The Cherokee Removal Through The Eyes Of A Private Soldier

In Trail of Tears, John Ehle sketches the people and events that led to the infamous Trail of Tears, the removal of the Cherokee Nation to “Indian Territory” where they would “never” be bothered by whites again. Ehle’s bias is evident in the title; the “rise” of

In 1838, the Cherokee Indian Removal Act forced Cherokee and Creek Indians out of Georgia on a 5,045 mile walk all the way to the farthest west land that the United States had at the time, Oklahoma[1]. This event is now known as The Trail of Tears known for the many tears shed by the Indians that had to travel on the trail. The main reason for their removal from the premises was because of the gold that was discovered in the land of the now Hall County or Dahlonega. People have their opinions on whether the Creek and Cherokee should have been removed, to be honest, I am on the fence about this topic. I can recognize the great injustice that was made to the Indians but I also see that this action allowed for growth in Georgia and its economy, which contributed to growth for the United States as a whole. If I had to choose, I would say that the Cherokee Indians should not have been removed from their territory. For one, they were settled in their land before the english came and were in a way civilized. Two, the Indian Removal Act should never have been approved and was invalid for a few reasons. And finally, it was immoral to remove them from their land and didn't have any right to do so.

On may 28, 1830 the Indian Removal Act was passed by the congress and was signed by the current president at the time Andrew Jackson. The Indian Removal Act authorized the president to grant unsettled lands west of Mississippi in exchange for the Native Americans land. This forced Native American tribes to march their way west of Mississippi. Some tribes left in peace but most of the tribes resisted. In 1835 the agreement to, Treaty Of New Echota allowed Jackson to order Cherokee removal. Some Cherokee leaders signed the treaty and left but people under the leadership Chief John Ross resisted until they were forced to move to a new location 1838. Their forced journey to their new location was called the Trail Of Tears. Ever since, Native Americans have been living in reservation lands and the government has taken notice but don’t know if they should give them land or money. The government should be giving Native Americans land instead of money because the reservation lands are not

They were declared a dependent sovereign state and only the federal government had any say so in their affairs. Treaties were signed and land was sacrificed in order to retain some semblance of independence but the states got greedy and wanted it all. It was the Indians who followed the treaties and never went after their lost land or left their borders but the Americans continued to encroach on them. The Memorial Of the Cherokee Nation explained how Indians were tricked into selling land that belonged to the Nation so that Indian territory became American territory despite the people having no right to sell land given to the Cherokee Nation. The Cherokee government fought the breaks in the treaties but the judicial decision was overruled and the Cherokees were still forced to move. Besides the breaches in the treaties, the Cherokee tribe was one of the five assimilated tribes meaning they adopted European customs and religions. The Cherokee had become civilized as was the European’s goal and they fought their battle through the legal system not in a war. In this sense, the Indian Removal was unjust and

The Cherokee Removal is a brief history with documents by Theda Perdue and Michael Green. In 1838-1839 the US troops expelled the Cherokee Indians from their ancestral homeland in the Southeast and removed them to the Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma. The removal of the Cherokees was a product of the demand for land during the growth of cotton agriculture in the Southeast, the discovery of gold on the Cherokees land, and the racial prejudice that many white southerners had toward the Indians.

When Europeans first arrived to America, Indians were living in eight present states: Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, the Virginias, Alabama, and the Carolinas (Museum). Slowly, the Cherokee were forced to sign treaties giving away land to the new nation. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson finally worked to pass a treaty that would force all Indians west of the Mississippi River. It wasn’t until Andrew Jackson

In the early 1830s, approximately 125,000 Native Americans thrived on millions of acres of land in Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, and Alabama. In the next 10 years, a scarce number of natives lingered anyplace in the Southeastern United States. In 1838 and 1839, the Cherokee nation was brutally forced to give up its rightful land and travel on foot to designated “Indian Territory” in modern-day Oklahoma. Upon this involuntary journey, thousands of Indians faced exhaustion, disease, and famine. This heartbreaking event became known as the Trail of Tears. The Trail of Tears is important to the history of the United States because it is the wickedest human civil rights tragedy to ever fall upon the Native American population, and it was the beginning of the destruction of an entire people.

