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library congress american memory lawmaking united states congressional documents debates serial set house senate senate appendix index links page turners reports documents executive

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Serial Set Links: U.S. Congressional Documents

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Navigation links to the Selected U.S. Serial Set volumes

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Trail of Tears: Cherokee Legacy Native American Indian

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"Trail Of Tears" www.richheape.com - Rich-Heape Films, Inc. Nearly a quarter of the Cherokee Nation froze or starved to death on the trail to Oklahoma Indian Territory. This video explores America's darkest period: President Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the forced removal of the Cherokee Nation to Oklahoma in 1838.

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Eighth Annual Message to
Congress, December 5, 1836

Indian wars force massive mobilisation of troops, militia and volunteers;
Seminoles refuse to relocate and win early upper-hand in Second Seminole War;
Urgent need for further appropriations to 'suppress hostilities;' Creek defeated
and relocated West of Mississippi; Cherokee country pacified and secured by
ongoing military vigilance; Mexico authorises expeditions to quell Indians
beyond US frontier; Commissioner of Indian Affairs suggests larger military
presence in Indian country to protect Western frontier from Indians, and the
Indians from each other; Jackson prematurely declares Indian Removal to be
consummated--Cherokee forcibly relocated two years later in 1838.

"The national policy, founded alike in interest and in humanity, so long
and so steadily pursued by this Government for the removal of the Indian tribes
originally settled on this side of the Mississippi to the West of that river,
may be said to have been consummated by the conclusion of the late treaty with
the Cherokees." -- Andrew Jackson

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African American Indians on the trail of tears

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African American Indians on the trail of tears

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Facts for Kids: Cherokee Indians (Cherokees)

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Information about the Cherokee Indians for students and teachers. Covers Cherokee tribes in Oklahoma and North Carolina,
with facts about Cherokee Indian food, clothing, houses, villages, art and crafts, weapons and tools, legends, and customs of the Cherokee people.

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Choctaw Nation in OK

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Our mission is to preserve and document the history, culture and genealogy of the Cherokee people. We provide the tools and resources with which descendants can discover and preserve their family heritage, learn more about who they are, and join together with tribal members.

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A Trail of 4,000 Tears | Teachinghistory.org

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Most Cherokees refused to move, and in May of 1838 federal troops began to round up the Cherokees and imprison them in stockades to await removal. Many died in the stockades as they waited. U.S. soldiers then accompanied the Cherokees as they traveled 1,200 miles westward. Most made the journey on foot.

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http://www.gpb.org/georgiastories/docs/

http://www.gpb.org/georgiastories/docs/

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Federal Indian Removal Policy
Early in the 19th century, the United States felt threatened by England and Spain, who held land in the western continent. At the same time, American settlers clamored for more land. Thomas Jefferson proposed the creation of a buffer zone between U.S. and European holdings, to be inhabited by eastern American Indians. This plan would also allow for American expansion westward from the original colonies to the Mississippi River.

Between 1816 and 1840, tribes located between the original states and the Mississippi River, including Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles, signed more than 40 treaties ceding their lands to the U.S. In his 1829 inaugural address, President Andrew Jackson set a policy to relocate eastern Indians. In 1830 it was endorsed, when Congress passed the Indian Removal Act to force those remaining to move west of the Mississippi. Between 1830 and 1850, about 100,000 American Indians living between Michigan, Louisiana, and Florida moved west after the U.S. government coerced treaties or used the U.S. Army against those resisting. Many were treated brutally. An estimated 3,500 Creeks died in Alabama and on their westward journey. Some were transported in chains.
The Cherokees
Historically, Cherokees occupied lands in several southeastern states. As European settlers arrived, Cherokees traded and intermarried with them. They began to adopt European customs and gradually turned to an agricultural economy, while being pressured to give up traditional home-lands. Between 1721 and 1819, over 90 percent of their lands were ceded to others. By the 1820s, Sequoyah's syllabary brought literacy and a formal governing system with a written constitution.

In 1830-the same year the Indian Removal Act was passed - gold was found on Cherokee lands. Georgia held lotteries to give Cherokee land and gold rights to whites. Cherokees were not allowed to conduct tribal business, contract, testify in courts against whites, or mine for gold.

The Cherokees successfully challenged Georgia in the U.S. Supreme Court. President Jackson, when hearing of the Court's decision, reportedly said, "[Chief Justice] John Marshall has made his decision; let him enforce it now if he can."
The Treaty of New Echota
Most Cherokees opposed removal. Yet a minority felt that it was futile to continue to fight. They believed that they might survive as a people only if they signed a treaty with the United States.

