Class Starter: Sit With Your Tribe 1) Choctaw 2) Chickasaw 3) Creek 4) Seminole 5) Cherokee

Where does your tribe live?

Get to Know Yourselves Read the short paragraph about your tribe

Proposed Indian Relocation Territory

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 What does this law really mean? What is being promised? What is being taken away? How difficult was it to understand what the law said? How well do you think the Indians who were subject to this law understood it? Discuss with “your” tribe what your response to the United States government is. How do you think “your” tribe reacted?

What happened to your tribe? Read about your results…

The Choctaw Between 1801 and 1830, the Choctaw ceded more than 23 million acres to the United States. The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830 marked the final cession of lands and outlined the terms of Choctaw removal to the west. The Choctaw Nation was the first American Indian tribe to be removed by the federal government from its ancestral home to land set aside for them in what is now Oklahoma. When the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was signed, there were over 19,000 Choctaws in Mississippi. From 1831 to 1833, approximately 13,000 Choctaws were removed to the west. More followed over the years. Members of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians are descendants of the proud Choctaw individuals who refused to be removed to Oklahoma in the 1830s.

The Chickasaw Unlike other tribes who received land grants in exchange for ceding territory, the Chickasaw held out for financial compensation: they were to receive $3 million U.S. dollars from the United States for their lands east of the Mississippi River. In 1836 the Chickasaw had reached an agreement that purchased land in Indian Territory from the previously removed Choctaw after a bitter five-year debate within the tribe. They paid the Choctaw $530,000 for the westernmost part of Choctaw land. The first group of Chickasaw moved in 1837. For nearly 30 years, the US did not pay the Chickasaw the $3 million dollars it owed them. Three thousand Chickasaw crossed the Mississippi River, following routes established by the Choctaw and Creek. During the journey, more than 500 Chickasaw died of dysentery and smallpox. When the Chickasaw reached Indian Territory, the United States began to administer to them through the Choctaw Nation, and later merged them for administrative reasons.

The Creeks 1832 the Creek National Council signed the Treaty of Cussetta, ceding their remaining lands east of the Mississippi to the U.S., and accepting relocation to the Indian Territory. At their peak, the Creeks controlled millions of acres of land in the present-day states of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. Much of this land, however, was lost as the federal government sought land for white settlement. By 1836, most Creeks had relocated voluntarily or been forced to remove to Indian Territory, as the present-day state of Oklahoma was known at the time. The last of the travelers arrived in the West in September 1829, in the midst of a cholera epidemic. Indeed, disease was so rampant that many people packed their belongings and returned to Alabama. Those who stayed suffered raids by Western Indians who invaded Creek settlements at night. A delegation of Chickasaw, who were exploring the west for possible emigration, observed that the Creek emigrants were "in a poor condition" and were "continually mourning for the land of their births."

The Seminoles The population of about 5,000 was subjected to the fiercest of all the wars ever waged by the U.S. Government against the native people, known as the Second Semiole War, 1835-1842. By the end of the war there were reportedly only 300 Seminoles left in the territory. Then they fought the Third Seminole War and lost another 240 people. For the next sixty years the small population of the Seminoles would live on the fringes of society. They made livings as hunters, guides and sometimes, curiosities for the tourists.

The Cherokees With the election of Jackson as president in 1828, the Cherokee were in serious trouble. Gold was discovered that year on Cherokee land in northern Georgia, and miners swarmed in. Jackson refused to enforce the treaties which protected the Cherokee homeland from encroachment. During the two years following his election, Georgia extended its laws to Cherokee territory, dividing up Cherokee lands by lottery, and stripping the Cherokee of legal protection. Georgia citizens were free to kill, burn, and steal. With the only alternative a war which would result in annihilation, John Ross decided to fight for his people's rights in the United States courts. The Cherokee won both cases brought before the Supreme Court: Cherokee Nation vs Georgia (1831) and Worcester vs Georgia(1832), but the legal victories were useless. Jackson's answer: "Justice Marshall has made his decision. Let him enforce it.“ The hopelessness of the situation finally convinced these men to sign the Treaty of New Echota (December, 1835) surrendering the Cherokee Nation's homeland in exchange for $5,000,000, seven million acres in Oklahoma, and an agreement to remove within two years. Known as the Treaty Party (Ridgites), only 350 of 17,000 Cherokee actually endorsed the agreement. Several large groups of Cherokee departed into the face of an approaching winter. They were marched west without adequate shelter, provisions, or food. The soldiers were under orders to move quickly and did little to protect them from whites who attacked and robbed the Cherokee of what little they had left. Two-thirds were trapped in southern Illinois by ice on the Mississippi and forced to remain for a month without shelter or supplies. As many as 4,000, including the wife of John Ross, died enroute. Many had to be left unburied beside the road.

The Trail of Tears