These lands became the states of Alabama and Mississippi. In exchange, Georgia expected that the government would remove the Indian tribes, thus allowing the State of Georgia full control of the land within its borders.
Pressure was put on the tribe to voluntarily move, but their homeland, overlapping Georgia , North Carolina , Tennessee, and Alabama had been their place of residence for generations and they obviously did not want to make the move.
In Georgia appealed to the U. The next year, in , the Cherokee Nation was founded, which included elected public officials and a governmental system modeled after the United States. John Ross was elected its principal chief and tribal members were elected to its senate and house of representatives. Two years later a written constitution was drafted, which declared the Cherokee Nation to be a sovereign and independent nation.
When gold was discovered in White County, Georgia in , the state began to push even harder for removal of the Indians. The Georgia legislature soon outlawed the Cherokee government and confiscated tribal lands. When the Cherokee appealed for federal protection, they were rejected by President Andrew Jackson. When the State of Georgia moved to extend state law over Cherokee lands in , the Cherokee Nation took the matter before the U. Supreme Court. A year later, the court ruled that the Cherokee were not a sovereign and independent nation.
Another court ruling in stated that Georgia could not impose laws in Cherokee territory since only the national government had authority in Indian affairs.
But, these court rulings would make no difference, as while the cases were before the courts, President Andrew Jackson authorized the Indian Removal Act of Once an ally of the Cherokee, Jackson was fully committed to the policy of Indian removal, which provided for the government to negotiate removal treaties, exchanging Indian land in the East for land west of the Mississippi River.
However, about 7, of the Choctaw tribe remained in Mississippi. The Jackson Administration began to put pressure on the Cherokee and other tribes to sign treaties of removal but the Cherokee rejected any proposals.
However, when Jackson was reelected in , some of the Cherokee believed that removal was inevitable. Cautiously, Ridge began unauthorized talks with the Jackson administration. However, Chief John Ross and the majority of the Cherokee people remained adamantly opposed to removal. In , Ross canceled the tribal elections and the Council impeached Ridge, and a member of the Ridge Party was murdered. Today, the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail is run by the National Park Service and portions of it are accessible on foot, by horse, by bicycle or by car.
Trail of Tears. Start your free trial today. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. In the early s, the sovereign Cherokee nation covered a vast region that included northwest Georgia and adjacent land in Tennessee, North Carolina and Alabama.
Under the terms of an treaty, the United States guaranteed that Cherokee land would be off-limits to white Long before Christopher Columbus stepped foot on what would come to be known as the Americas, the expansive territory was inhabited by Native Americans. Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, as more explorers sought to colonize their land, Native Americans responded in various The Oregon Trail was a roughly 2,mile route from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon City, Oregon, which was used by hundreds of thousands of American pioneers in the mids to emigrate west.
The trail was arduous and snaked through Missouri and present-day Kansas, Davy Crockett objected to Indian removal. However, while serving as a U.
Tensions between the two groups From the moment English colonists arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, in , they shared an uneasy relationship with the Native Americans or Indians who had thrived on the land for thousands of years.
With little time to plan and prepare, 17, Cherokee with their possessions, horses, and wagons moved from their homelands to Oklahoma. This type of mass migration was unprecented in the early 19th century. What sort of arrangements would be needed to prepare for and carry out such a mass movement of people? If you were given a short amount of time to leave your home and move to an unknown place, how would you feel? What would you take with you?
What do you think would have been the worst part of the entire removal process? Do you think Robert Thomas's story about his grandmother is based on a real event? What do the students think the white road represented? In oral traditions, the speaker often "telescopes" historical time, collapsing one or more generations.
Do you think the woman in Thomas's account was really his grandmother? Is that important? Do you think the story was intended as factual history? If not, what was it intended to record? The two windows to the left of the front door were part of the earliest part of this house, a log cabin of two rooms separated by an open breezeway.
By the time of the relocation, Major Ridge had enlarged the cabin into a fine house, with eight rooms, 30 glass windows, four brick fireplaces, and paneling in the parlor. The two one-story wings were added in the 20th century. Questions for Photo 1 1. This house was part of a acre plantation farmed by about 30 slaves.
The property also included a ferry, a store, and a toll road, all sources of considerable wealth. In what ways does the house demonstrate that Major Ridge was a rich man? Do you think that was the impression he intended to create? Can you see any features that might indicate that this house was built by a Cherokee? In what ways do you think the design of the house reflects Ridge's attitudes towards accommodation to white society? It consists of two rooms on each floor separated by a central breezeway, now enclosed, and was built in the s by John Ross's grandfather.
Ross lived here with his grandparents as a boy and the house later served as a headquarters for the enterprises that made him a rich man.
The property also included a large farm, worked by slaves. Ross also owned a supply depot and warehouse at Ross's Landing now in Chattanooga. Questions for Photo 2 1. Before it was enlarged, Major Ridge's house probably looked much like this house. Does the Ross house look like the home of a rich man? Why do you suppose he moved there?
In , Ross returned from a trip to Washington to find that his plantation had been taken over by Georgia whites who had won it in the lottery for Cherokee land. He moved back into this house, where he stayed until removal. How do you think he would have felt returning to his old home under these circumstances? Courtesy of Charles O. Walker, artist This illustration shows the homestead of Lying Fish, located in a relatively remote valley in northern Georgia.