In December 1835, the U.S. sought out this minority to effect a treaty at New Echota, Georgia. Only 300 to 500 Cherokees were there; none were elected officials of the Cherokee Nation. Twenty signed the treaty, ceding all Cherokee territory east of the Mississippi to the U.S., in exchange for $5 million and new homelands in Indian Territory.

More than 15,000 Cherokees protested the illegal treaty. Yet, on May 23, 1836, the Treaty of New Echota was ratified by the U.S. Senate - by just one vote.
"Many Days Pass and People Die Very Much"
Most Cherokees, including Chief John Ross, did not believe that they would be forced to move. In May 1838, Federal troops and state militias began the roundup of the Cherokees into stockades. In spite of warnings to troops to treat the Cherokees kindly, the roundup proved harrowing.

Families were separated-the elderly and ill forced out at gunpoint - people given only moments to collect cherished possessions. White looters followed, ransacking homesteads as Cherokees were led away.

Three groups left in the summer, traveling from present-day Chattanooga by rail, boat, and wagon, primarily on the Water Route. But river levels were too low for navigation; one group, traveling overland in Arkansas, suffered three to five deaths each day due to illness and drought.

Fifteen thousand captives still awaited removal. Crowding, poor sanitation, and drought made them miserable. Many died. The Cherokees asked to postpone removal until the fall, and to voluntarily remove themselves. The delay was granted, provided they remain in internment camps until travel resumed.

By November, 12 groups of 1,000 each were trudging 800 miles overland to the west. The last party, including Chief Ross, went by water. Now, heavy autumn rains and hundreds of wagons on the muddy route made roads impassable; little grazing and game could be found to supplement meager rations.

Two-thirds of the ill-equipped Cherokees were trapped between the ice-bound Ohio and Mississippi Rivers during January. As one survivor recalled, " Long time we travel on way to new land. People feel bad when they leave Old Nation. Womens cry and make sad wails. Children cry and many men cry...but they say nothing and just put heads down and keep on go towards West. Many days pass and people die very much."

Some drank stagnant water and succumbed to disease. One survivor told how his father got sick and died; then, his mother; then, one by one, his five brothers and sisters. "One each day. Then all are gone."

By March 1839, all survivors had arrived in the west. No one knows how many died throughout the ordeal, but the trip was especially hard on infants, children, and the elderly. Missionary doctor Elizur Butler, who accompanied the Cherokees, estimated that over 4,000 died-nearly a fifth of the Cherokee population.
Epilogue
In August 1839, John Ross was elected Principal Chief of the reconstituted Cherokee Nation. Tahlequah, Oklahoma was its capital. It remains tribal headquarters for the Cherokee Nation today.

About 1,000 Cherokees in Tennessee and North Carolina escaped the roundup. They gained recognition in 1866, establishing their tribal government in 1868 in Cherokee, North Carolina. Today, they are known as the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

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Stories - Trail Of Tears National Historic Trail (U.S. National Park Service)

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Federal Indian Removal Policy Early in the 19th century, the United States felt threatened by England and Spain, who held land in the western continent. At the same time, American settlers clamored for more land. Thomas Jefferson proposed the creation of a buffer zone between U.S.

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History - Gen. Winfield Scott's Address to the Cherokee Nation - GeorgiaInfo

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"Cherokees! The President of the United States has sent me with a powerful army, to cause you, in obedience to the treaty of 1835 [the Treaty of New Echota], to join that part of your people who have already established in prosperity on the other side of the Mississippi.

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Most of the LEARN NC Content has been archived using the Wayback Machine. Instructions for how to access that content is below, including links to frequently requested materials.

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bibliography guide virtual program service digital reference section library of congress primary documents indian removal act

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Indian Removal Act: Primary Documents in American History (Virtual Programs & Services, Library of Congress)

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The Indian Removal Act was signed into law by Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830, authorizing the president to grant unsettled lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for Indian lands within existing state borders. A few tribes went peacefully, but many resisted the relocation policy.

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From Many Lands includes photos, stories, maps, flags and games of handmade marionettes and dolls from all over the world. Learn about global culture by selecting from the List of Stories and Countries or via the and Games/Activities links. This website provides free educational resources for teachers and students.

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Over 20,000 Cherokees were forced to march westward along the Trail of Tears. About a quarter of them died along the way.

