Gean 6
Jessica Gean
Ms. Warren
English Composition 112
March 2, 2017
The Treacherous Journey of the Trail of Tears
Before the British came over to the Americas, the Cherokee Indians, among many other tribes, inhabited these rolling hills, mountains, and plains. Unfortunately, they were removed from their homeland very viciously. The removal of Cherokee Indians is referred to as the Trail of Tears. The journey of the Cherokee Indians from before their removal, their fight to not be removed, their travel conditions, and the actual event of the Trail of Tears was brutal and deadly, however; it was a very pivotal moment in American history.
Native Americans lived in peace for many years. Little did they know that in 1540, their peaceful lifestyle would be no more. Hernando De Soto arrived in North America and took away all the freedoms of the Native American people. After De Soto, the Native Americans faced all different types of people who tried to take their land. The Native Americans tried very hard to conform to the ways of the new settlers. That included fighting in some of the wars as well. Unfortunately, fighting in the colonial wars was a lost cause because they lost land in the end (The Trail Where They Cried).
Hundreds of thousands of Native Americans began to move out west during the 1800’s. There were five different tribes that were affected. The Choctaw, Seminoles, Creek, Chickasaw, and Cherokee were the five tribes that were relocated (Thornton). The Cherokee Indians were affected the most. Cherokee Indians endured the most painful and brutal relocation in the United States’ history. “
The Cherokee Indians were a very special and unique group of people. They were known as a tribe that did not worship any object or living thing. They were a very patient and respectful group of people. When one person would speak, they would wait their turn to say their opinion because they respected each other’s thoughts. They respected those who gave them respect. There is evidence of Cherokee Indians participating in games with neighboring tribes. However, the rules of the game were very severe. The people who participated in these games were often subjected to a public humility and even put on a strict diet (Ehle).
Women in the Cherokee tribes actually had a big say in many issues. They were also allowed to own a house and they were able to choose who they would marry. Women typically took care of the children, but if a woman had too many children, a child was born ill or disabled the mother was the deciding factor on whether she would murder her child if she thought it was the right thing to do. Only the mother was able to make this decision, but if the father tried to kill any of his children he would have been charged with murder within that society (Ehle).
The Cherokee Indian territory was south of the Ohio River to today’s northern Georgia, and also from North and South Carolina going west through Tennessee, todays Kentucky and Alabama. This plot of land was not theirs for very long. When the Revolutionary War ended they began to lose more and more land to new settlers (Thornton). This significant loss of land was a huge step towards the Trail of Tears.
In 1835, the Treaty of New Echota was passed. The treaty declared that the land on the west side of the Mississippi River would be given to the Cherokee and those Native Americans would be paid a significant amount of money for their land. The most unfair part of the treaty was that only a few Cherokees agreed to it. As a matter of fact, not even one of the tribal leaders in their area knew about it (History.com). Knowing that, the treaty passed, and unfortunately the Cherokee had no choice but to leave their homeland. Just as predicted, the Native Americans were not happy they had to leave. Eventually, they were being removed from their homes. A soldier named John G. Burnett, was one of the people who assisted in the relocation of these Native Americans. He noted this experience and said:
Men working in the fields were arrested and driven to the stockades. Women were dragged from their homes by soldiers whose language they could not understand. Children were often separated from their parents and driven into stockades with the sky for a blanket and the earth for a pillow. And often the old and infirm were prodded with bayonets to hasten them to the stockades. In one home death had come during the night, a little sad faced child had died and was lying on a bear skin couch and some women were preparing the little body for burial. All were arrested and driven out leaving the child in the cabin. I don’t know who buried the body. In another home was a frail mother, apparently a widow and three small children, one just a baby. When told that she must go the mother gathered the children at her feet, prayed a humble prayer in her native tongue, patted the old family dog on the head, told the faithful creature good-bye, with a baby strapped on her back and leading a child with each hand started on her exile. But the task was too great for that frail mother. A stoke of heart failure relieved her sufferings. She sunk and died with a baby on her back, and her other two children clinging to her hands (Thornton).
What soldier Burnett described was unfortunately a huge reality to many of the Cherokee people. They suffered and many died in an unfair battle for their own home.
President Martin Van Buren initiated the Treaty of New Echota in 1838. This forced General Winfield Scott and the United States Army to place all of the Cherokee people in stockades, or forts. These stockades were located in Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Alabama. While the Native Americans were being collected, they were neglected and treated very harshly by the American soldiers. The American soldiers even began stealing things from the Native Americans. Then the Native Americans were sent to areas called internment camps. Chief John Ross realized how terrible the tribe people were treated and then went to the president to see if they could look over the removal. (The Trail Where They Cried).
Native Americans were removed by land and water. The United States government wanted to remove the Native American’s by way of steamboat. They still utilized this, but only a few were removed that way. The majority of Native Americans wished to wait until the end of the season and make the journey we now call the Trail of Tears (Thornton). Many Native Americans died from many different diseases during this trek to their new home. They changed the way people view the saying ‘survival of the fittest’ and took on this unbelievable journey.
The Native Americans that chose to make the journey by foot were put into large manageable groups. Chief Ross put conductors in charge of these groups to ensure they went to the correct location. The Cherokee Indians treatment was greatly better than the others. The only two routes were the northern route and the southern route. They typically took the northern route (Ehle).
Just when they thought the problems were over, they continued once they got to their new location out west. Most of the Cherokee population ended up dying from different types of diseases or even starvation (History.com). They found the three people who agreed to sign the Treaty of Echota and they were eventually killed for treason. Historians have found that thousands of Native Americans were killed during this process. More information has come out recently that in the Cherokee tribe alone, more than ten thousand people were killed (Thornton).
The Trail of Tears was a horrific journey for these innocent Native Americans. It was all started because the United States government wanted more land and did not want to acquire the land in a moral fashion. Today people reflect on the Trail of Tears as a period of time where Native Americans were relocated, but many do not understand the hardships that Natives endured before, during, and after the Trail of Tears.
Works Cited
Ehle, John. Trail of Tears: Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation. New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1988.
History.com Staff. “Trail of Tears.” History.com A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 02 Mar. 2017.
“The Trail Where They Cried” http://www.powersource.com/cocinc/history/trail.htm (accessed 2 March 2017).
Thornton, Russell. “Cherokee Population Losses During the Trail of Tears: A New Perspective and a New Estimate.” Ethnohistory. 31, 1984. Available from JStor, academic search engine.