The Impact Of The Trail Of Tears

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.

With the discovery of the New World came a whole lot of new problems. Native American Indians lived in peace and harmony until European explorers interrupted that bliss with the quest for money and power. The European explorers brought with them more people. These people and their descendants starting pushing the natives out of their homes, out of their land, far before the 1800s. However, in the 1800s, the driving force behind the removal of the natives intensified. Thousands of indians during this time were moved along the trail known as Nunna dual Tsung, meaning “The Trail Where They Cried” (“Cherokee Trail of Tears”). The Trail of Tears was not only unjust and unconstitutional, but it also left many indians sick, heartbroken, and dead.

The Trail of Tears was a testament to the cruelty and disrespect we showed toward the Native Americans. This paper will show how the United States used its legislative power and brute force to remove the Indian tribes. From the election of Andrew Jackson, and the implementation of the Indian Removal Act. The Creeks, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole and their actions against the removal process. Finally, how the Cherokee used the legal process to fight evacuation of their nation.

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.

Tecumseh’s biggest concerns were that his people would not live according to the Prophet which was casting off all elements of the Euro-American society. He believed that his people would turn to alcohol, firearms, and trade goods set out by English ways, which was what the Prophet said, would be detrimental to their ways. No matter what, Tecumseh was going to make sure the Indian way of life would continue forever. He led a revolution of young men who thought the leadership structure needed to be looked over again in order to survive. They fought to make sure The Indians East of the Mississippi to keep control over their home land. Tecumseh tried to visit neighboring tribes to form an alliance to protect the lands held by the Natives. He was successful in the way the Southern tribes would accept the alliance, but unsuccessful with others when some refused to join the reliance, such as the Iroquois tribe.

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

Thousands of captives trudged through rain on a muddy road. The scent of rain combined with the stench of rotting bodies was unbearable. Children, raggedy and heartbroken, wailing for food and their home, forcefully taken from them. Parents lamenting in anguish for their home-deprived children. The sadness hung in the air like a branch above the hostages’ heads. Bodies, bruised and broken, lying on the side of the road, hurriedly thrown down without a proper burial. Birds mocking the prisoners from their hiding places. Soldiers shrieked at the convicts, the words coming out of their mouths, tasting like eternal bondage to the native people. A death trail stretching toward the unknown west, not telling what it leads to. The Trail of Tears is a cloud over American history. The Cherokee Trail of Tears led to effects in the Nation and was a discouraging time in the history of Native Americans.

Before the Eastern World knew that the America’s were there, natives to the American lands were already here and thriving. As the land was discovered, more and more people from the European side of the Hemisphere traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to stake a claim for land in this newfound world. Throughout these Europeans settling in, and making new homes and lives for themselves these natives stayed to their own ways, and were slowly pushed westward. The problems between the Indians and now Americans were brought to the forefront as the population of the states grew, and there was a need for expansion. When the Louisiana Purchase was struck between the United States and France, the land previously inhabited by the natives were now under the control of the United States government. As the population continued to climb in numbers, individuals along with the United States government decided to take actions for the removal of these natives. Throughout the book, The Long, Bitter Trail, Andrew Jackson and the Indians by: Anthony F.C. Wallace, the events leading up to, during, and the effects of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Individuals such as Andrew Jackson along with the government used different methods to remove these Indians from the southeastern lands of the United States. Starting in the beginning of the 1800’s,

The purchase of Louisiana doubled the United States in size and was the key to the beginning of westward expansion. This expansion of the U.S. served as one of the defining topics of American history but contrarily, it nearly demolished the entire democracy. Because of Louisiana’s high birth rate and rapid immigration, the United States’ population increased from about five million to more than twenty-three million people. Such expeditious growth as well as economic depressions drove millions of Americans to the west in search of fresh territory and opportunities also known as manifest destiny. At the start of the 1830’s almost one hundred twenty-five thousand Native Americans lived on southeast acres that their ancestors had inhabited for generations. But then President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian removal act which gave the government the authority to trade native held land for land to the west that the United States had obtained with the purchase of Louisiana. By the closing of the decade, only a few Natives were left because the Federal government mandated that they abandon their homeland and go to designated Indian territory. This expedition was better known as the Trail of Tears. The purpose of these reservations was to bring the Native Americans under United States government control, eliminate conflict between the Indians and settlers, and finally to further encourage Native Americans to take on the habits of settlers. In exchange tribes usually received money but it was never a lot and the majority were spent on purchasing food and supplies from traders. But the daily living conditions of the reservations primarily had the most catastrophic results with devastating and long lasting effects. Overall, the rapid territorial expansionism resulted in relocation and brutal mistreatment of Native American occupants of territories now occupied by the United

The trails of tears, a grueling, nearly 1,000 mile walk in which about 4,000 Natives died. In 1838 and 1839, in accordance with President Jackson’s Indian Removal act, the Cherokee Indians gave up their land in the East. This was in exchange for land in the west and peace with the Unites States. The trail of tears was a long journey, headed by an American General followed by an army sent by President Van Buren. Dictionary.com defines justified as, “to show a satisfactory reason or excuse for something done” and the Trail of Tears as “The route along which the United States government forced several tribes of Native Americans… Those on the march suffered greatly from disease and mistreatment.” The State of Georgia and the government of the United States of America were not justified in forcing the Indian Tribes east of the Mississippi River from their homelands and into Oklahoma territory due the infringement of the Treaty of New Echota, the cruelty subjected to the Cherokee, and the basis of all American politics.

Trail of tears is a very devastating story. It's about Indians who were driven out of their homes. Not just by any soldiers but by the federal government. On the other hand, they've been planning to take them out for a long time. This story is sad because it's a battle that the Native Indians completely lost.

Long ago on the great plains, the buffalo roamed and the Native Americans lived amongst each other. They were able to move freely across the lands until the white men came and concentrated them into certain areas. Today there are more than five-hundred different tribes with different beliefs and history. Native Americans still face problems about the horrific history they went through and today 's discrimination. The removal of American Indian tribes is one of the most tragic events in American history. There are many treaties that have been signed by American representatives and people of Indian tribes that guaranteed peace and the values of the Indian territories. The treaties were to assure that fur trade would continue without interruption. The American people wanting Indian land has led to violent conflict between the two. Succeeding treaties usually forced the tribes to give up their land to the United States government. There were laws made for Native American Displacement that didn’t benefit the Native Americans, these laws still have long lasting effects on them today, and there was a huge number of Native Americans killed for many reasons.