Over 4000 people died on the trail of tears

Over 16,000 Indians walked on the TRAIL OF TEARS

People migrated from the original Cherokee Nation began in the early 1800’s. Some Cherokees, wary of white encroachment, moved west on their own and moved in other areas of the country. A group known as the Old Settlers previously had voluntarily moved in 1817 to lands given them in Arkansas where they established a government and a peaceful way of life. Later however they were forced to migrate to Indian Territory. White resentment of the Cherokee had been building and reached a pinnacle following the discovery of gold in northern Georgia. This discovery was made just after the creation and passage of the original Cherokee Nation constitution and establishment of a Cherokee Supreme Court. Possessed by "gold fever" and a thirst for expansion, many white communities turned on their Cherokee neighbors. The U.S. government ultimately decided it was time for the Cherokees to be removed leaving behind their farms, their land and their homes.

Between 1816 and 1840, Indian tribes travled east of the Mississippi River signed over forty treaties ceding lands to the federal government. Despite land cessions, several states wanted the Indians relocated to the Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. In 1825, the United States government formally adopted an Indian Removal Policy. The forced relocation of American Indians by federal troops resulted in the Trail of Tears...one of the darkest chapters in American history. The despicable Indian Removal Act with the subsequent Trail of Tear is a black mark on American history that can never be justified or explained away. A Choctaw Chief interviewed by an Arkansas Gazette reporter was quoted as saying the Choctaw removal had been a trail of tears and death. Trail of Tears was widely quoted in the eastern press for the mass relocation of Indian tribes to the Indian Territory. President Andrew Jackson in his inaugural address in 1829, set forth a policy to relocate Eastern Indians west of the Mississippi River. Indian relocation had been a consideration since President Jefferson had justified the Louisiana Purchase as having a place west of the Mississippi River to relocate the Eastern Indians. Anthony Wallace author of Jefferson and the Indians: The Tragic Fate of the First Americans stated that Jefferson was of the opinion: Indians had the oratory skills and family values to climb the ladder of cultural evolution. Indians could be incorporated into the young republic, but not in the hunter-gather state. As long as Indians had hunting grounds, they could not be civilized. His belief was the tribes not accepting the white man’s civilization should be moved west of the Mississippi.

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