“During the 1830s approximately 125,000 Native Americans residing in Florida, North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee were forced to travel, mainly on foot, thousands of to Federally designated Indian territory across the Mississippi due to white settlers growing lust for the land occupied by the Native Americans. in doing so caused the death of 15,000 Native Americans. This was the “Trail of Tears”.
White American settlers, mainly on the western frontier, held animosity and anxiety towards the Native Americans. They also lived on rich potential farming land that they thought was deservedly theirs even if they didn’t own it. And to give the settlers more reason to claim Native American land. Gold was discovered in Georgia which prompted the state of Georgia to claim the land without consultation or treaty. Earlier in America George Washington felt the best way to counteract the Native American “problem” was to assimilate or civilize The Native Americans. Teach them English, have them adopt Christian faith, as well as adopting our culture. Several tribes embraced the assimilation and were called the “Five Civilized Tribes” and where given sovereignty as their own nations. Chickasaw, Choctaw, Seminole, Cherokee, and Creek were apart of these tribes but, unfortunately, even if every tribe in the southeast region assimilated there was on one unaddressed issue aside from forcing Native Americans to give up their culture to placate Americans.
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Settlers would not respect them as a sovereign nation because they still wanted the land they were living on and where confident due to Americas Manifest Destiny to take hold of the west and make America a country that would go from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. This gave settlers a sense of warped righteousness leading them to commit egregious acts in order to claim Native American land for themselves which squatting, theft, and burning of homes and livestock and even mass murder. Not only the efforts of land acquisition where committed by settlers, but there were efforts on a state level. While State gov’t in the south ignored or enabled Americans to push Native Americans off their land the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Native Americans.
Cherokee Nation v. Georgia in 1831 where the Cherokee Nation wanted to prevent policies that would essentially destroy them as a society so that Georgia could claim their land as its own. Many of these cases presented to the Supreme Court legitimized tribe as a sovereign independent nation. These rulings where ignored mainly because little to no action was made to enforce these rules.
President Andrew Jackson and the removal of Native Americans is integral since he was a large proponent of “Indian removal”. In 1830 the Indian Removal Act was signed into law by Andrew Jackson and the forced displacement of Native Americans on a large scale began. Initially, the act of removal was supposed to be negotiated, voluntary, and peacefully and it didn’t permit coercion to sign treaties but Andrew Jackson took that as a suggestion and he ignored it and hastily took illegal action towards Native Americans. His first target was the Choctaw and with the threat of U.S. military invasion the Choctaw Native Americans they vacated there home and headed west. They were given little to no food during there march to present-day Oklahoma and bore many casualties.
Although it was not common some Native Americans still put up a fight in some cases. The act even sparked the “ 2nd Seminole war”. While the first Seminole war in 1817 Acquired Florida land from Spain and removed a sizable portion of Seminoles the “2nd Seminole war” removed the majority out of Florida leaving only several hundred Seminole Native Americans. To go into further detail of the war in 1823 several years after the first Seminole war the Treaty of Moultrie Creek was signed. The Seminoles agreed to move to a four million acre reservation in central Florida if the United States held its agreement to aid them in supplies and money during their transition a relocation to a new land. Settlers were given permission to construct roads and look for runaway slaves in their reservation. Neither side upheld fully its agreement which lead to many confrontations between settlers and the Seminoles. This increased further tension and resentment.
After the signage of the “Indian Removal Act” the Treaty of Payne’s Landing in 1832 was signed which gave Seminoles three years to relocate to Land assigned to the Creek if they deemed it fit to live on unfortunately the group Seminoles delegated to survey the land where coerced into signing the Treaty of Fort Gibson which essentially underhandedly forced them to agree to the previous treaty (Treaty of Payne’s Landing). The Seminoles felt they never agreed to the treaty, so the Seminoles stayed planted in Florida. In 1835 marked the beginning of the 2nd Seminoles war while the Seminoles put up a considerable fight, but it was only a matter of time until they lost. Seven years later in 1842 marked the end of the Seminole war accumulating up to 1,600 U.S. casualties and 3,000 Native American casualties.
Not every tribe fought removal with outright war like the Seminoles. Some in the promise of money and opportunity, which were often convenient lies, head out west with little resistance. the Cherokee Nation resisted but they knew if they fought the U.S. Military head on would lead to dire consequence so they hoped a diplomatic approach would be more fruitful and appealed to the Supreme Court, but their efforts went to waste when confronted with Andrew Jackson’s determination and flagrant nonchalance towards the law. He ignored Supreme Court rulings and proceeded with the removal of Native Americans.
