The Trail of Tears and the Forced Relocation of the Cherokee Nation
The caravan was ready to move out. The wagons were lined up. The mood was somber. One who was there reported that “there was a silence and stillness of the voice that betrayed the sadness of the heart.”
Behind them the makeshift camp where some had spent three months of a Tennessee summer was already ablaze. There was no going back.
A white-haired old man, Chief Going Snake, led the way on his pony, followed by a group of young men on horseback.
Just as the wagons moved off along the narrow roadway, they heard a sound. Although the day was bright, there was a black thundercloud in the west. The thunder died away and the wagons continued their long journey westward toward the setting sun.
Many who heard the thunder thought it was an omen of more trouble to come.ยน
This is the story of the removal of the Cherokee Nation from its ancestral homeland in parts of North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama to land set aside for American Indians in what is now the state of Oklahoma.
Some 100,000 American Indians forcibly removed from what is now the eastern United States to what was called Indian Territory included members of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole tribes.
The Cherokee’s journey by water and land was over a thousand miles long, during which many Cherokees were to die. Tragically, the story in this lesson is also one of conflict within the Cherokee Nation as it struggled to hold on to its land and its culture in the face of overwhelming force.
The Trail of Tears National Historic Trail commemorates the removal of the Cherokee and the paths that 17 Cherokee detachments followed westward.
It also promotes a greater awareness of the Trail’s legacy and the effects of the United States’ policy of American Indian removal not only on the Cherokee, but also on other tribes, primarily the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole.
ยน W. Shorey Coodey to John Howard Payne, n.d.; cited in John Ehle, Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation (New York: Doubleday, 1988), 351.
Source: http://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/118trail/118trail.htm
And: https://www.facebook.com/TheGreatSpirit.God
***Another sad and unjust part of American history. The forced removal of a people from their own land, their ancestral roots.
Hasn’t America learned anything? It seems that America has chosen to repeat history over and over again. The eventual future of “conquerors” is to collapse and “die” away as a race …. and then, one wonders what will be remembered about the “conquerors”?
~~Trail of Tears Documentary~~
We ALL are ONE!!
We ALL fight the fight!!
My great great gran was left behind in the trail of tears because she was a halfbread in Tennessee their name was stiltner
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Wow!! Historical … sad story!! Hugs … โค …
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My family great grandparents Paton Roland Saenz…True Cherokee Indian, now deceased, ran to: St.Loius Missouri
To escape from being put on reservation,Studied railroad engineering there they would have freedom, changed there name not to be discovered.He was an engineer for the railroad, He was then stationed out to Texas where he met my great grandmother she was a Irish woman. My mother’s parents, My mother still lives she is 89 yrs old. She never received any kind of benefits. I am 56 years old and because of this,No reservation number…… I lost out on my Cherokee Indian benefits.
How sad…. I am Cherokee and their is nothing I can do.
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Sad! ๐ณ … are you sure there’s nothing you can do?
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I understand exactly what you mean! I’m kind of in the same situation. I’ve been told my whole 56 year long life that I am part Cherokee Indian but have no proof or any kind of records to validate these claims. It would be SO AWESOME if I could find some kind of information about my Cherokee heritage!
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Thank you for illuminating our dark past. I love your mission of lifting up marginalized people. Many blessings to you Dr Rex ๐๐ฝ
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Thank YOU, Kamara!! You have just made my day … ๐๐ฝ … plenty times I wonder if what I post makes even a bit of difference. Sending many blessings back to you!! From the heart … ๐
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