Cherokee Trail of Tears

The Cherokee's rapid acquisition of white culture did not protect them against the land hunger of the settlers. When gold was discovered on Cherokee land in Georgia, agitation for the removal of the Indians increased. In December 1835 the Treaty of New Echota, signed by a small minority of the Cherokee, ceded to the U.S. all their land east of the Mississippi River for $5,000,000.

The overwhelming majority of Cherokees repudiated the treaty and took their case to the Supreme Court of the United States. The court rendered a decision favourable to the Indians, declaring that Georgia had no jurisdiction over the Cherokees and no claim to their lands.

Georgia officials ignored the court's decision, and Pres. Andrew Jackson refused to enforce it. As a result, the Cherokees were evicted under the Indian Removal Act of 1830 by 7,000 troops commanded by Gen. Winfield Scott.

Some 15,000 Cherokees were first gathered into camps while their homes were plundered and burned by local residents. Then the Indians were sent west in groups of about 1,000, most on foot.

The eviction and forced march, which came to be known as the Trail of Tears, took place during the fall and winter of 1838-39 and was badly mismanaged. Inadequate food supplies led to terrible suffering, especially after frigid weather arrived. About 4,000 Cherokees died on the 116-day journey, many because the escorting troops refused to slow or stop so that the ill and exhausted could recover.

The photo above was taken along the trail of tears. I plan to do a later section more indepth on the Native holocost and murder that occurred as men became greedy for gold and power hungry for the land. All  Native life, man, woman, old, or newborn, was seen as worthless and not even permitted the right to live or even to be used as slaves.

CheyFire