Trail of tears how many indians

Most Cherokees refused to move, and in May of federal troops began to round up the Cherokees and imprison them in stockades to await removal.

Many died in the stockades as they waited. Most made the journey on foot. Rebecca Neugin, who was a child when she and her family were forced to remove, stated that although she and her smaller siblings were able to ride in a wagon, her mother, father, and older brother walked all the way.

The Cherokee nation was not the only Native American culture to be removed westward in the 19th century. Perhaps as many as , First Peoples were pushed out of their traditional lands, and the death toll from these forced removals reached far into the thousands.

McLoughlin, William G. Mooney, James. Historical Sketch of the Cherokee. Indian removal as an official policy was first put forth in President Jackson's second annual address to Congress in The tribes were forced to negotiate and sign relocation treaties and could voluntarily move or be forced to move at gunpoint by the US Army.

The Removal Act created conflict among the Five Tribes. Some members felt that they should accept the inevitable move West, while most wanted to fight removal as long as they could. An example of this is the Cherokee Nation. Major John Ridge, one of the chiefs of the Cherokee Nation, and some others close to him felt that fighting was pointless.

Georgia and Cherokee Nation v. Georgia , where the court upheld the Cherokee Nation's sovereignty. They believed this would help them fight removal. As part of his plans for the United States, he was determined to remove the remaining tribes from the east and relocate them in the west. Between the Indian Removal Act and , the U. Army action to move about , American Indians living east of the Mississippi River, westward to Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma.

The Choctaw relocation began in ; the Chickasaw relocation was in ; the Creek were removed by force in following negotiations that started in ; and the Seminole removal triggered a 7-year war that ended in These stories are not told in this lesson plan. The trails they followed became known as the Trail of Tears. The Cherokees were among the last to go and it is the Cherokee's story that is the subject of this lesson pan.

Key: 1. Seminole 2. Creek 3. Choctaw 4. Chickasaw 5. Cherokee 6. Quapaw 7. Osage 8. Illinois Confederation Questions for Map 1 1. Even after ceding, or yielding, millions of acres of their territory through a succession of treaties with the British and then the U. What modern states are included within the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation? How large is the territory compared with the modern states?

What other tribes lived near the Cherokees? National Park Service This map shows the routes followed west by the Cherokee Nation to reach "Indian Territory," now the state of Oklahoma, in the s. The pink trail is the northern route. It was a land route and the largest group of Cherokees followed this part of the trail. The blue trail is the water route. The red trails show the other routes on the trail.

Questions for Map 2 1. How many different routes are shown? Why do you think there might have been so many? Find the water route. What rivers does it follow? What advantages to you think it might have over an overland route? What difficulties might it present? Locate the northern route. How does it compare with the other main routes? What major rivers did it cross? What advantages and what disadvantages might the northern route have?

The largest group of Cherokees left Tennessee in the late fall of , followed the northern route, and arrived in Indian Territory in March. What problems do you think they might have encountered on the journey? Cherokee culture thrived for thousands of years in the southeastern United States before European contact. When the Europeans settlers arrived, the Indians they encountered, including the Cherokee, assisted them with food and supplies. The Cherokees taught the early settlers how to hunt, fish, and farm in their new environment.

They introduced them to crops such as corn, squash, and potatoes; and taught them how to use herbal medicines for illnesses. By the s, many Cherokees had adopted some of the cultural patterns of the white settlers as well. The settlers introduced new crops and farming techniques.

Some Cherokee farms grew into small plantations, worked by African slaves. Cherokees built gristmills, sawmills, and blacksmith shops. They encouraged missionaries to set up schools to educate their children in the English language. They used a syllabary characters representing syllables developed by Sequoyah a Cherokee to encourage literacy as well.

In the midst of the many changes that followed contact with the Europeans, the Cherokee worked to retain their cultural identity operating "on a basis of harmony, consensus, and community with a distaste for hierarchy and individual power. It used to be said, a few years since, with the greatest of confidence, and is sometimes repeated even now, that "Indians can never acquire the habit of labour.

Some Indians not only provide an abundant supply of food for their families, by the labour of their own hands, but have a surplus of several hundred bushels of corn, with which they procure clothing, furniture, and foreign articles of luxury. Two leaders played central roles in the destiny of the Cherokee.

Both had fought along side Andrew Jackson in a war against a faction of the Creek Nation which became known as the Creek War Both had used what they learned from the whites to become slave holders and rich men. Both were descended from Anglo-Americans who moved into Indian territory to trade and ended up marrying Indian women and having families. Both were fiercely committed to the welfare of the Cherokee people. Major Ridge 3 and John Ross shared a vision of a strong Cherokee Nation that could maintain its separate culture and still coexist with its white neighbors.