The Chickasaw Nation, a tribe that resided in Mississippi which claimed jurisdiction over them and dissolved their Sovereignty. On October 20, 1832, Chickasaw chiefs gathered at the national council house and signed the Treaty of Pontotoc Creek, where they gave up their remaining territory in the state of Mississippi to the U.S. and agreed relocate west across of the Mississippi River to find land.Though unlike the majority of Tribes which gave up its territory for land grants. The Chickasaw fought for more. They wanted financial compensation. The Chickasaw Nation wanted three million dollars for its territory east of the Mississippi River. The U.S. begrudgingly conceded to the Chickasaws’ terms in 1837 after five long years of debate. It took 30 years until the United States paid the three million. The Chickasaw paid the Choctaw 530,000 for territory in the west for the land they could live on. On July 4th, 1837 in Memphis, Tennessee The Chickasaw with all the belongings they could carry mobilized. 3,000 Chickasaw Native Americans traveled east crossing the Mississippi River approximately 500 died during their journey.
The trail of tears consisted of five main routes each for every major Native American tribe(Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, and Chickasaw). The conditions of the trail were brutal Many were forced out of their homes with just the clothes on their back and had to endure a march to Oklahoma some had to walk thousands of miles for six months with a light blanket and meager provisions. Many died from exposure to the elements many had to face a bitterly cold winter and a harsh southern summer. Disease ran rampant throughout the trail as well as many contracting Malaria, Cholera, Smallpox, Measles, and Pneumonia. over a 100,000 Native Americans were displaced by the Trail of tears and of that 100,000, 15,000 died. The U.S. Government stated promised that the designated Indian Territory would go untouched by America, but the territory slowly shrunk and in 1907 Oklahoma had become a state”
Internet Project: Trail Of Tears
Trail of Tears
Westward Expansion is a key part of how the United States became what it is today. However, the story getting here is not all sunshine and roses and Westward Expansion effected the lives of many Native Americans. The story of what happened during Westward Expansion is still controversial in society today. The facts and statistics of this event would cause any logical person to see that this story is full of more negatives than positives. Native Americans are a significant part of the cultural aspect of the US and their story should not be forgotten. This story was and is told countless times even within society today as it is important to remember, even if it is not pretty.
In society today tribes possess tribal sovereignty and are recognized by the government which was far from the case during the 1800’s. Before Westward Expansion 250,000 Natives representing a large variety of tribes inhabited the Great Plains. The American people were greedy and their hunger for land and more get rich quick resources like gold, fared unfair on the Natives. The Native Americans formed many treaties in order to keep them away from white settlers and their hunger for their land. However, due to corruption of the government, many of these treaties were never followed through or acted on correctly and many annuity payments never reached the Natives. Many deadly blows were struck to the Indian way of life and the Trail of Tears is just one of these examples. Due to early treaties failing and previous wars being fought in the early 19th century, a policy of forcible removal came into the picture as it seemed that past attempts had failed.
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In many situations after treaties had been negotiated and settlers wanted more land, rather than just negotiate new and improved treaties settlers would attack the Natives out of pure fear or greed for their land. Often times these settlers were even backed up by local or state militia showing that the way the Natives were handled was wrong. The Indian Removal Act in. 1830 which was part of Andrew Jackson’s Indian removal policy which gave the federal government the ability and power to relocate the Native Americans. This Act was opposed by many missionary societies and only passed through Congress by a one-vote margin. The treaty of New Echota in 1835 which the Cherokee people later on rejected “would give Cherokee land west of the Mississippi to the US in exchange for $5,000,000. In 1836, the U.S. Congress ratified the treaty (by one vote in the Senate) and gave Cherokees two years to remove themselves.” (cherokeehistorical.org). However, during this the US army was preparing stockades in preparation for the removal and during May 1838 and March 1839, 16,000 Cherokees were rounded up and taken to these stockades. This forced removal resulted in the well-known Trail of Tears which saw many tribes relocated from their native homelands to land West of the Mississippi between 1831-1838 to what is now known as Oklahoma territory.
“The Trail of Tears was the forced and brutal relocation of approximately 100,000 indigenous people (belonging to Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole among other nations) living between Michigan, Louisiana, and Florida to land West of the Mississippi river” (cherokeehistorical.org). The Trail of Tears refers most specifically to Cherokee removal despite many other tribes also being relocated. The Trail of Tears got its name from the significant struggles that Natives endured on their journey. “The journey became a cultural memory as “the trail where they cried” for the Cherokees and other removed tribes” (cherokee.org). The Seminole tribe is one tribe who resisted removal with great vigor through wars costly on both the US and the Seminole’s side. Eventually, “In 1835 4,000 Seminoles were captured and were sent to the Indian territory” (nationalhumanitiescenters.org). Nearly fifty-thousand Natives traveled along this trail and sixteen-thousand were Choctaw. Of those sixteen-thousand, four-thousand Choctaw and thirty-five hundred of the fifteen-thousand plus Creeks are estimated to have died due to hunger, disease, and exposure and many who survived suffered post-removal illness and sometimes even death. The trail was neither short nor easy terrain and “today the trail encompasses about 2,200 miles of land and water routes, and traverses’ portions of nine states” (nps.gov). Tribes traveled on foot, by wagon, steamboat, horse, and railroad. Many were not even given time to grab belongings and because of this many had little or no protection against the weather.
