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.

In all three of these artifacts, I have developed relevant, integrative, challenging, and exploratory units of study. The “Preserving the Past” unit incorporates all four core subjects as well as a service learning opportunity. My interdisciplinary unit on geography connects Language Arts with Social Studies with visual art mixed in, and the Greek mythology ELA unit was taught in conjunction with a Social Studies class (1). The Civil War unit and NC geography unit I have created incorporate Common Core standards as well as NC Essential standards. Lesson plans and assessments in all of these units were created using backwards design in which I started by looking at the standards and objectives students would be expected to reach and based my assessment based on those objectives (2,10).

the western half of the United States of America. On their journey they drew maps and made

Write a complete paragraph that describes your experiences on the Trail of Tears. Use the

The Trail of Tears is part of the immoral history of the United States. The information in this paper will be about the causes, history, deaths, and the hopes that were lost. There were at least four causes for the Indian removal act of 1830. The history of the trail discussion about the Native Americans, and what happens to them when they were moving to their new home in the west, as well what happened after the removal act.

1f) Trail of tears: In 1838 the United States Army gathered about 15,000 Cherokees and put them in a camp. They were forced to march for about 116 days in groups of 1,000 to get to the camp. Many died during the trip from cold or diseases.

The Cherokee are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Although they were not considered states at this time, they would have been in present day Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia. However, in 1938 the Cherokees found an abundant amount of gold which left the United States in a scramble. Thus, President Johnson signed the removal act, which forced the Cherokees East of the Mississippi into the Great Plains and then went into dig up gold. The Cherokees thrived in the Great Plains, becoming farmers and excellent hunters. They settled along the Arkansas River, becoming fisherman. Just as it happened in 1938 the Cherokees were eventually forced off their lands and into the Oregon Territory. This trail they walked along was called the trail of tears, many Cherokees died because of food deprivation or various diseases. Today, this Trail of Tears is seen as the worst displays of discrimination in the history of the United States. Thus, we gave the Cherokees Reservations to live on in the Western United States. This journey they faced is arguably the hardest journey any tribe has ever faced and the way the Cherokees overcame this and turned their tribe into what it is today is what makes it special.

c. This selected activity would work well for this content because it will allow the students to explore different areas of a topic to help finish the puzzle. My thoughts are that this would be an ongoing project that might take several days, weeks, or even the entire year as the students explore United States history. My vision for this activity is to use puzzle pieces that are color coded. One specific color for who, what, where, when, why, and how. The start of any puzzle column could be any color and will be created by either the teacher or the student. The students and teachers will then finish the puzzle column with as many different puzzle colors that are possible that will help to explain the original puzzle piece. For instance, I might start with a who puzzle piece with the name Rosa Parks. The students would then search that person to find how further information to place on connecting color coded puzzle pieces. Another start might be a what with Stamp Act written on it. The students would then find out further information to finish the puzzle. Each column of the puzzle pieces would sit side by side to create a larger puzzle of our United

Thornton, Russell “Cherokee Population Losses During Trail of Tears: A New Perspective and a New Estimate.” Ethnohistory, Vol. 31, No. 4 (Autumn, 1984): 289-300

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

The Tail of tears was an event that affected the Cherokee Indians very badly. There was a total over 8000 total Indians. There were over 4000 deaths from hunger, disease, and exhaustion. This was Indian Removal in the areas of Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, Florida, and Tennessee. (History)

The actual route that they traveled was named “The Trail of Tears”, for it had been the trail where they had cried. Because of the harsh conditions faced on the long journey to the west, around four-thousand died. After a harsh outbreak of smallpox, they were not able to go into certain towns because of the fear of spreading the disease. Disease, famine, and prolonged exposure to the harsh elements were the main reason why they died along the way. The cold weather was brutal and a lot of times they had a hard time crossing the rivers because they were frozen and had chunks of ice floating in them. There was a land route and a water route to get to the west. (See Fig. 1).

Assignment #11: Section A: I remember learning about the Trail of Tears in school, specifically eighth grade since I had a teacher who ensured we learned about it. I have considered the impacts it had on Modern-Day Native Americans and how many of them who live on reservations struggle with poverty, alcoholism, and lack of job opportunities. Since learning about the Trail of Tears, I have been appalled at what the Native Americans went through. I learned in the video that the government had not paid the Cherokee nations money from previous treaties and instead trying to force them to sign more treaties.

Trail of tears was one of a few courses along which different tribes relocated on their constrained evacuation to reservations west of mississippi. This move was a struggle for native americans because they were forced from their land and moved to somewhere un-familar to them.

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.