The Indian removal acts in 1830 but wasn’t really in force until a year later (“Trail of Tears”). In 1832 Marshall, Chief justice said that “the Georgian government had no real power in the Cherokee domain”. The Native Americans were moved to land that couldn’t support their crops and lifestyle (McGill). The Indians fought the U.S. for four years to keep their land (BlackBarn), and the Cherokee tribe tried to develop a government in 1820, but the U.S. didn’t stand for it (McGill).

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.

In the 1820s and 1830s, Georgia ordered a cruel battle to remove the Cherokees, who held dominion within the borders of Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama, and Tennessee at the time. In 1827 the Cherokees fixed an basic government. The Cherokees were not only reshuffling their government but also declaring to the American public that they were a free nation that could not be removed without their permission. An angry Georgia legislature responded by intending to extend its authority over the Cherokees living in the states declared boundaries. The state took over the Cherokee lands; overthrew their government, courts, and laws; and settled a process for snatching Cherokee land and distributing it to the state's white citizens. In 1830 reps from Georgia and the other southern states pushed through Congress the Indian Removal Act, which gave U.S. president Andrew Jackson the ability to debate removal treaties with the Native American tribes.

A long time before this land was called the United States, the Cherokee people used to live in this land in the valleys of rivers that drained the southern Appalachians. These people made their homes, farmed their land, and buried their dead. Also these people, who are now called Indians claimed larger lands. They would use these for hunting deer and gathering material, to live off of. Later these lands were called Virginia and Kentucky. As it is mentioned in the text, these people had their own culture and own way of life. They had their own gender roles and religion; even eating food had a different definition than the white man’s culture. They had equality between genders, and other members of the tribe had equal rights to talk. But

Having little knowledge of the Cherokee removal and the history that took place in this moment in America’s past, the book Trail of Tears: Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation by John Ehle, offers an insight to the politics, social dynamics and class struggles the Cherokee Nation faced in the late 1830s. The book was very comprehensive and the scope of the book covers nearly 100 years of Native American History. Ehle captures the history of the Native American people by showing the readers what led to the events infamously known as the Trail of Tears. The author uses real military orders, journals, and letters which aid in creating a book that keeps

In Trail of Tears, John Ehle introduces the people and events that led to the Trail of Tears, and the removal of the Cherokee Nation to Indian Territory. In the “Indian Territory” the Indians were promised that whites

Most of us have learnt about the Trail of Tears as an event in American history, but not many of us have ever explored why the removal of the Indians to the West was more than an issue of mere land ownership. Here, the meaning and importance of land to the original Cherokee Nation of the Southeastern United States is investigated. American land was seen as a way for white settlers to profit, but the Cherokee held the land within their hearts. Their removal meant much more to them than just the loss of a material world. Historical events, documentations by the Cherokee, and maps showing the loss of Cherokee land work together to give a true Cherokee

There were Five Civilized Tribes: the Cherokee, the Chickasaws, the Creeks, the Choctaws and the Seminoles. In 1830 the tribes had moved in a direction to live with the whites and adopted the ways of the white man. The Indians resisted suggestions that they should remove themselves from their own land. So, President Jackson urged the Congress to pass the Indian Removal Act, which appropriated funds for relocation, by force if necessary. Jackson sent officials to try to negotiate treaties with the Indians. Some tribes reluctantly signed and prepared to move, but not the Cherokees, who took extensive steps to adopt white ways. The Cherokees fought back by using the law. At first, it appeared they won because the Supreme Court said that legally the Cherokees could not be removed from their land. But Jackson refused to follow the ruling of the Supreme Court. The Cherokees were then forced to leave their lands and go west to Oklahoma. This was called the ?Trail of Tears? because along the journey to Oklahoma more than one-quarter of the Cherokees died. The Seminole tribe took a different route then the Cherokees and they fought back. The war lasted into the 1840?s and the government just decided to give up and let them stay. My father tells me that this was a time the government is already trying to ignore and not acknowledge it as a very brutal and pointless mistake.