Tecumseh's Trail Of Tears

Most Americans have at least some vague image of the Trail of Tears, but not very many know of the events that led to that tragic removal of several thousand Indians from their homeland. Indian lands were held hostage by the states and the federal government, and Indians had to agree to removal to preserve their identity as tribes. Trail of Tears is an excellent snapshot of a particular situation and will be eye opening to those who are not familiar with the story of the southern tribes and their interactions with the burgeoning American population. The Trail of Tears has become the symbol in American history that signifies the callousness of American policy makers toward American Indians in 1839 and 1839.

The trail of tears was a dark period in US history. Fueled by greed and racism but rationalized through what we believed was best for our country, we took even more from people who had already lost so much. We deemed natives as incompatible with society because they did not share our beliefs and culture. Now in modern times, we face issues that are parallel to this era and there are many things that can and should be learned from our mistakes and generalizations from the past.

In the early 19th Century, the Manifest Destiny led many White Americans to conquer new territories and force Native Americans out of their homeland. The growing population caused the need for people to move to have more space for farms and crops. The religious groups were also wanting to sweep God’s word across the nation by going west. The Native Americans were unwilling to give up their land and fought to keep it. Outmatched by the U.S. Military, the Indians were forced to leave and settle in a territory that was not claimed by Whites. Andrew Jackson, the 8th President of the United States, participated in some of the battles with the Natives Americans and the removal of 5 different tribes from their homeland into what is now Oklahoma.1 This research paper is to study about Andrew Jackson, his battles with the Natives, and what led to the Trail of Tears.

Westward expansion was the “God Given” right to the whites that would allow them to expand westward. Many settlers turned their attention to wealth and conquest more than they had before and because of this greed, memorable impacts were left behind. As settlers moved westward, they started to affect the living of the Native Americans. Native Americans did not like how the settlers came to their home to take over and when westward expansion became a trend, conflict and tension occurred. This tension and conflict led to the Trail of Tears, which was part of Andrew Johnson’s Indian removal policy. The Native Americans were forced to give up their land and migrate to another area. During the Trail of Tears most of the Native Americans died all

The “Trail of Tears,” was an unmitigated disaster-at least for the Native American Tribes involved. – (Page 269) “As the population grew, white citizens demanded that their governments, at both the state and national levels, do something about the Native American tribes in their midst who held claims to land …” – (Page 249) “The United States had recognized the Cherokee as a nation in a number of treaties, and in 1827 delegates of this tribe initiated action to draft a constitution that would more formally recognize this status.” – (Page 249). This caused a problem with the constitution, because new states could not be established in pre-existing state. “Georgia, where most of the Cherokee lived, opposed the plan and called for the removal of all Native American.” – (Page 249). In fact, the Cherokee nation fought back. “The case reached the United States Supreme Court, Cherokee Nation v. Georgia.” – (Page 250). The Cherokee lost; but a year later Chief Justice John Marshall “ruled that the state had no right to extend sovereignty over the Cherokee within its borders.” Andrew Jackson disagreed with the chief justice, and wanted for the chief justice to enforce his decision.

Throughout America’s History Native Americans have had their land taken away from them. This started with the Europeans landing in America with Native Americans, claiming they conquered the Americas. This was all allowed by the doctrine of discovery, that allowed European Christians to claim land if documented first (Meyers). Columbus and his crew took the claim of discovering the Americas, also labeling the Natives as Indians because he believed he landed in India. Europeans brought of countless diseases such as bubonic plague, chicken pox, pneumonic plague, cholera, diphtheria, influenza, measles, scarlet fever, smallpox, typhus, tuberculosis, and whooping cough (Ojibwa).This caused countless Natives to die because they had no immunity to these diseases. Next one of the first treaties were broken which cause the Native Americans to endure a great journey and travel countless miles to their new land known as The Trail of Tears. The Trail of Tears was a part of Andrew Jackson 's Indian Removal policy, which made 15,000 Cherokees up and leave their land because whites wanted their land(Historical Documents: The Trail of Tears). During this journey, 4,000 out of the 15,000 Cherokee’s died because of lack of food, exhaustion,and diseases(Historical Documents:The Trail of Tears). The continuing mistreatment of Natives has not ended, it is still going on today.

