With the Crown Lands Protection Act, the British parliament declares that all Indian lands are under the guardianship of the British Crown. An attempt to regulate white encroachment on Indian territory, the measure also denies individual Indians all political rights based on land ownership.
The Cherokee arrive in Indian Territory.
After months of travel (see entry for MAY 1838), the majority of the Cherokee reach Indian Territory. Although estimates vary, about 4,000 Cherokee— one out of every four who traveled west—did not survive the trip. Corrupt officials stole much of the food and supplies allocated for Indians, causing many to fall victim to disease and starvation. Because of the misery they suffered on the long journey, the Cherokees refer to it as Nunna Daul Tsunyi, “the trail where they cried.” Among non-Indians, the tragedy becomes known as the Trail of Tears. Although other southeastern Indian tribes, such as the Choctaw and Creek, have similarly horrendous experiences during their relocation to the west, the Cherokee’s Trail of Tears becomes the most infamous example of the abusive treatment of Indians during the Removal era.
Three Cherokee leaders are assassinated.
At daybreak, the house of John Ridge, the leader of the Cherokee’s Treaty faction, is surrounded by 25 members of the opposing National faction. The men storm the house, drag Ridge out of his bed, and stab him repeatedly while his family looks on in horror. The assassins then march in single file by the body, each taking the opportunity to stomp on it. At the same time, two more assassination parties fall on Ridge’s father, Major Ridge, and his cousin Elias Boudinot. Another target for assassination, Ridge’s cousin Stand Watie, manages to escape.
The brutal murders are a result of the enormous political schism between the Cherokee of the National party—traditionalists who had opposed the Treaty of New Echota (see entry for DECEMBER 25, 1835)—and those of the Treaty party—reformists, many of mixed Indian-white ancestry, who had supported it. John Ross, the National leader and principal chief of the tribe (see entry for 1828), claims he had no prior knowledge of the attacks, but he stymies the efforts of federal authorities to find and prosecute the assassins.
“I may yet die some day at the hand of some poor, infatuated Indian deluded by the counsels of [John] Ross and his minions. . . . I am resigned to my fate, whatever it may be.”
—John Ridge, predicting his assassination, at signing of the Treaty of New Echota
World History
