Despite the new Cherokee way of life, the settlers wanted the Indians’ lands. The discovery of gold near Dahlonega, Georgia, helped influence government officials to call for the relocation of the Cherokee, along with other eastern Indians. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act to relocate the eastern tribes to an Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River.
Despite the fact that the principal chief of the Cherokee, the great orator John Ross, passionately argued and won the Cherokee case before the Supreme Court of the United States; despite the fact that Junaluska, who had saved Jackson’s life, personally pleaded with the president for his people’s land; despite the fact that such great Americans as Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and Davy Crockett supported the Cherokee claims; still, President Jackson ordered the eastern Indians’ removal. And so began the Trail of Tears.
The state of Georgia began forcing the Cherokee to sell their lands for next to nothing. Cherokee homes and possessions were plundered. Whites destroyed the printing press of the Cherokee Phoenix because it published articles opposing Indian removal. Soldiers began rounding up Cherokee families and taking them to internment camps in preparation for the journey westward. With little food and unsanitary conditions at these hastily built stockades, many Cherokee died. In the meantime, some tribal members escaped to the mountains of North Carolina, where they successfully hid out from the troops.
The first forced trek westward began in spring 1838 and lasted into the summer. On the 800-mile journey, travelers suffered because of the intense heat. The second mass exodus took place in the fall and winter of 1838—39 during the rainy season; the wagons bogged down in the mud, and then came freezing temperatures and snow. On both journeys, many died from disease and inadequate food and blankets. The soldiers drove their prisoners on at a cruel pace, not even allowing them to bury their dead properly. Nor did they protect Cherokee families from attacks by bandits.
During the period of confinement, plus the two separate trips, about 4,000 Cherokee died, almost a quarter of their total number. More Cherokee died after arrival in the Indian Territory because of epidemics and continuing shortages of food. During the 1830s, other Southeast tribes endured similar experiences, including the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole.
World History
