Introduction

The folk of the Cherokee stayed at E of the Mississippi. Between 1815 and 1830. these folks tried to populate in peace beside the Americans. Some Indians tried to populate like the colonists. Many Potawatomi in Indiana and Ohio had converted to the Catholic religion. They lived as husbandmans and fur bargainers. Some Choctaw in Mississippi besides became Christians. They sent their kids to a government-run school called the Choctaw Academy ( Lowman. 1992 ) .

The Cherokees

In the Southeast the Cherokee took the lead in following the settlers’ ways. Many Cherokee who stayed in their tribal lands in Alabama. Georgia and Tennessee bought land and became husbandmans. Others opened shops and Millss. Wealthy Cherokee cotton husbandmans even bought black slaves to work on plantations. Many Cherokee besides converted to Christianity.

An educated Cherokee named Sequoyah developed written alphabet for his people. Another Cherokee named Elias Boudinot published the Cherokee Phoenix. a newspaper printed in both Cherokee and English. Cherokee leaders besides set up a authorities for their people. They wrote a fundamental law based on the Constitution of the United States. During this period. the U. S. authorities did everything it could to do certain that the Indians were treated reasonably. In 1824. the authorities started the Bureau of Indian Affairs. This bureau had the power to do pacts and command trade with the Indians. At the same clip. the authorities knew the peace between the Indians and colonists could non last. Peoples like President John Quincy Adams were pressing Indian folks to travel to the lands west of the Mississippi ( Armento et al. 1991 ) .

Loss and Defeat

By 1830. the authorities was no longer inquiring the Indians to travel off from their antediluvian tribal lands. It was telling them. Making the Indians move West was now official authorities policy.

Removal pacts demanded that many Indians in the Southeast move to Indian reserves in what is now Oklahoma. States were eager to take control of Indian lands. The Choctaw. Creek and Chickasaw. nevertheless decided to remain. They fought the pacts in the tribunals ( Rico & A ; Mano. 1991 ) .

One instance went to the Supreme Court. It ruled that the authorities had no right to order the Indians of their lands. Bing the backwoodsman and Indian combatant that he was. Jackson agreed that Indians should turn their land over to Whites for colony. As President. he supported a policy of giving Indians lands further West in exchange for their land E of the Mississippi. Congress appropriated $ 500. 000 to assist reassign Indians who were willing to accept the offer ( Lipsitz & A ; Speak. 1989 ) .

The procedure of traveling Indians West continued throughout the Jacksonian Era. Unfortunately. the Indians were non ever treated reasonably. Many folks. like Black Hawk’s Sac and Fox in Illinois and Osceola’s Seminoles in Florida. resisted the authorities offer. but provinces passed Torahs widening control over Indian lands within their boundary lines. and in kernel. forced the Indians to travel West.

The Cherokee state was particularly notable in its opposition to the arrogation of its land. Cherokees tried to keep their land by taking up white men’s ways. They farmed their land and raised cowss. They developed a written linguistic communication. They drafted a Constitution and attempted to set up a province within a province in northwesterly Georgia. But the province of Georgia refused to acknowledge Cherokee rights. The Treaty of New Echota was the understanding that promulgated the commissariats for this Indian Removal Act of 1830 ( Wikipedia ) .

Anguish at the Trail of Tears

President Andrew Jackson ignored the Supreme Court and ordered the American ground forces to travel the Cherokee by force. Soldiers with guns marched more than 18. 000 Cherokee from their places in the Southeast. Almost one-quarter of the Indians died of famishment. disease and rough intervention along the manner. The path the Cherokee followed to Oklahoma became known as “The Trail of Tears. ” This resulted in the deceases of about 4. 000 Cherokees. They refer to it in their linguistic communication as “Nunna double Isunyi” or “The Trail Where we Cried. ” It was reported that during the remotion. households were separated from each other.

Those who were ill and the aged were forced out of their places at gunpoint. At that point. plunderers came and ransacked their places. It was hard for the Indians who were transported in the most inauspicious and rough conditions of herding. hapless sanitation and drouth. There were about two-thirds of the Cherokees who were trapped between the cold conditions in Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers ( The Cherokee Trail of Tears. 1838-1839 ) . Other Indians were besides involved in this remotion and the way they traveled were characterized by the cryings. and despair at holding lost their places and lands ( Trail of Tears. Wikipedia ) . Surely. the intervention of American Indians in many instances can non be justified.

WORKS CITED

Armento. Beverly. Nash. Gary. Salter. Christopher. Wixson. Karen.America Will Be.

Houghton Mifflin Company. 1991.

Lipsitz. Lewis and Speak David.American Democracy. St Martin’s Press New York. 1989.

Lowman. Michael. “United States History. ”Beka Book Publications. 1992.

Rico. Barbara & A ; Mano. Sandra.American Mosaic. Houghton Mifflin Company. 1991.

Trail of Tears.Wikipedia. Retrieved Feb. 10. 2007 at:

hypertext transfer protocol: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Trail_of_Tears

The Cherokee Trail of Tears. 1838-1839 Federal Indian Removal Policy.National Historic Trail. 1838-1839. Retrieved Feb. 10. 2007 at:

hypertext transfer protocol: //www. rosecity. net/tears/trail/tearsnht. hypertext markup language