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The beggining
Around 125,000 Native Americans lived on million of acres in Florida, North Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia around the 1830s. -
Civilizing Native Americans
Whites feared Native Americans so they attempted to civilize them. President George Washington came up with the idea to civilize them to solve the "Indian problem". The goal was to make Native Americans as much like whites as they could by attempting to convert them to Christianity, learn to read and speak English, and adapt economic practices. In the United States, five tribes adapted these customs and became known as the "Five civilized Tribes". -
Supreme Court
Whites wanted to make profit off of cotton and despite the Natives being civilized, they would do anything to get the land. Whites began to squat on the Natives land, steal livestock, and burn and loot houses. State government joined the efforts to remove the Natives from their lands. Multiple states passed laws that limited the Natives sovereignty and rights. The case Cherokee Nation vs Georgia and Worcester vs Georgia objected to these practices. Despite this, the maltreatment continued. -
Natives are non-equal
Native Americans were treated unequally over and over again before,during, and after the Trail of Tears. The natives were forced to become like whites, from cutting their hair to changing religion. The whites had this thought of superiority over Natives. Whites thought that they were the better race, so they treated Natives like they were below them -
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The Indian Removal Act
President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act forcing tribes to be relocated from their homeland, causing thousands of Cherokees to die and obtaining the term "Trail of Tears". The Indian Removal Act gave the government the power to exchange Natives land in the cotton kingdom for land to the west. The law required the government to negotiate removal treaties fairly, not to coerce the land. However the government ignored this law frequently and forced the Natives to leave. -
Maltreatment of Native Americans
The whites disregarded the fact that Native Americans are there own people and that they have their own rights. Whites repeatedly maltreated natives. The whites forced the natives to give up everything that they believed in to adapt the "better white way of living". Whites would physically force natives from their homes. They burned their houses down and stole from them. -
Creeks drove from their land
The government drove the Creeks from their land in 1836. Out of the 15,000 Creeks who left for Oklahoma, 3,500 of them did not survive. -
President expedites the removal process
The Cherokee were split, not knowing whether to leave their lands or stay and fight. The Cherokee nation attempted to negotiate a new treaty, but to the government it was already set in stone. Around 2,00 Cherokee had left their home to travel to Indian Territory by 1838. To expedite the removal process, President Martin Van Buren sent General Winfield Scott and 7,000 soldiers to their homeland. General Winfield and his soldiers forced the Cherokee into stockades while they looted their homes. -
The 1,200 mile trek
General Winfield Scott and his soldiers marched the Indians more than 1,200 miles into Indian Territory located across the Mississippi River. The Natives encountered starvation, cholera, dysentery, typhus, and whooping cough. It is estimated that more than 5,000 Cherokee died because of this journey. -
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Un-equal Treatment of Native Americans
Native Americans were treated unequally because whites idea of superiority and being the better race. Native Americans had to give up everything from their religion and culture to their lives. -
Thousand of Deaths
The difficult 1,200 mile journey to the Indian Territory resulted in the loss of thousands of lives. Tens of Thousands of Native Americans had been forced from their homes and into Indian Territory by 1840. The government promised that their Indian Territory would remain forever, but yet again the whites also took that from them. In 1907, Oklahoma became a state, resulting in Indian Territory being destroyed. At the end of the decade, very few natives remained in the southeastern U.S. -
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Bibliography
History.com Staff. “Trail of Tears.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2009, www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/trail-of-tears. Independence Hall Association in Philadelphia. “The Trail of Tears - The Indian Removals.” Ushistory.org, Independence Hall Association, 1942, www.ushistory.org/us/24f.asp. Pauls, Elizabeth Prine. “Trail of Tears.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 27 Dec. 2017, www.britannica.com/event/Trail-of-Tears.
