The Trail Of Tears – The Cherokee Indian Essay, Research Paper

The Trail of Tears, was it unjust and inhumane? What happened to the Cherokee during that

long and treacherous journey? They were brave and listened to the government, but they recieved

unproductive land and lost their tribal land.

The white settlers were already emigrating to the Union, or America. The East coast was

burdened with new settlers and becoming vastly populated. President Andrew Jackson and the

government had to find a way to move people to the West to make room. President Andrew Jackson

passed the Indian Removal Policy in the year 1830. The Indian Removal Policy which called for the

removal of Native Americans from the Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia area, also

moved their capital Echota in Tennessee to the new capital call New Echota, Georgia and then eventually

to the Indian Territory. The Indian Territory was declared in the Act of Congress in 1830 with the Indian

Removal Policy.

Elias Boudinot, Major Ridge, and John Ridge and there corps accepted the responsibility for the

removal of one of the largest tribes in the Southeast that were the earliest to adapt to European ways.

There was a war involving the Cherokee and the Chickasaw before the Indian Removal Policy

was passed. The Cherokee were defeated by them which caused Chief Dragging Canoe to sign a treaty in

1777 to split up their tribe and have the portion of the tribe in Chattanooga, Tennessee called the

Chickamauga.

Chief Doublehead of the Chickamauga, a branch of the Cherokee, signed a treaty to give away

their lands. Tribal law says “Death to any Cherokee who proposed to sell or exchange tribal land.” Chief

Doublehead was later executed by Major Ridge.

Again there was another treaty signed in December 29, 1835 which is called The Treaty of New

Echota. It was signed by a party of 500 Cherokee out of about 17,000. Between 1785 and 1902 twenty-five

treaties were signed with white men to give up their tribal lands.

The Cherokee would find themselves in a nightmare for the next year. In 1838 General Winfield

Scott got tired of delaying this longer than the 2 years he waited already so he took charge in collecting

the Cherokee. The Cherokee were taken from their homes and their belongings. The were placed in

holding camps so none would escape. The Cherokee were to be moved in the fall of 1838.

The journey did not occur in October, 1838 because of bad weather. They were now supposed to

move 13,000 Cherokee in the spring of 1839 a distance of eight-hundred miles.

The Cherokee were fed on meager rations and suffered malnutrition. They were badly clothed for

the spring and many caught diseases and died. Many Cherokee tried to escape and some succeeded. The

Cherokee knew these woodlands and knew where to go. The white men couldn’t find them without the

help of other Cherokee and bribes. Most of the Cherokee hid in the mountains and could not be found.

During the eight-hundred mile trek many children and spouses were separated from their

families when the Government would split up the Cherokee into groups of 1,000 for ease of removal.

About one-third of the original Cherokee they collected died in the holding camps and between the trek

from the Southeast section of the Union to Indian Territory.

They would have to learn a new way of life and adjust. They lost their negro slaves, and their

possessions. The Cherokee were farmers, and the land was infertile. The land was meant for cattle raising,

which they didn’t know ho to do.

They built a capital city called Tahlequah, and their nation was declared in September 6, 1839.

Their culture was bred here along their new way of life. John Ross who was elected by the Cherokee as the

President of the Cherokee nation in 1827 continues his roll in the land, shared with another seventy tribes.

They had opened up schools in the Indian Territory to continue their education for their children. The first

Cherokee school opened in 1801 when the people were learning their language. Their written language

which consists of 85 characters, was said to be created by a Sequoia (1760-1843) , a Cherokee leader.

Sequoia translated the Bible, wrote many books, and helped publish the newspaper,”The Cherokee

Phoenix.” This was contradicted in Dialogue-Everyman’s Encyclopedia Story #1989130. It said the man

who created the 85 character written language was George Guess.

The Cherokee Phoenix was published in both languages-English and the Cherokees’. The

Cherokee had mixed blood from the early British settlers and traders. Therefore, the Cherokee were

educated in both languages.

For over half a century the Cherokee have abstained from becoming American Citizens until

1906 when the Unites States made all tribal members U.S. Citizens. A year later the Indian Territory was

admitted into the Union as the state of Oklahoma.

During this period many Cherokee started breaking away and mixing their blood. In 1930 forty-

five thousand two hundred thirty-eight Cherokee left Oklahoma and headed East from where they came.

The Cherokee started slowly changing their religion. There are many who are Jewish,

Episcopalian, and Hindu.

The 10,000 Cherokee that survived the Trail of Tears and the other Cherokee that were not taken

for the removal slowly gained back in population in a century. The Tahlequah Agency in Oklahoma has

said there were 42,992 Cherokee living in Tahlequah in 1982. The U.S. Census has shown 293,074

Cherokee are living in more than 30 states in the United States. Now the Cherokee Nation is under control

of the first woman chief. In November 1983 Wilma Mankiller was elected to the office of the Cherokee

Nation.

The Cherokee survived the hardships of the Trail of Tears and the loss of their loved ones and all

that belonged to them. Their population continues to grow inspite of the immense number of tribal

members that were lost during this era.