Cherokee Tribe

The law was passed that all Natives had to leave. Cherokees believed even if they stayed they would still have to deal with all the troublesome White neighbors, therefore their best option was to leave. There was nothing they could do because the whites were too powerful as said in doc 5. “It is argued that they can never remain quiet where they are;n that they will always be infested by troublesome whites; and that the states, which lay claim their territory, will always preserve in measures to vex and annoy them.” The Natives didn’t understand why the white people wanted them gone so bad, because the white people tried so hard to change the Natives culture to make them act like the white people. The Natives changed they way they acted, worked, and how they looked. In doc 7 it says “ The Cherokees have been reclaimed from their wild habits. Instead of hunters, they have become the cultivators of the soil instead of wild and ferocious savages, thirsting for blood, they become the mild “citizens.” The Cherokees were really upset, because not only were they leaving what had now become their norm they were also leaving their land which had been passed down through their family. The Cherokees started a petition to the United States asking for them to fulfill their treaty they had made. In doc 9. It says “ Cherokee people used no violence but humbly petitioned the Government of the United States for a fulfillment of treaty

The Choctaw Indians were an important tribe, and the largest of the Muskogean tribes. The Choctaws have two stories about their origins in their traditional homeland in central Mississippi. One is that their ancestors came from west of the Mississippi River and settled in what is now the homeland. The other is that the tribe is descended from ancestors who were formed by a spirit from the damp earth of Nanih Waiyah, a large mound in northeastern Mississippi. Either way, the Choctaws resided in places, holding most of Southern Alabama and Mississippi with adjoining parts of Louisiana.

Cherokee Indians have been around for many years, but when the topic of Native Americans is discussed it is only about the struggles and hardships they went through but never their actual culture of how and where they originated or how they came to be. There are many interesting things to learn about Cherokee Indians such as their heritage, religion, language, and their traditional songs, dances, and food.

The journey began, the first state we rode through was Alabama, I couldn’t see much since it was night time. All I could see was the clear night sky. No stars were shining that night. The only lights I could see were street lights, building lights, and other cars. Looking around inside the car, everyone was asleep except for my uncle since he was the one driving. I must have been asleep the whole 4 hours and 46-minute car ride through Mississippi because I don’t remember anything, same with Louisiana. Finally, when we got to Texas all I wanted to do was get out of the car, so luckily, we stopped by to eat at Cici’s. My aunt said, “To enjoy this last meal since it was the last fast food, that we would be having for a while.” After we ate, it took us about 5-hours to get to Matamoros, Mexico. That was where we had to drive through the border to get into Mexico. Once we got into Mexico, there were lines of cars everywhere from people trying to enter and leave at the same time. The lines were slowly moving, like a turtle, inch by inch. There

They pulled me out and my sister was left there screaming and crying, while those who accompanied us in the truck comforted her. They pulled me towards a huge building that looked like they were trying to keep something inside. They opened the door using all their effort and threw me inside. 2 women took me towards a room and stripped away everything that I had from my culture; everything from my moccasins to my headwear was taken away from me and I was given very bland colourless clothing instead. The sat me down and began to shave my head clean, extracting the last piece of my culture. I felt the threat that if I didn’t take their orders I would be punished, so I put on the dull clothing. I was sent into a big room filled with beds. Very slowly, it would fill with many children from my culture. We were told to go to sleep even though it was surprisingly early and when a child was still standing he was whipped and thrown onto the bed. We continuously followed the same routine for the following 2 years. We would wake up, eat breakfast, which was disgusting as always. Then, we would have our daily lessons in English and French, which almost none of us understood, followed by 3-4 hours of work period. My sister would be taken around everywhere along with the rest of the girls mopping and sweeping while the boys and me were planting and farming the entire

Many of the Indians that left with the missionaries were gone for many years and did not know how much had changed back at home. In the story The Soft-Hearted Sioux a young man comes back home after receiving an education from the missionaries. He had left before he was taught how to survive out in the wild. He came back to dying and starving parents. He was brainwashed by the missionaries because he went against his family’s customs and told the medicine man never to come back and that God will save his father. He started preaching God’s words to his people and they left the community. His father was growing sicker and sicker and he needed food. His son went out everyday trying to get something but had no skills in hunting. His father had told him to go two hills over and he could find meat. With no concept of ownership, the son went and killed a cow that belonged to an American. Upon leaving with the meat he was chased down and attacked by the “owner” of the cattle. The son accidentally killed the man and fled back to his father’s teepee only to realize that he was too late and that his father had died. He was so conditioned by the white man that he had forgotten his ancestors’ ways of survival.

The Cherokee tribe is known as one of the earliest and largest Indian tribe in North America. They are federally recognized even today among several states(museum). While they slowly became Americanized by the Europeans who came over to America, some still practice their typical Indian rituals publicly today. Most converted to Christianity and their government in Oklahoma is based off the American government with three branches. One would believe that the Trail of Tears could have completely vanquished these Indians but many made it through the horrendous trial and kept the Indian bloodline going even present day (Conley).

