Jennifer Lombardo - The Trail of Tears

Before the US government took control of their land, Native Americans could travel when and where they chose.

INTRODUCTION

A HISTORY OF SUFFERING

E ver since the first white Europeans arrived in what is now the United States, there has been conflict between them and the people who first inhabited North America. In the past, it was the Native Americans who received most of the blame; they were often depicted as bloodthirsty savages who would attack people for no reason. However, a better understanding of historical events has revealed that it was most frequently the white settlers and leaders who were the aggressors.

All native groups suffered in various ways after the Europeans invaded North America, but the story of the Trail of Tears stands out as a particularly horrifying incident. In the 1830s, the native groups that lived in the Southeastincluding the Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole nationswere forced from their homes and sent to government camps, where they awaited their departure to land that had been set aside for them in present-day Oklahoma. The US government had decided to stop trying to get them to move west of the Mississippi River by legal and political means and decided to take more direct action instead, physically forcing them to relocate. This final, brutal removal of the Native Americans from their ancestral lands has become known as the Trail of Tears.

An Act of Greed

In the 1830s, about 100,000 Native Americans were forced to leave their homes and make a dangerous journey to reservations in the West. The Cherokee are the main group people associate with the Trail of Tears, but many historians include the Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole nations in their accounts of the Trail of Tears. Other Native Americans living in other parts of the growing United States experienced their own tearful trails as they, too, were forced from their homelands. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, The term Trail of Tears invokes the collective suffering those people experienced, although it is most commonly used in reference to the removal experiences of the Southeast Indians generally and the Cherokee nation specifically.

By the 1820s, an increasing number of white settlers were living illegally on land owned by the Cherokee Nationa trend made worse after gold was discovered on Cherokee land in 1828. State governments ignored the Cherokees petition for help to remove the illegal settlers. In fact, most states responded by putting additional pressure on the Cherokee to leave. The passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830 made it a federal issue. This act, pushed through Congress by President Andrew Jackson, set aside land in so-called Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) for Native Americans in exchange for their land in the East. The law required all Native Americans to move west of the Mississippi River within a few years of its passage. By 1838, most native groups in the Southeast other than the Cherokee Nation had chosen to leave or had already been forced to relocate.

This map shows present-day Oklahoma labeled as Indian Territory. In 1907, when Oklahoma became a state, Indian Territory ceased to exist.

Still, the Cherokee refused to believe the US government would ignore its promises and treaties. They pointed to past agreements that had been signed in good faith that they believed gave them the right to their homelands. Cherokee delegations went to Washington, DC, to plead their case before Congress. They met with US presidents and cabinet members to request exemption from the Indian Removal Act; they took their case all the way to the Supreme Court. For years, the Cherokee believed that justice would prevail.

Betrayal of Trust

The Cherokees faith in the US government proved unfounded. In 1838, the US Army was ordered to evacuate all Cherokee people from their homeland and lead them westward to their new land in Indian Territory. They were forced from their homes and moved into hastily constructed forts. Crowded together in unsanitary conditions, the Native Americans became susceptible to diseases that swept through the forts. Hundreds died before they even started their westward journey.

To get to the land set aside for them, men, women, and children walked 800 to 1,000 miles (1,288 to 1,609 kilometers)a journey that took up to 6 months. The native people suffered greatly along the way. Boats capsized. Wagons broke down. Food was scarce and spoiled. Death was common. Some turned back, but most had no choice but to continue on, desperately hoping to reach their