In , they worked together to create a new national capitol for their tribe, at New Echota in Georgia. In , they proposed a written constitution that would put the tribe on an equal footing with the whites in terms of self government.

The constitution, which was adopted by the Cherokee National Council, was modeled on that of the United States. Both men were powerful speakers and well able to articulate their opposition to the constant pressure from settlers and the federal government to relocate to the west.

Ridge had first made a name for himself opposing a Cherokee proposal for removal in In John Ross, on a delegation to Washington, D. We appeal to the magnanimity of the American Congress for justice, and the protection of the rights, liberties, and lives, of the Cherokee people. We claim it from the United States, by the strongest obligations, which imposes it upon them by treaties; and we expect it from them under that memorable declaration, "that all men are created equal.

Not all tribal elders or tribal members approved of the ways in which many in the tribe had adopted white cultural practices and they sought refuge from white interference by moving into what is now northwestern Arkansas. In the s, the numbers of Cherokees moving to Arkansas territory increased. Others spoke out on the dangers of Cherokee participation in Christian churches, and schools, and predicted an end to traditional practices.

They believed that these accommodations to white culture would weaken the tribe's hold on the land. Even as Major Ridge and John Ross were planning for the future of New Echota and an educated, well-governed tribe, the state of Georgia increased its pressure on the federal government to release Cherokee lands for white settlement.

Some settlers did not wait for approval. They simply moved in and began surveying and claiming territory for themselves.

A popular song in Georgia at the time included this refrain:. All I ask in this creation Is a pretty little wife and a big plantation Way up yonder in the Cherokee Nation. Questions for Reading 1 1. In what ways did the Cherokees adopt aspects of white culture? What did they do to protect Cherokee culture?

What did Major Ridge and John Ross have in common? What were their plans for the Cherokee Nation? Do you think these changes would protect the tribe's land?

Why or why not? Why did some Cherokees oppose these changes? If you were a Cherokee, which group do you think you would agree with? Why do you think John Ross, who was only one-eighth Cherokee and who was raised and educated in the white community, might have identified so strongly with his Indian heritage? Read John Ross's letter to Congress carefully. What is its tone and what points does he make? Even though he was a slave holder, he appeals to the words of the Declaration of Independence.

Do you think this strengthens his argument? Do you think it is an effective appeal? The Cherokees might have been able to hold out against renegade settlers for a long time.

But two circumstances combined to severely limit the possibility of staying put. In Andrew Jackson became president of the United States. In the same year the Indian Removal Act was passed--gold was found on Cherokee lands. There was no holding back the tide of Georgians, Carolinians, Virginians, and Alabamians seeking instant wealth. Georgia held lotteries to give Cherokee land and gold rights to whites. The state had already declared all laws of the Cherokee Nation null and void after June 1, , and also prohibited Cherokees from conducting tribal business, contracting, testifying against whites in court, or mining for gold.

Cherokee leaders successfully challenged Georgia in the U. Supreme Count, but President Jackson refused to enforce the Court's decision. Most Cherokees wanted to stay on their land. Chief Womankiller, an old man, summed up their views:. My sun of existence is now fast approaching to its setting, and my aged bones will soon be laid underground, and I wish them laid in the bosom of this earth we have received from our fathers who had it from the Great Being above.

Yet some Cherokees felt that it was futile to fight any longer. By , Major Ridge, his son John, and nephews Elias Boudinot and Stand Watie had concluded that incursions on Cherokee lands had become so severe, and abandonment by the federal government so certain, that moving was the only way to survive as a nation.

A new treaty accepting removal would at least compensate the Cherokees for their land before they lost everything. These men organized themselves into a Treaty Party within the Cherokee community. In his inaugural address, President Andrew Jackson set a policy to relocate eastern Indians. In it was endorsed, when Congress passed the Indian Removal Act to force those remaining to move west of the Mississippi.

Between and , about , American Indians living between Michigan, Louisiana, and Florida moved west after the U. Army against those resisting.

Many were treated brutally. An estimated 3, Creeks died in Alabama and on their westward journey. Some were transported in chains. Historically, Cherokees occupied lands in several southeastern states. As European settlers arrived, Cherokees traded and intermarried with them. They began to adopt European customs and gradually turned to an agricultural economy, while being pressured to give up traditional home-lands. Between and , over 90 percent of their lands were ceded to others.

By the s, Sequoyah's syllabary brought literacy and a formal governing system with a written constitution. In the same year the Indian Removal Act was passed - gold was found on Cherokee lands.

Georgia held lotteries to give Cherokee land and gold rights to whites. Cherokees were not allowed to conduct tribal business, contract, testify in courts against whites, or mine for gold. The Cherokees successfully challenged Georgia in the U. Supreme Court.