Americans hunted, imprisoned, raped, and murdered Native Americans. Cherokees surviving the onslaught were forced on a 1,00-mile march to the established Indian Territory with few provisions. Approximately 4,000 Cherokees died on this “Trail of Tears”. (Library of Congress 1)

Before I tell you about myself, I should inform you about the crisis occurring in the Diné, my homeland. The Americans, whom we call bilagáanas, have entered our Diné. My father, a warrior, was summoned to defend the homeland yet was killed in battle. The chief, Hastiin Manuelito, announced that the Diné was lost in the war and the bilagáanas were sending us off to somewhere else. For 8,000 years, the Navajo people have lived in this very homeland which the bilagáanas have taken from us. Our people were helpless. We were forced to walk 500 miles, to our reservation. I saw my people die of starvation, exhaustion, and disease. We are kept in a 40 square mile reservation, all 9,000 of us, in a place called Bosque Redondo, conveniently

We went outside to see my tribe getting attacked by the Hidatsas I did everything I could do to keep everybody out the best I could, but one of the Hidatsa members grabbed me and my friend by the arms I was squirming and screaming.

My friend and I ran to a guard and asked him for more food. He did not reply. He grabbed us and threw us into a group of about 50 other men. Officers shoved all 50 of us into the “showers”. We were striped naked and sat there for five minutes. As I looked on the walls, I saw scratch marks and it smelled like rotting flesh. I noticed openings on the roof of the building. The officers outside were screaming at each other. I couldn’t understand what they were saying. They both ran to the camps for whatever they needed, I don’t know. I saw the opportunity to escape. My friend and I ran towards the fence. I noticed an opening under the fence. We were able to crawl our way under the fence. I could feel the metal scraping along my back. I felt the cold blood dripping down my back. Once we cleared the fence, I gained enough strength to get on my feet and start running. We saw a younger gentleman working on his yard. He told us to follow him. He gave us warm germless clothes. The sensation of being safe and escaping those monsters alive brought me to tears. Not knowing if my family would survive and possibly not seeing them again, but at the same time, knowing they loved me brought joy to my heart. It was a very

So, Gloria, we left at 11:45 P.M. sharp. I thought that we were going in his beautiful car. He firmly stated no because they could have been caught together. Instead, we hitchhiked for many hours from to get to Northern area of South Carolina. We stopped at a restaurant and both had a quick breakfast and payed about $1.04 each and left. We arrived at North Carolina within another 2 hours and we tried to get a ride on a bus. They charged Richard about $5.00 and I had to pay $5.78 since I was black. We got off somewhere South in Virginia. Richard bought a newspaper while we were finding a map and found out that the Klu Klux Klan was in Virginia as well. Alarmed, Richard told me to walk as fast as he could because we could get caught together and get beat up. We sauntered right into the night and found an abandoned home. Richard told me that we had to go over yonder to one of the cars, cover ourselves, and run to the house as fast as we could. I was about to run to the house when I felt a rough hand. I looked back and I saw a guy with a piece of wood. He aimed it at my head and missed. ‘It was members of the Klu Klux Klan’, I thought. I saw Richard and thought that he was coming to help but he started to beat me up. After a good 5 minutes, they stopped and walked away, even Richard. I thought of my grandma and regretted going with Richard and thought I should’ve stayed

Everything started to change when I was a young boy. My people the Cheyenne, more specifically the Northern Cheyenne people lived happily in Montana until the white man said that we must leave our land and go live on a reservation. Every member of the tribe disagreed with the white man trying to move us off of our land; we did not want to go to what the white man called Oklahoma. I overheard conversations of the older men calling it the” warm land”, and the “place to die”. I remember my father and my father’s father being really sad because we had to leave my father’s mother. She had passed and was buried in the ground, my grandfather said that the white man making him leave her and

One day, African tribesmen approached me in the rice field. They ordered me to pay the debt. The African tribesmen warned me about the creditor being too impatient about me paying my debt. I tried to make a consent with them but they claimed it was too late. I didn’t know what to do, I was clueless. The tribesmen were armed with a gun. I knew something was wrong. I tried to call for help but the tribesmen prevented me from doing so. They surrounded me from every angle and started beating me with their guns. I tried desperately to escape. I was worried about my wife and my children, wondering if they were safe. I was coughing up blood and I was

It was November 29 1864, I was with my brother Kiaan. He was fifteen years old. My name was Hansh and I was only thirteen years old. We were outside my village practicing archery. My brother was a really good bowhunter, he taught me everything I do. Once we headed back to our village my mom was cooking corn and deer meat, that my father killed the day before. We were planning to have a picnic soon. Then it happened, we heard screaming and hollering across the village. My brother and I looked around our Tipi and there we saw it. Hundreds of soldiers were attacking our village, my heart sunk. I thought my life was over, my dad screamed “Get back!” My brother told me “protect your mother and get away from here” So I grabbed my mother's