TRAIL OF TEARS
PowerPoint by: www.pbp.sevier.org/Trail-Tears.ppt
Quote 1
“They made us many promises,
more than I can remember, but
they kept only one; they
promised to take our land, and
they did”

 Red
Cloud, Lakota
Quote 2
“We will be known
forever by the tracks we
leave.”

Lakota
saying. Uncredited
Quote 3
“How smooth must be the
language of the whites, when
they can make right look like
wrong, and wrong look right.”

 Black
Hawk, Sioux
Think About
Does the federal
government have a right to
forcibly remove a group of
people from a particular
area?

Cherokee culture…
Before contact, Cherokee culture had
developed and thrived for almost 1,000 years
in the southeastern United States
 The lower Appalachian states of Georgia,
Tennessee, North and South Carolina, and
parts of Kentucky and Alabama.

Background information
Since first contact with European explorers in
the 1500s, the Cherokee Nation had been
recognized as one of the most progressive
among American Indian tribes.
 Cherokee culture continued to flourish with the
invention of the Cherokee alphabet by
Sequoyah in 1821.

A government decision…
The white communities turned on their
Indian neighbors.
 Government(Jackson) decided it was
time for the Cherokees to leave

Farms,
homes and land forfeited
Indian Removal Act
In 1830 the Congress of the United States
passed the "Indian Removal Act."
 Many Americans were against the act,
most notably Tennessee Congressman
Davy Crockett


it passed anyway
The Bill becomes Law
President Jackson quickly signed the bill
into law
 The Cherokees challenged the removal
laws in the Supreme Court
 Established the Cherokee Nation

Court ruling…

1832, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor
of the Cherokee
 Worcester

Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the
Cherokee Nation was sovereign.
 removal

v. Georgia
laws invalid
The Cherokee would have to agree to
removal in a treaty
 The
treaty would have to be ratified by the
Senate
Removing the Cherokees…
1835 – Major Ridge and members of
Cherokee Treaty Party sign Treaty of
New Echota - 500 of 17,000
 President Jackson now has the
document he needs

Ratification of the treaty…


Daniel Webster and Henry Clay, speak
out against the Treaty
Senate ratifies Treaty by one
(1) vote
The removal of Indians began…

1838 - the U.S. began removal to
Oklahoma
fulfilling
a promise the government
made to Georgia in 1802
General Wool protested
General John Wool resigned
his command in protest,
delaying the action.

Wool
believed the Cherokee
should keep their land
Removal Begins…

General Winfield Scott, arrived at
New Echota on May 17, 1838
 7000

men – heavily armed, well trained
By June the removal begins
Marching to Oklahoma….

In one of the saddest episodes of our
brief history, men, women, and
children were taken from their land,
herded into makeshift forts with
minimal facilities and food, then
forced to march a thousand miles.
The Trail Where They Cried

The route they traveled and the
journey itself became known as "The
Trail of Tears"
"The
Trail Where They Cried"
"Nunna
daul Tsuny“
Cherokee Translation
Resources

The Trail of Tears

Cherokee Messenger