Trail of Tears
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
Trail of Tears is called a movement of Indians in the United States. The Indians were forced to moved. Because so many died, it is called "Trail of Tears". In the Cherokee language the Trail of tears is called "nu na hi du na tlo hi lu i". Through this movement the USA expanded their country in size.
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[change] Reasons
In 1829 gold was found near Dahlonega in Georgia. This resulted the first Floridian gold rush in American History. But at that time an Indian nation, called Cherokees lived in Georgia. It was a civilized nation. Many Cherokee children went to American school, they had they own newspaper, built three-stores houses and some owned slaves. Still President Andrew Jackson wanted this land to become American. Therefore he passed out a law, which forced the Cherokee nation to move. The law is called Indian Removal Act. At that time the Cherokee nation, had its own government. So laws made by the USA couldn't effect them. Therefore Jackson passed out laws, which took nearly all the Cherokee's rights. The Cherokee nation didn't want to accept this and the Indian Removal Act, so the Cherokee's chief John Ross decided to try to defend the Cherokee rights through U.S. courts.
In 1932, the Supreme Court announced the Indian Removal Act as illegal. The judges said the Cherokee nation doesn't belong to the USA. They are living in an own country with their own government "in which the laws of Georgia can have no force". So the U.S. government had no right to take the land.
Nevertheless the U.S. government used a treaty, called treaty of New Echota, to remove the Cherokee nation by force. The treaty was not signed by an official Cherokee leader, so not legal. A petition, signed by 15.000 Cherokees was ignored by the government and the Supreme Court.
[change] Forced removal
The deadline for Cherokees to leave their land voluntarily was on May 23, 1838. President Martin van Buren sent General Winfield Scott to lead the forcible removal. On May 26th the operation began. 7,000 soldiers forced Cherokees to leave their land. All Cherokees, who lived until this moment in their land, had to leave now. They went to the new Indian territory. This was what now is Oklahoma and Arkansas.
About 17,000 Cherokees and 2,000 of their slaves had to move to their new land. Within three weeks they were all forced into camps. They traveled in groups of 1000 to 3000 people on three main routes: They started in Chattanooga, Tennessee; Guntersville, Alabama; and Charleston, Tennessee. From there they started their trip to a new Indian territory. Most Cherokees had to walk by foot; others, wealthy men, could use wagons. There were also about 660 wagons provided by the Federal government. The trip was about 1,200 miles long. During the trip, many had problems with diseases and the winter weather. There are different numbers of how many died. Some say 2,000 and others say 6,000, but the most say 4,000 people died. About half of these died in camps and the other half during the trip. It is said that many Cherokees sang a Cherokee version of the song Amazing Grace, which became a kind of anthem for the Cherokee nation.
[change] Routes
There were different routes the Cherokees took.
[change] Water Route
This route was taken by three groups, in total 2.800 Cherokees. The first group left in June the 6th and reached the Indian territory after 13 days. All groups started at Ross's Landing at the Tennessee River. They used boats to travel to the Ohio River. They then took this river southwards, which took them to the Mississippi River. From there they moved trough the Arkansas River westwards. They arrived near Fort Coffee. The second and third group had a lot of problems with diseases, so their trip took longer.
[change] Land Routes
All others took land routes. They traveled in groups with a size of 700-1.600 people, all lead by conductors chosen by John Ross, accept for those, who signed the Treaty of New Enchota. They were led by other people. They usually took the south route and John Ross' groups the northern route. Both sides used already existing "roads". The most Cherokees took the northern route. The route lead through central Tennessee, southwestern Kentucky, and southern Illinois. The groups crossed the Mississippi in the north of Cape Girardeau in Missouri, then traveled through the southern Missouri and west of Arkansas. Many died because of diseases, lack of water and bad road conditions. All land routes usually ended in near Westville, Oklahoma. There were a lot more different land routes only taken by few people. Through their trip Cherokees had problems with illnesses. Because they were in large groups, they infected each other easily.
