Trail of tears history how many died

They fought the Indian Removal Act all the way up to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the relocation scheme was unconstitutional. Upon hearing the decision, a dismissive President Jackson reportedly said"[Chief Justice] John Marshall has made his decision; let him enforce it now if he can. Ina small group of Cherokee slave-owners went against the wishes of the tribe and signed the Treaty of New Echota, which handed over all Cherokee lands East of the Mississippi to the U.

With the traitorous treaty signed, the federal government began a brutally bureaucratic campaign of relocating an estimatedNative Americans, including members of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaws, Creek and Seminole tribes. The government built strategically placed forts across the Southeastern states and used them as processing sites. Tribal peoples were stripped of all their possessions and taken to collection points like Fort Hembree in North Carolina, where they would wait in squalid conditions, many dying from dysentery even before the punishing westward trek began.

Smithers says that the popular notion of the Trail of Tears being a forced march on foot isn't entirely accurate. About half of the forcibly removed native peoples were shipped out on flatbed barges that followed a twisting river route out West. For the overland routes, most traveled in ox-drawn wagons. But that doesn't mean that the journey was any less traumatic or deadly.

Food was scarce and disease ran rampant on the overland routes as well, which proceeded in spite of lethal cold or searing heat for more than 1, miles 1, kilometers. In some cases, men were marched in double-file lines with shackles on their feet and hands. Georgiathe Court ruled that Georgia could not impose laws in Cherokee territory, since only the national government—not state governments—had authority in Indian affairs.

Worcester v Georgia is associated with Andrew Jackson's famous, though apocryphal, quote "John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it! Fearing open warfare between federal troops and the Georgia militia, Jackson decided not to enforce Cherokee claims against the state of Georgia. He was already embroiled in a constitutional crisis with South Carolina i.

Congress had given Jackson authority to negotiate removal treaties, exchanging Indian land in the East for land west of the Mississippi River. Jackson used the dispute with Georgia to put pressure on the Cherokees to sign a removal treaty. The final treaty, passed in Congress by a single vote, and signed by President Andrew Jacksonwas imposed by his successor President Martin Van Buren.

Van Buren allowed GeorgiaTennesseeNorth Carolinaand Alabama an armed force of 7, militiamen, army regulars, and volunteers under General Winfield Scott to relocate about 13, Cherokees to Cleveland, Tennessee. After the initial roundup, the U. Former Cherokee lands were immediately opened to settlement. Most of the deaths during the journey were caused by disease, malnutrition, and exposure during an unusually cold winter.

In the winter of the Cherokee began the 1,mile 1, km march with scant clothing and most on foot without shoes or moccasins. Because of the diseases, the Indians were not allowed to go into any towns or villages along the way; many times this meant traveling much farther to go around them. They were not allowed passage until the ferry had serviced all others wishing to cross and were forced to take shelter under "Mantle Rock", a shelter bluff on the Kentucky side, until "Berry had nothing better to do".

Many died huddled together at Mantle Rock waiting to cross. Several Cherokee were murdered by locals. The Cherokee filed a lawsuit against the U. As they crossed southern Illinois, on December 26, Martin Davis, commissary agent for Moses Daniel's detachment, wrote:. There is the coldest weather in Illinois I ever experienced anywhere. The streams are all frozen over something like 8 or 12 inches [20 or 30 cm] thick.

We are compelled to cut through the ice to get water for ourselves and animals. It snows here every two or three days at the fartherest. We are now camped in Mississippi [River] swamp 4 miles 6 km from the river, and there is no possible chance of crossing the river for the numerous quantity of ice that comes floating down the river every day.

We have only traveled 65 miles km on the last month, including the time spent at this place, which has been about three weeks. It is unknown when we shall cross the river I fought through the civil war and have seen men shot to pieces and slaughtered by thousands, but the Cherokee removal was the cruelest work I ever knew. It eventually took almost three months to cross the 60 miles 97 kilometres on land between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

However a few years before forced removal, some Cherokee who opted to leave their homes voluntarily chose a water-based route through the Tennessee, Ohio and Mississippi rivers. It took only 21 days, but the Cherokee who were forcibly relocated were wary of water travel. Environmental researchers David Gaines and Jere Krakow outline the "context of the tragic Cherokee relocation" as one predicated on the difference between "Indian regard for the land, and its contrast with the Euro-Americans view of land as property".

Smith, led to the homes of American Indian people "being donated and sold off" by the United States government to "promote the settlement and development of the West," with railroad developers, white settlers, land developers, and mining companies assuming ownership. Dina Gilio-Whitaker draws on research by Choctaw and Chippewa historian Clara Sue Kidwell to show the relationship between the Trail of Tears and a negative impact on the environment.

In tracking the environmental changes of the southeastern tribes who relocated to new lands across the Trail of Tears, Kidwell finds that "prior to removal the tribes had already begun adapting to a cash-based, private property economic system with their adoption of many European customs including the practice of slave owningafter their move west they had become more deeply entrenched into the American economic system with the discovery of coal deposits and the western expansion of the railroads on and through their lands.