Not including the fact that “under the orders from General Winfield Scott, the Cherokees were pushed along the trail at a merciless pace, only stopping when their “escorts” allowed it” (americanindiancoc.org). The relocation and hardships that the tribes endured had lasting long-term effects has left a lasting scar which can still be seen today. Due to the loss of life having to endure such a hard journey, many of the Indian tribes are seen being severely diminished and due to this and assimilation, the culture was and still is on the verge of extinction. The Trail of Tears took place two years after Andrew Jackson’s final term, but he is who got the ball rolling. It is possible that Andrew Jackson could have had good intentions with the removal of the Indians in order to assimilate them into American way of life and protect them despite History painting a completely different picture.
According to the quotes of Jackson, it seems as if he hoped to protect the Natives even though he saw them as heathens because he knew the effects Westward Expansion would have on their way of life and that settlers would take the Indians land either way. Despite the removal being anything but helpful to the Indians and assimilation just took away some of their cultural identity Jackson saw this as generous and hoped “to send them to land where their existence may be prolonged and perhaps made perpetual.” (ourdocuments.gov). These groups that were forced to leave their homelands defined themselves in many different unique ways but, these tribes shared a defining identity and relationship with the land they called their home and the environment they surrounded themselves with shaped their identity. The terrain of the new lands they were relocated to was different than what the tribes were used to and thus made it hard to adjust to their new “home.” The Natives had to adjust quickly, and many tribes were relocated to the new lands during harsh conditions.
Although the Natives endured many hardships, the Trail of Tears became a major part of the culture and History. The relocation of the Natives to reservations and the land in Oklahoma was the US acting slightly out of fear for the Natives race and the settlers when encountering the Natives, as well as satisfying people’s longing for land. The American settlers thought it very important that they spread their cultural views to the world and there was no exception for the Natives. However, when the settlers in a way forced their values on the Indians by sending their children to boarding school to help assimilate through education, and having the Indians participate in ceremonies such as the “last arrow” pageant that made them symbolically leave their culture behind. In doing such things including relocation the settlers believed they were helping the Indians. Even before the Trail of Tears the five tribes had made an effort to assimilate and accept the European way of life and culture. This earned the Cherokee, Choctaw, Seminole, Creek, and Chickasaw the name “The Five Civilized Tribes.”
The American settlers may have seen what they were doing to the Natives by forcibly removing tribes from their land and causing them to assimilate as helpful but, the fact of the matter shown in History when looking at the Trail of Tears and why it came about is that the hunger for land the incoming settlers possessed seemed to trump their care for spreading cultural values the right way. This was a terrible loss to the culture of the Native Americans, but they overcame and are what they are today because of the struggles they endured. Some good came from the relocation because the tribes were not fully decimated and retained their identity to last decades.
Works Cited
- Corbett, Scott, et. al. U.S. History, OpenStax, 2014.
- Miller, Mark. “The Tragedies that Befell the Five Civilized Tribes That were Forced to Trek the Trail of Tears.” Ancient Origins, Ancient Origins, 19 Sept. 2018, https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-important-events/trail-tears-0010725
- The Effects of Removal on American Indian Tribes, Native Americans and the Land, Nature Transformed, TeacherServe, National Humanities Center,
- http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nattrans/ntecoindian/essays/indianremovalb.htm
- “The Trail of Tears.” American Indian, https://www.americanindiancoc.org/tribal-history/the-trail-of-tears/
- “Trail of Tears National Historic Trail (U.S. National Park Service).” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, https://www.nps.gov/places/trail-of-tears-national-historic-trail.htm
- Trail of Tears, https://www.cherokeehistorical.org/unto-these-hills/trail-of-tears/?tracking=campaign=423025868&ad=48605894839&kw=trailoftears&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2771x-XX4QIVlrrACh34xQ8AEAAYASAAEgLmyPD_BwE
- “Transcript of President Andrew Jackson’s Message to Congress on ‘Indian Removal’ (1830).” Our Documents – Transcript of President Andrew Jackson’s Message to Congress on ‘Indian Removal’ (1830), https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=25&page=transcript”
