Trail+of+Tears


 * TRAIL OF TEARS...**



In 1829, Andrew Jackson took office as Presidend of the United States. And in 1830, just one year after becoming president, he passed the Indian Removal Act. Before taking office, Jackson had already been a part of relocating the indian tribes west. Being president gave Jackson power and more means to remove the indians, and he began working on removing them one tribe at a time. They wanted the lands that the indians were living on, and they felt that the indians' "right of occupancy" was subordinate (of less importance) to the United States' "right of discovery". The Cherokee nation tried to use legal means to protect themselves from removal from their Georgia home. They attemped to fight removal by challenging the removal laws in the supreme court and by establishing their own independent Cherokee nation. The court ruled against the cherokees. But they didn't give up. They took their case to the supreme court again in 1832, where the supreme court ruled in favor of the cherokees. Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the Cherokee nation was sovereign (self governing; independent), which made the removal laws invalid. Marshall said that the Cherokee would have to agree to removal in a treaty, and that the treaty would then have to be ratified by the Senate. The Cherokee nation then divided amongst itself into two parties: the "treaty" party, and the "Ross" or "anti-treaty" party. the treaty party was led by Major Ridge and was in favor of signing the treaty and immigrating, because they felt that further resistance of removal would result in the destruction of their nation. On the other hand, the Ross party was led by Chief John Ross and they were determinded to continue resistance to removal reguardless of the cost. In 1833, the treaty party signed The Treaty of New Echota, even though they were not the recognized leaders of the Cherokee nation. Chief John Ross and over 15,000 Cherokees signed a petition in protest of the treaty of New Echota, saying that they treaty party was not the leaders of the Cherokee nation and therefore the treaty was not vaild. The supreme court ignored their demands and ratified the treaty in 1836. The Cherokees were given 2 years to relocate on their own will, and then they would be forced out. By 1838, only 2,000 Cherokees had left and 16,000 remained. The US government sent in 7,000 troops led by Winfield Scott which forced the Cherokees in to stockades at gunpoint. They were then forced to leave their homeland and they began walking their journey to the relocation spot in present day Oaklahoma. They weren't given time to gather their belongings. The journey was long and hard. And of the 16,000 Cherokee indans that had started the journey, 4,000 had died of cold, hunger, and disease. This trail became known as the Trail of Tears, or directly translated: the trail where they cried.


 * RANDOM BIT OF INFORMATION:** The rock group Europe wrote a song named "Cherokee" about the Cherokees and their journey on the Trail of Tears.

I got my info from this [|web site.] and also this [|site].