The Trail Of Tears And The Indian Removal Act

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.

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

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 the years leading up to the Indian Removal Act, which was the initial cause of the Trail of Tears, the United States was in a shift. The country was seeing an unrivaled influx of European settlers looking for careers and land. This caused population to skyrocket, in fact in the years 1790-1840, the United States saw a 350% increase in population. In other words, the need for fertile land and viable property was high. At the same time, attempts at assimilation of Indians into American society were proving to be futile. Americans saw the Indians as “noble savages”, who were uncivilized but able to be fit for society if they were converted to Christianity and adopted Anglo-European culture and behavior. With the growing need for land and the rise in tension between Natives and fearful white settlers, something needed to be done in the eyes of the American people. These two things combined is what really set up the foreground for what would become the Indian Removal Act. President Andrew Jackson, in

This first hand account by John G Burnett, a member of the 2nd Regiment, 2nd Brigade, Mounted Infantry, was written in 1890 as a letter to his children and paints a descriptive picture of the brutality of the Trail of Tears (“Two Accounts of the Trail of Tears”). The Trail of Tears was a tragic event, but was unavoidable due to the circumstances of the time. Many factors preceding the Trail of Tears have been proven to be catalyst for the tragic event. The Trail of Tears was when the United States Army forced the Cherokee indians from their home and made them move west of the Mississippi. There were people who were for the Trail of Tears and those who were not. Some factors which made the Trail of Tears inevitable were the growing population of America, the attitude of Americans toward natives, and the president of the time.

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.

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

On May 26th, 1830, congress passed the Indian Removal Act allowing president Andrew Jackson to kick the Native Americans off their land that was west of the Mississippi River and move them to land west of the Mississippi without the tribes agreeing or even knowing about it (“Indian Removal”). What most people don’t know about the Indian Removal Act is that Congress actually didn’t accept the act and decided that the Act was unconstitutional, but Andrew Jackson ignored that fact and continued to remove the the Indians regardless of what Congress said. Most people also do not understand that the Trail Of Tears wasn’t an actual trail, it was what the path of the Native Americans used after they were pushed off their land by Andrew Jackson. Thousands of cherokees were forced to move westward beyond the Mississippi River. In 1813 the United States started the Battle at the Thames and killed the Native resistance leader Tecumseh, and in 1814 General Andrew Jackson had forced the Creeks (a major cherokee tribe) to hand over twenty million acres of their national land after the revolt at Horseshoe Bend (“Garrison, Tim 85-89”).

There have been many times and events in our history that were bloody and cruel. Some of these times have affected our history forever. The forced removal of the Native American tribes onto the Trail of Tears was definitely one of these times. This event occurred in the late 1830’s, and the Americans removed a vast majority of the “civilized” Tribes from their original homes in the East, near Georgia, to Oklahoma. Of course, this removal forever changed U.S relationships with Natives and made Natives ever more distrustful of Americans.

The Trail of Tears is a historical title given to an event that happened in 1838.In this event, the Cherokee community of Native Americans was forced by the USA government to move from their native home in the Southern part of the contemporary America to what is known as the Indian territories of Oklahoma. While some travelled by water, most of them travelled by land. The Cherokees took 6 months to complete an 800 miles distance to their destination.

I picked the topic “The Trail of Tears” because it seems if you asked a typical teenager today what the Trail of Tears means to them, you would more than likely get a simple shoulder shrug. Probably the same response you would receive upon asking an adult of an event that occurred in the fifth grade. If you asked a Native American what the Trail of Tears means to them, you would have a vivid picture of pain, heartache, and disappointment painted for you. It started when President Andrew Jackson wanted the Indian’s land and the Indians believed the land was not just something to be given away or sold, it was really something to embrace and love. With that being said, Jackson came up with “The Indian Removal Act”. In the early to late 1830’s,

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.

The Trail of Tears was a trail often used by Native Americans on their way of escaping the white settlers during the Indian Removal Act. The group of tribes were called the Five Civilized Tribes. It consisted of the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole Nations. The tribes lived on land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida. The land of the tribes were rich in value. The discovery of gold made the white settlers want the land of the Natives, which was found near Dahlonega, Georgia in 1928. “Trail of Tears” originated from a description of the Choctaw nation in 1831 when the Indian Removal Act began. The trail was known as “trail where they cried”, which is known today as “The Trail of Tears”. There were over

One of the defining moments of President Andrew Jackson’s career, if not the most significant, was the Indian Removal Act of 1830. This was a controversial bill at the time and the impact from it is still felt today. The Indian Removal Act directly led to the displacement of thousands of Native Americans; including four thousand deaths during the Trail of Tears, the forced march from Georgia to Oklahoma. While overt racism played a clear role in relocating Native Americans past the Mississippi, it is possible that other factors were at play. The living conditions in many of the states were poor for Natives and Jackson hoped that giving them a new location to live could remedy these problems while opening the land up for white settlers.

By the late nineteenth century, almost all Native Americans had been relocated to reservations (Pollard text 571). The Trail of Tears played a part in what is known as the Manifest Destiny, which was the expansion of the colonists to the North American west. Gold was found on the Cherokee land during the Georgia Gold Rush. The greed that it created was one of the leading causes of the Trail of Tears where thousands of Native Americans were forcibly relocated from their native lands (Cherokee.org). Little did the Native Americans realize that the new nation that was going to be forming around them would affect not only their lives but the lives of their descendants. Even though the Cherokee made efforts to keep their land through the court system and even attempted to assimilate to the American way of life it was to no avail. They tried to agree to treaties with the United States Government. Even though, they were eventually forced to leave their lands. By forcing the Native Americans to abandon their homes, robbing their lands, taking their freedom, and forcing them to adapt and to assimilate into a new territory and culture showed how vindictive President Andrew Jackson was regarding the Native Americans. Until 1828, the federal government agreed that Cherokee had rights to their land, but when Andrew Jackson was elected President, that all ended. Jackson refused to believe that the tribes were sovereign and thus viewed Indian treaties, as an absurdity (Warshauer). The