walked the trail was John Ross. Most of the Cherokees died on the journey due to disease, malnutrition, and cold weather. They were not allowed in villages and towns along the way because of disease. This made the journey longer as they had to go around the towns. When the stream water was frozen, the Cherokees had to cut through it to get water for themselves as well as their animals. After about three months, the Cherokee settled in their territory which is modern day Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The other four tribes that belonged in the Five Civilized Tribes were forced to move. These tribes were the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee, and the Seminole. There were also a few removal of Indian tribes in the …show more content…
There was tension between the new Indians that had just arrived and the Indians who have already settled. They also sought to maintain their cultural identity. The Cherokees were being pressured into having some of their cultural beliefs changed, which eventually happened. They felt that they had to live by the foreign ways of life. They did, however, keep their use of herbal medicines. The Natives settled into hilly, wooded areas because it reminded them of their homeland. They had to also face the problem of adapting to their new environment and place in society. Thomas Jefferson believed that the Indians should be civilized. His definition of civilized was making the Indians convert to Christianity and making them become farmers. The Cherokees sought refuge from white interference on their land. The Indians filed a lawsuit against the government for $35 ($777.77 in today’s money) to bury the hundreds and thousands of Indians who died on the journey. This took place in a courthouse in Vienna. The Cherokee had to find new livestock because theirs also died on the journey. When the Civil War began, the Cherokee, along with other Indian tribes, sided with the south. They did this in hopes of getting their former land granted back to them. The Trail of Tears is a big part of Cherokee history. It caused a lot of changes and pain in their society. They had to alter their culture and traditions just to fit in with a group
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