Not everyone was included in the new Jacksonian Democracy. There was no initiative from Jacksonian Democrats to include women in political life or to combat slavery. But, it was the Native American who suffered most from Andrew Jackson's vision of America. Jackson, both as a military leader and as President, pursued a policy of removing Indian tribes from their ancestral lands. This relocation would make room for settlers and often for speculators who made large profits from the purchase and sale of land.

According to legend, a Cherokee rose, the state flower of Georgia, grew in every spot a tear fell on the Trail of Tears. Today the flowers grow along many of the trails that the Native Americans took West.

Indian policy caused the President little political trouble because his primary supporters were from the southern and western states and generally favored a plan to remove all the Indian tribes to lands west of the Mississippi River. While Jackson and other politicians put a very positive and favorable spin on Indian removal in their speeches, the removals were in fact often brutal. There was little the Indians could do to defend themselves. In 1832, a group of about a thousand Sac and Fox Indians led by Chief Black Hawk returned to Illinois, but militia members easily drove them back across the Mississippi. The Seminole resistance in Florida was more formidable, resulting in a war that began under Chief Osceola and lasted into the 1840s.

Sequoyah, the child of a Native American woman and a white settler, came up with the first Cherokee alphabet in the early 1800s. By 1821 the Cherokee Nation had officially recognized this form of writing and thousands of Cherokee became literate.

The Cherokees of Georgia, on the other hand, used legal action to resist. The Cherokee people were by no means frontier savages. By the 1830s they developed their own written language, printed newspapers and elected leaders to representative government. When the government of Georgia refused to recognize their autonomy and threatened to seize their lands, the Cherokees took their case to the U.S. Supreme Court and won a favorable decision. John Marshall's opinion for the Court majority in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia was essentially that Georgia had no jurisdiction over the Cherokees and no claim to their lands. But Georgia officials simply ignored the decision, and President Jackson refused to enforce it. Jackson was furious and personally affronted by the Marshall ruling, stating, "Mr. Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it!"

Finally, federal troops came to Georgia to remove the tribes forcibly. As early as 1831, the army began to push the Choctaws off their lands to march to Oklahoma. In 1835, some Cherokee leaders agreed to accept western land and payment in exchange for relocation. With this agreement, the Treaty of New Echota, Jackson had the green light to order Cherokee removal. Other Cherokees, under the leadership of Chief John Ross, resisted until the bitter end. About 20,000 Cherokees were marched westward at gunpoint on the infamous Trail of Tears. Nearly a quarter perished on the way, with the remainder left to seek survival in a completely foreign land. The tribe became hopelessly divided as the followers of Ross murdered those who signed the Treaty of New Echota.

The Trail of Tears is the most sorrowful legacy of the Jacksonian Era.

Florida's Seminoles - The Unconquered
When the Indian Removal Act was passed, three of the Five Civilized Tribes left peacefully, and the fourth, the Cherokees, fought their case in court. But the Seminoles fought their case on the battlefield and many remained in Florida. This illustration-filled article written for Absolutely Florida magazine sketches the history of the Seminoles and their fierce resistance to President Jackson's efforts to relocate them west to Arkansas and Oklahoma.

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The Trail Where They Cried
Nu na hi du na tlo hi lu i is the Cherokee name for the Trail of Tears, which literally translates to "The trail where they cried." This website from the Cherokees of California nonprofit group tells the history behind the forced removal of the Cherokees from Georgia. Complete with quotes from the Cherokees, Jackson, and soldiers in charge of the move, this website is riveting although not visually stimulating.

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The Seminoles were considered one of the "Five Civilized Tribes" so called because they adopted many ways of the white civilization. The others were the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks and Cherokees.
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My friends, circumstances render it impossible that you can flourish in the midst of a civilized community. You have but one remedy within your reach, and that is to remove to the west. -Andrew Jackson.
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the trail of tears — the indian removals

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The Trail of Tears - The Indian Removals [ushistory.org]

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President Andrew Jackson pursued a policy of aggressively removing Native Americans from their lands to make room for settlers as the American nation expoanded to the west. Some tribes tried to resist, with arms or in the courts, but resistance proved furile.

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http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsj&fileName=020/llsj020.db&recNum=21/

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llrd&fileName=010/llrd010.db&recNum=438

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llhj&fileName=024/llhj024.db&recNum=24

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwsslink.html#anchor23

http://www.ualr.edu/sequoyah/uploads/2011/11/Family%20Stories%20from%20the%20Trail%20of%20Tears.htm#Migration

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Most of the LEARN NC Content has been archived using the Wayback Machine. Instructions for how to access that content is below, including links to frequently requested materials.