The Cherokee Trail of Tears
1838-9
Key Historical Points
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Nation vs. nation – U.S. vs. Cherokee
Example of U.S. gov’t “Removal policy”
Multicultural and complex – NOT just Red vs.
White
All Southeastern tribes forced West of
Mississippi River
Example of the major conflicts and tensions
in nineteenth century U.S.
Nation vs. Nation – Background
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Population growth, cotton boom
Cherokee economic success
Interaction with whites – missionaries,
marriages, customs
Competing claims – Cherokee vs. Georgia
Trigger – Georgia gold rush
U.S. Government’s Removal Policy
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Thomas Jefferson, 1802
Indian Removal Act, 1830
Supreme Court rulings
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Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 1831
Worcester v. Georgia, 1832
President Andrew Jackson
Treaty of New Echota, 1835
Basic Facts – Trail of Tears
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Pro-removal Cherokee in the minority
(100-200 people)
Most Cherokee against moving
(10,000 people sign petition)
Most whites across the country supported
removal policy
Davy Crockett against removal:
“I would sooner be honestly
damned than hypocritically
immortalized.”
Basic facts – Cherokee Trail of Tears
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16,000 Cherokee moved 1,200 miles from Northern
Georgia to Oklahoma
Basic Facts – Trail of Tears
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Summer 1838 to Spring 1839
Forcibly moved by U.S. Army and state
militias
4,000 Cherokee died along the way, from:
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Exposure
Disease, malnutrition
Violence from settlers and soldiers
Nunadautsun't – “The Trail Where We Cried”
Nation vs. Nation – The Cherokee Nation
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Parallel assimilation
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Government – same as U.S.
Economy – plantations, slavery
Courts, legal system
Matrilineal to patrilineal system
Nation vs. Nation – The Cherokee Nation
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Nationalism
 Sovereignty and legal
recognition
 Capital city – New
Echota
 Newspaper:
The Cherokee
Phoenix
Central Conflicts in Nineteenth Century
America
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U.S. Constitution
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State vs. federal government
Government vs. private citizens
President vs. Supreme Court
Native American tribes – sovereign or not?
Central Conflicts in Nineteenth Century
America
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Native American societies
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Assimilate or resist?
If assimilate, how much?
Membership – who counts?
Racial and ethnic division
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“Mixed” vs. “full-blooded”
White settlers vs. Native Americans
Racist double standards
Divisions within ethnic groups
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The Expulsion of the Tribes, 1830-1835
13
Other Trails of Tears – Southeast
Other Trails of Tears – Nationwide
Historical Legacies – Native Americans
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Oklahoma becomes “Indian Territory”
Cherokee politics, divisions
Cherokee in the Civil War
Native American memory
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Inspired resistance
Trail commemorations
Cherokee Rose
Historical Legacies – U.S. History
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Federal government, military role
Reservation system
Indian wars, late nineteenth century
Success Story: Will Rogers