Cherokee: The Trail of Tears

The Cherokee tribe is a very unique tribe because despite all the events they went through because of foreigners, they were able to stay united and maintained major parts of their culture. The people in the native american tribe usually had high cheekbones, brownish and reddish skin tone, dark hair, and last but not least a bent nose. Their ability to adapt has let them survive until the 21st century. The Trail of Tears, was the act of a relocation of the american indian tribe the Cherokee Indians. They were being moved from the southeast to “Indian Territory.” The Cherokee tribe was very big at one point, they would control the whole east coast at their peak. By the time of the independence the cherokee had immensely shrunken down. The Cherokee tribe called this event Nunna daul Tsuny which translates to Trail where we cried. They suffered from mistreatment from soldiers, inadequate or no food, diseases, the loss of their homes, and weather.

The trail of tears was perhaps a product of the westward expansion. Andrew Jackson’s indian removal process, forced the Cherokee tribe to leave their land near the mississippi river to travel by foot all the way to present day Oklahoma. Before westward expansion, the native american people were seen as second-class citizens, meaning that they are not equal to the white people. Because they are seen as second-class citizens the settlers thought that they were better than them and that it justifies they’re inhumane treatment towards them. The status of the native american was seen as if they are inferior to the whites and because of that the whites also thought that since they are inferior to us we can steal their land, kill them, change their culture, and use their resources and land to our benefit. Throughout the trail of tears that lasted around 2 months, the native americans were being mistreated, did not have anything to eat or drink, a lot of them got infected with diseases like smallpox, malaria, measles, cholera, whooping cough, influenza, pneumonia. Around 4,000 cherokee tribe members died through the trail of tears, the young, elderly, and weak were the first ones to die, not many were able to make it out alive.

The Cherokee tribe was forced to immigrate to new land. A lot of their people died, unjustly and with no reasons. The Dawes act forced the native americans to leave their religion, language, homes, and they culture. The native americans were forced to follow the religion, educational system, culture of the white people. The cherokee tribe went to the supreme court to present their case. The supreme court’s response was that since they were a nation they could not do anything against the laws passed in the state of Georgia which were implying to relocate them. John Ross spoke to by far most of the Cherokee and had their total help. With settlers moving into the Cherokee land, Ross comprehended that creating an arrangement for the land with the United States was his best choice, since he was in danger of losing the land to Georgia. In mid 1835 he needed to deed a segment of the land to the United States for a measure of cash to be dictated by Congress, with whatever remains of the property deeded to the Cherokee proprietors. The staying point on the Ross bargain was the necessity that the United States and the territory of Georgia perceive Cherokee citizenship, including the privilege to cast a ballot and hold political office. Neither Georgia or the United States could consent this.

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