Trail of Tears
Introduction
The trail of tears started in the early 1830s when Andrew Jackson signed the "Indian Removal Act." Nearly 125,000 native Americans lived across what in todays day is Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, and northern parts of Florida. The land they were living on was valuable to the white settlers moving in. By the end of the decade their were very few Natives left on the land. For a long time military general Andrew Jackson sought after the indigenous peoples lands and in 1932 he started the "Indian removal."
Essential Questions
How many native americans we involved ?
what was the reasoning behind the Indian removal?
how many indian tribes were involved?
Why is the trail of tears historicaly important?
Where did all of the indiginous people go?
SUMMARY
During the trail of tears there were approximately 125,000 Indians removed. All of this started because white settlers was to plant cotton on the natives homelands. The the federal government got involved making the indigenous people leave and walk hundreds of miles. Their were five civilized tribes effected by the Indian Removal Act. They were the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole and Muscogee tribes. The trail of tears made its mark in history by becoming a symbol of how white American policy leaders treated the natives. Just imagine having to give up everything you know and going from Mississippi and walking all the way to Oklahoma.
Research methods
For my research on this topic I first found four secondary sources, to help get a brief history on the subject then I found two different primary sources to study and finally one book to look over. All of these sources helped me better understand and comprehend the matters of this subject.
The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was a treaty which was signed on September 27, 1830, and proclaimed on February 24, 1831, between the Choctaw American Indian tribe and the United States Government.
The Treaty of New Echota was signed on this day in 1835, ceding Cherokee land to the U.S. in exchange for compensation.
" the trail of tears "" The story of American Indian removals from 1813-1855, written in 1995 by Gloria Jahoda
A movie called "The trail of tears a Cherokee legacy
Found above are four of the sources I used for my project.
Conclusion
Sioux Chief sitting bull once said-“The love of possession is a disease with them; they take tithes from the poor and weak to support the rich who rule. They claim this mother of ours, the Earth, for their own and fence their neighbors away.” in my belief he is trying to say the white men wanted their land for power. Once the white men had their land they had control and they distributed their power in harmful ways by making the natives just pack up and leave. How would you feel if someone who just arrived at your home the only place you know and love tells you to give it all up and go packing? It was a wrong doing and something America should not be proud of.