On May 28, 1830, the Indian Removal Act was passed. It stated that the Native American were to be removed from the Southern states (Indian Removal Act). The act ended the Native American’s right to live in the states under their own traditional laws (Indian Removal Act). They were given the options to assimilate and acknowledge the United States’ laws or leave (Indian Removal Act). They were forced to leave their land, their homes, everything they ever knew or face the consequences. They were forced to go to a land that they knew nothing about, and hope that they would be able to survive where ever they ended up. When the Cherokee were forced to leave, out of the 18,000 that left 4,000 died on the way (Primary Documents) As a result of all of the death on the trail, it was named the Trail of Tears (Primary Documents).

In 1830, congress passed President Andrew Jacksons Indian Removal Act. This policy allowed the United States government to extinguish the Cherokee, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, Seminole and many other tribes title to their land. The Indians had to leave the land and life they had always known in the Southeastern United States behind. This disturbing event was named the Trail of Tears because many Native Americans died during the process of marching to an area west of the Mississippi River due to disease, starvation, and the long journey.

Coming from a more advanced civilization in the Europeans eyes they thought they were better than the Natives and therefore wanted to “change” the Natives way and wanting them to conform to their society. (Mooney 37)

The series of relocations that are commonly referred to as the trail of tears forced the Cherokee nation to give up its land and migrate to present-day Oklahoma. In 1938 and 1939 Indians were moved from their land east of Mississippi River as part of the Indian Removal policy. The trail from Mississippi River to Oklahoma is nearly 800 miles and along this trail of tears one fourth of the Cherokee people died of malnutrition, famine and exposure. The trail of tears was one of the most horrific events to ever happen in America as it revolved around the Indian problem, causing the removal of Indians and the Trail of tears.

Most Americans have at least some vague understanding of the Trail of Tears, but not many know about the events that led to that tragic removal of thousands of Indians from their homeland. Indian lands were held hostage by the states and the federal government. The Indians had to agree to removal to maintain their tribe identities. Trail of Tears is an excellent example of a particular situation and will be eye opening to those who are not familiar with the story of the southern tribes and their interactions with the rapidly growing American population. The Trail of Tears has become the symbol in American history that indicates the callousness, insensitivity, and cruelty of American government toward American Indians in 1839 and 1839.

At a time when the Indians were being driven from their home lands and food sources were scarce a Shawnee Indian named Tecumseh emerged as a leader and later became a War Chief. The Americans were encroaching on the Indians lands and disregarding the treaties that were in place. In addition, some tribes were selling off their land to the Americans. This book discusses his life and his journey to get all of the Indians to join forces to become an Indian Confederacy. It addition, his brother Tenskwatawa life. He wasn’t the bravest or a good hunter, he was an alcoholic, who later started having visions and changed his life. He became known as The Prophet and medicine man. Many Indians from different tribes agreed with their movement and

The trail of tears was an event where the 5 most civilized tribes in eastern U.S. where moved with force to Oklahoma because they didn’t defend themselves. The Cherokee tribe moved without trying to defend themselves because they were scared. In 1838 the Cherokee were moved from Carolinas to Oklahoma. When Andrew Jackson told the Cherokee to move they refused. He asked them multiple times peacefully to move. After one of the smaller sub-tribes agreed to move he required for the entire Cherokee tribe to move or force was used.

Tecumseh was a Shawnee Chief who attempted to liberate his confederacy of American Indians to create an independent land from the United States of America, To understand why Tecumseh did what he did and why he is revered as one of the greatest military leaders in history, we look back into the past into his heritage of the Shawnee, his relationship with his brother, Laulewasikaw (later to be named Teakatowah), and his archrival Governor William Henry Harrison. The most important and intriguing aspect of Tecumseh’s life was his involvement in the War of 1812. Tecumseh united tribes of the Americans Indians in the Ohio Valley, created an alliance with the superpower empire of the British. Revered as a tall, athletic, gifted speaker, who lead by example; Tecumseh would go down as one of the greatest military leaders in history.

And even though the Indians were much less advanced in technology and warfare, the American frontier-men found a major obstacle in the Shawnee leader, Tecumseh. Tecumseh wielded more power than any other North American Indian before him, and no other Indian after him would ever come close to his political domination. His power was not a military power, directly threatening the United States, but rather the potential to unite a large confederation of Indian tribes to resist against the westward growing nation. Tecumseh was a major obstruction in the American westward movement because not only did he attempt to establish a vast Indian Confederation, which could have stopped the push westward to the Pacific, but also because he became allies with the British in the War of 1812, which was also a core barrier in the American obtaining of frontier lands.