In the early s, Lying Fish's homestead included a 16 by 14 foot log house with a wooden chimney, another house of the same size, a corn crib, a stable, 19 acres of cleared bottom land, of which six were on the creek, 30 peach trees and 3 apple trees. Questions for Illustration 1 1. Most Cherokees lived on small farms like this. Compare the house shown here with the Ridge and Ross houses. How do they differ? How are they alike? How does the farm compare with what you know about the farms of Major Ridge and John Ross?
Cherokees living on farms like this rarely had white ancestors and were unlikely to speak English. How do you think that might affect their attitudes towards adopting some of the white cultural and agricultural practices?
How might it affect their attitude towards the Treaty of New Echota? Rattlesnake Springs was one of the stockade camps where Cherokees were initially collected after being forced off of their land. It is located in the far southeastern corner of Tennessee, near the North Carolina border. The farm buildings shown in this recent view would not have been there in Questions for Photo 3 1. There were Cherokees camped at Rattlesnake Springs in July , waiting to leave for the west.
Why do you think the U. Army might have located a camp here? There were more than 4, Cherokees waiting at camps in this general area before relocation. How difficult do you think it would have been to provide food and supplies for such a large group in a sparsely populated rural area? The final Council of the eastern Cherokees was held at Rattlesnake Springs.
Lamentations were pronounced and the Council determined to continue their old constitution and laws in the new land. Why do you think it was important to the Cherokees to do these things before leaving for the west? Questions for Photo 4 1. This photo shows a segment of road believed to have been used during the Cherokee removal of How do you think this road would have looked after hundreds of wagons, and thousands of people, horses, and oxen had passed over it?
What can you learn from looking at this roadway that you did not learn from the readings? What do you think you could learn by actually being on the road? This trail segment has survived because it is used as a private farm road. Do you think it should be preserved unchanged? Do you think it would be a good idea to have a historic marker identifying it as part of the Trail of Tears? What advantages and disadvantages might that have? By reading "The Trail of Tears and the Forced Relocation of the Cherokee Nation" students will appreciate the pressures working to force the Cherokees off their homelands and the painful divisions those pressures created within the tribe itself.
The following activities will help them apply what they have learned. Activity 1: Accommodate or resist?
The Cherokees were divided on the issue of adopting aspects of white culture or trying to maintain their traditions unchanged. Ask students to review the readings, consider the following questions, and then hold a classroom discussion based on their answers.
What were the effects of the choices made by the groups of Cherokees discussed in the readings? Did accommodation help the Cherokee Nation keep its land? Did it benefit individual Cherokees? How do you think adopting elements of white culture impacted the traditional practices of the Cherokees? Activity 2: Ridge vs. Ross Bitter hostility between the supporters of John Ross and those of the Treaty Party continued after the Cherokees established themselves in Indian Territory.
Because they had ceded tribal lands without the consent of the tribe, Major Ridge, John Ridge, and Elias Boudinot were murdered in Historians of the Cherokee removal are equally divided in their appraisals of the two men.
Some see Major Ridge and his allies as realists whose treaty was probably the best possible solution in an impossible situation. For others, John Ross was a hero, "a towering figure of resistance to U. Have one represent John Ross and the other Major Ridge and his allies. Have each group select a spokesman to make a presentation defending the position of the person they represent. Ask the class to pretend they are members of the Cherokee National Council. Ask them to vote on whether they should or should not approve the Treaty of New Echota.
Activity 3: Historical Evidence This lesson on the Trail of Tears uses a wide variety of historical evidence.
Ask the students to review the readings and visual materials and make a list of the kinds of evidence presented in the lesson historical quotations, oral histories, illustrations, photographs, etc.
Have students work in groups and have each group select four pieces of evidence. For each one, ask them to list 1 what kind of evidence it is speech, letter, map, photograph, etc. Activity 4: American Indian Treaties in the Community Ask students to look at a map of their region that identifies the American Indian tribes that were present at the time of white settlement. Have them look up any treaty agreements between the tribes living in their region and the U.
What provisions did they contain? Did the U. Are these tribes still present in the region? Have they disappeared?
If they are no longer in the area, where are they now located? If some tribes are present, are there still treaty issues being debated or negotiated today? Students should present their findings to class for discussion on how their research of other tribe's experiences compare with that of the Cherokee Nation. Activity 5: American Indian Relocation The Cherokee were only one of the many tribes forced to relocate from their homes and travel to a strange land. Divide the class into four groups and have each group research the history of one of the following tribes now living in Oklahoma, making sure that each tribe is covered: Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole.
Ask each group to compare the culture of the tribe it researched, and its forced removal experiences, to that of the Cherokee. Have each group appoint a spokesperson to report its findings to class, including a brief update on its tribal nation in the 21st century.
This activity may be expanded by having the class work together to create an exhibit for their school or local library telling the story of the five tribes' journeys from their traditional homelands to Indian Territory. By looking at The Trail of Tears and the Forced Relocation of the Cherokee Nation, students learn about one of the many stories associated with the removal of American Indians from their homelands by the United States Government.
Winter proved even worse, as most of the Indians had inadequate clothing, and food was scarce. Disease became rampant, and many people fell sick. Long time we travel on way to new land. People feel bad when they leave old nation. Women cry and make sad wails. Children cry and many men cry, and all look sad like when friends die, but they say nothing and just put heads down and keep on go towards West.
0コメント