So while they adapted to their new environments, their relationship to land would change to fit the needs of an imposed capitalist system". In addition to a physical relocation, American Indian removal and the Trail of Tears had social and cultural effects as American Indians were forced "to contemplate abandonment of their native land.

To the Cherokees life was a part of the land. Every rock, every tree, every place had a spirit. And the spirit was central to the tribal lifeway. To many, the thought of loss of place was a thought of loss of self, loss of Cherokeeness, and a loss of life- way". Environmental deprivation in this sense refers to actions by settlers and settler governments that are designed to block Native peoples' access to life-giving and culture-affirming resources".

Removed Cherokees initially settled near Tahlequah, Oklahoma. There were some exceptions to removal. Approximately Cherokees evaded the U. Those Cherokees who lived on private, individually owned lands rather than communally owned tribal land were not subject to removal. In North Carolina, about Cherokees, sometimes referred to as the Oconaluftee Cherokee due to their trail of tears history how many died near to the river of the same namelived on land in the Great Smoky Mountains owned by a white man named William Holland Thomas who had been adopted by Cherokees as a boyand were thus not subject to removal.

Added to this were some Cherokee from the Nantahala area allowed to stay in the Qualla Boundary after assisting the U. Army in hunting down and capturing the family of the old prophet, Tsaliwho was executed by a firing squad as were most of his family. A local newspaper, the Highland Messengersaid July 24,"that between nine hundred and a thousand of these deluded beings … are still hovering about the homes of their fathers, in the counties of Macon and Cherokee " and "that they are a great annoyance to the citizens" who wanted to buy land there believing the Cherokee were gone; the newspaper reported that President Martin Van Buren said "they … are, in his opinion, free to go or stay.

Several Cherokee speakers throughout history offered first-hand accounts of the events of the Trail of Tears as well as provided insight into its lasting effects. John Ross, the Cherokee Chief from toand Major Ridge embarked on a speaking tour within the Cherokee Nation itself in hopes of strengthening a sense of unity amongst the tribal members.

Another influential Cherokee figure was Cherokee writer John Ridge, son of Major Ridge, who wrote four articles using the pseudonym "Socrates". His works were published in the Cherokee Phoenix, the nation's newspaper. The choice of pseudonym, according to literary scholar Kelly Wisecup, " Interior Department employee Guion Miller created a list using several rolls and applications to verify tribal enrollment for the distribution of funds, known as the Guion Miller Roll.

The applications received documented overindividuals; the court approved more than 30, individuals to share in the funds. The events have sometimes been referred to as " death marches ", in particular when referring to the Cherokee march across Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri in Indians who had the means initially provided for their own removal.

Contingents that were led by conductors from the U. Army included those led by Edward Deas, who was claimed to be a sympathizer for the Cherokee plight. This was at the point when the remaining Cherokee were rounded up into camps and placed into large groups, often over in size. Communicable diseases spread quickly through these closely quartered groups, killing many.

These groups were among the last to move, but following the same routes the others had taken; the areas they were going through had been depleted of supplies due to the vast numbers that had gone before them. The marchers were subject to extortion and violence along the route. In addition, these final contingents were forced to set out during the hottest and coldest months of the year, killing many.

Exposure to the elements, disease, starvation, harassment by local frontiersmen, and insufficient rations similarly killed up to one-third of the Choctaw and other nations on the march. There is debate among historians about how the Trail of Tears should be classified. Some historians classify the events as a form of ethnic cleansing ; [ ] [ ] [ 32 ] others refer to it as genocide.

Historian and biographer Robert V. Remini wrote that Jackson's policy on Native Americans was based on good intentions. He writes: "Jackson fully expected the Indians to thrive in their new surroundings, educate their children, acquire the skills of white civilization so as to improve their living conditions, and become citizens of the United States.

Removal, in his mind, would provide all these blessings Jackson genuinely believed that what he had accomplished rescued these people from inevitable annihilation. Coletoo, argues that it is difficult to find evidence of a conscious desire for genocide in Jackson's policy on Native Americans, but dismisses the idea that Jackson was motivated by the welfare of Native Americans.

Historian Justin D. Murphy argues that:. In trail of tears history how many died, some scholars have debated that the Trail of Tears was a genocidal act. The Trail of Tears was thus a settler-colonial replacement of Indigenous people and culture in addition to a genocidal mass-killing according to Wolfe. According to her, these are ongoing actions that constitute both cultural and physical genocide.

Inabout 2, miles 3, km of trails were authorized by federal law to mark the removal of 17 detachments of the Cherokee people. A historical drama based on the Trail of Tears, Unto These Hills written by Kermit Hunterhas sold over five million tickets for its performances since its opening on July 1,both touring and at the outdoor Mountainside Theater of the Cherokee Historical Association in Cherokee, North Carolina.

A regular event, the "Remember the Removal Bike Ride," entails six cyclists from the Cherokee Nation to ride over miles while retracing the same path that their ancestors took. The cyclists, who average about 60 miles a day, start their journey in the former capital of the Cherokee Nation, New EchotaGeorgiaand finish in TahlequahOklahoma.

