THE TRAIL OF TEARS
Thesis:
The colonists arriving into North America significantly impacted the Native Americans. Over the next 300 years, the American Indian population was almost wiped out through disease, warfare, and famine. Trail of Tears relate to Responsibilities, because it was Andrew Jackson's responsibility to begin to implement a broad policy of Indian removal in the 1830s. Trail of Tears relate to Rights, because the Cherokee Indians had a right to keep their land. They had a right to not be forcefully removed from their homelands. They should of never had to travel by foot, wagon, or steamboat in 1838-1839.
The Cherokee Indians' Removal Routes
Introduction:
In 1830 Congress, urged on by President Andrew Jackson, passed the Indian Removal Act, which gave the federal government the power to relocate any Native Americans in the east to territory that was west of the Mississippi River. Though the Native Americans were to be compensated, this was not always done fairly and in some cases led to the further destruction of many of the already diminishing numbers of many of the eastern tribes. The Cherokee Nation was allocated land in Georgia as a result of the 1791 treaty with the U.S. Government. In 1828, not only did whites for settlement purposes desire their land, but gold was discovered. Georgia tried to reclaim this land in 1830, but the Cherokee protested and took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court decided in favor of the Cherokee, however the President and Congress forced the Native Americans to give up their land. In 1838, they called in federal troops in to escort approximately 15,000 Cherokee people to their new home in Indian Territory. On the way, approximately 1/3 of the Cherokee people died.
The Cherokee Indians being forced to leave their homelands. They had to travel by foot, wagon, and or steamboats.
Right & Responsibility:
1. The Trail of Tears forced Native Americans off their lands and made them move to reservations out west, in not so desirable areas. Many of those Native American groups did not return to their original homelands. Also, culture was lost so today there are tribes that can no longer read, write, or speak their native language. Another way it affects society is the presence of reservations still today. Many reservations are quite poor and have high alcohol/drug dependencies. The graduation rate of Native Americans on reservations is rather low. This event has tainted the relationship between the U.S. Government and native groups.
2. The Trail of Tears was important before, because an abundance amount of Cherokee Indians were forced to leave their homelands to another area. The trip there caused a sadly amount of Cherokee Indians to die. They died either by sickness, injuries, and or they were too weak to move on. The Trail of Indians are important now, because they taught society on what can happen if this policy were to happen again. This made the U.S Government and the Native groups' relationship to be tainted. This basically means that their relationship is now destroyed or contaminated.
The Cherokee Indians' Timeline of their removal routes.
Conclusion:
To conclude, in our personal perspectives, we think that this historical event never should have happened. President Andrew Jackson shouldn't have began to implement a broad policy of Indian removal in the 1830s. It's really depressing, that they forcefully moved more than 16,000 Cherokee Indians. Our thoughts are that the Cherokee Indians should have had the right to stay in their homelands. I learned that their homelands were in Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. We also learned that they now had to move to an Indian Territory in Oklahoma. Another thing that is devastating is that they had to travel by foot, horse, wagon, and or steamboat in 1838 all the way to 1839.