The falling-tear medallion shows a seven-pointed star, the symbol of the seven clans of the Cherokees. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk.

Trail of tears history how many died

Read View source View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. Forced relocation and ethnic cleansing of the southeastern Native American tribes. This article is about the event in Native American history. For other uses, see Trail of Tears disambiguation. Forced displacement Ethnic cleansing [ 1 ] Mass murder.

Jackson's role. Further information: Worcester v. Main article: Choctaw Trail of Tears. Harkins, George W. Harkins to the American People [ 72 ]. Main article: Seminole Wars. Main article: Muscogee. Remini, Andrew Jackson [ 83 ]. Chickasaw monetary removal. See also: Chickasaw. Cherokee forced relocation. Main article: Cherokee removal. Eastern Cherokee Restitution.

Landmarks and commemorations. Trail of Tears outdoor historical drama, Unto These Hills. Remember the Removal bike ride. In literature and oral history. By any United Nations standard, these actions can be equated with genocide and ethnic cleansing. Basso — "The Cherokee Trail of Tears should be understood within the context of colonial genocide in the Americas.

This is yet another chapter of colonial forces acting against an indigenous group in order to secure rich and fertile lands, resources, and living spaces. In view of the treatment of Amerindians by agents of the U. For example, the thousands of Cherokees who died during the Trail of Tears Cherokee Indians were forced to march in from Appalachia to Oklahoma testify that even a democratic system may tum against its people.

As the great Indian orator Dragging Canoe concluded, "Whole Indian Nations have melted away like balls of snow in the sun leaving scarcely a name except as imperfectly recorded by their destroyers". By recognizing and respecting the Muscogee Creek Nation's authority to criminally sentence its own members, the United States Supreme Court could have taken a small step towards righting these wrongs.

Fenelon and historian Clifford E. Trafzer — "Instead the national government and its leaders have offered a systemic denial of genocide, the occurrence of which would be contrary to the trails of tears history how many died of a democratic and just society. It took 50 years of scholarly debate for the academy to recognize well-documented genocides of the Indian removals in the s, including the Cherokee Trail of Tears, as with other nations of the "Five Civilized" southeastern tribes.

Bowser, psychologist Carol O. Word, and Kate Shaw — "There was a pattern to Indian genocide. One-by-one, each Native state was defeated militarily; successive Native generations fought and were defeated as well. As settlers became more numerous and stronger militarily, Indians became fewer and weaker militarily. In one Indian nation after the other, resistance eventually collapsed due to the death toll from violence.

John Ridge began unauthorized talks with the Jackson administration in the late s. Meanwhile, in anticipation of the Cherokee removal, the state of Georgia began holding lotteries in order to divide up the Cherokee tribal lands among its citizenry. However, elected principal Chief John Ross and the majority of the Cherokee people remained adamantly opposed to removal.

Political maneuvering began: Chief Ross canceled the tribal elections inthe Council impeached the Ridges, and a member of the Ridge Party was murdered. The Ridges responded by eventually forming their own council, representing only a fraction of the Cherokee people. InJackson appointed Reverend John F. Schermerhorn as a treaty commissioner.

The U. These terms were rejected in Octoberby the Cherokee Nation council. Chief Ross, attempting to bridge the gap between his administration and the Ridge Party, traveled to Washington with John Ridge to open new negotiations, but they were turned away and told to deal with Schermerhorn. Meanwhile, Schermerhorn organized a meeting with the pro-removal council members at New Echota, Georgia.

Only five hundred Cherokees out of thousands responded to the summons, and on December 30,twenty-one proponents of Cherokee removal, among them Major Ridge and Elias Boudinot, signed or left "X" marks on the Treaty of New Echota. John Ridge and Stand Watie signed the treaty when it was brought to Washington. Chief Ross, as expected, refused. The signatories were violating a Cherokee Nation law drafted by John Ridge passed inwhich had made it a crime to sign away Cherokee lands, the punishment for which was death.

Not a single official of the Cherokee Council signed the document. This treaty relinquished all Cherokee land east of the Mississippi River. Despite the protests of the Cherokee National Council and principal Chief Ross that the document was a fraud, Congress ratified the treaty on May 23,by just one vote. A number of Cherokees including the Ridge party left for the West at this time, joining those who had already emigrated.

By the end ofmore than 6, Cherokees had moved to the West. More than 16, remained in the South, however; the terms of the treaty gave them two years to leave. While frequently frowned upon in the North, the Removal Act was popular in the South, where population growth and the discovery of gold on Cherokee land had increased pressure on tribal lands.

The state of Georgia became involved in a contentious jurisdictional dispute with the Cherokees, culminating in the U. It would only escalate further. Others did not agree willingly. The Seminoles refused to leave, which led the United States into a series of long and costly series of wars to forcibly remove the natives from Florida. The Cherokee also did not willingly move.

The US government cheated the tribe by signing the Treaty of New Echota with non-leaders of the tribe. Despite this, in federal troops forcibly removed the Cherokee from their homes and forced them to walk thousands of miles to their new home along the Trail of Tears. Given the Cherokee protest over the fraudulent treaty, its members were not prepared for the long trek.