National Park Service

U.S. Departm ent of the Interior

... thegovernment

might more mercifully

have put to death

everyone under a year

or over sixty; rather it

had chosen a most

expensive andpainful

way ofexterminating

thesepoorpeople.

—Missionary Daniel Butrick

Cherokee Nation

A traveler through the southern Appalachians realizes

that something is missing from the forested mountains

and cascading streams. The people who once lived

here no longer work the land or hunt the forests. Ihcir

spirits remain and their language is on the landscape,

but most of them are gone. Where did they go? Do

they survive? The answers are on the Trail ofTears.

In the 1600s about 25,000 Cherokee lived on lands

stretching from the Ohio River to northern Georgia. But

European diseases devastated the Cherokee throughout

the 1700s, and by 1819 Americans' unquenchable thirst

for land had whittled away Cherokee lands—down to

10 percent of their original territory.

Trail of Tears National Historic TrailTennessee, North Carolina,Georgia, Alabam a, Kentucky, Illinois,Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma

Still, they endured. Cherokee Sacred Fire—rekindled

each springin the New l ire Ceremony and the source of

every home fire—shone over a unified Cherokee Nation.

Adopting many of the political and economic features

of the United States, they drafted a constitution, established their own courts, and created a written language.

As a symbol of theirrevival, their newspaper was named

the Cherokee Phoenix, afterthe mythical bird reborn

offire. The Cherokee people had shaped a stable and

prosperous life—one envied by their white neighbors.

The Removal Act

From the time Europeans arrived in the New World,

they struggled with how to live alongside native people.

In 1803 ThomasJefferson became the first president

to publicly support removing Indians, and for the next

25 years eastern tribes were forced west. Some of the

Cherokee (known as the 'Old Settlers”) moved west on

their own to distance themselves from the expanding

American republic.

Events accelerated after AndrewJackson was elected

president in 1828. In 1830 Congress passed the Indian

Removal Act, providing "for an exchange of lands with

the Indians residing in any of the states or territories,

and for their removal west ofthe river Mississippi.”

Meanwhile the state ofGeorgia, home to the Cherokee,

passed laws prohibiting them from conducting tribal

business, testifying against whites, and mining forgold.

The Cherokee Nation, though, had produced leaderswell

versed in the VS legal system, leaderswho fought back.

In Worcester v. Georgia the US Supreme Court, headed

by ChiefJusticeJohn Marshall, ruled in 1832 that the

Cherokee held sovereign land rights. PresidentJackson

openly dismissed the ruling. The Cherokeewere running

out of options.

The Gathering Storm

On the heels of the Indian Removal Act, government

agents descended on the southeastern native peoples.

One by one the tribes were removed. Agents coerced

Choctaw chiefs in Mississippi to sign the first removal

treaty, and in late 1831 the tribe was quickly moved to

Indian Territory—present-day Oklahoma.

The government removed most Muscogee Creeks, manyin chains, from .Alabama and Georgia to Indian Territory

by 1836. The Chickasaw, whose homeland had once

stretched from Tennessee to Arkansas and Illinois,

were taken away by the end of 1837. The Seminóles

fiercely resisted removal from their Florida homeland

but, after great losses in the Seminole Wars, some 4,000

people were deported to IndianTerritory by 1842.

The Cherokee resisted removal and looked to their

leadcrs to sway American political opinion. Still, 20 tribal

members, led by Major Ridge and acting outside the

authority of the Cherokeegovernment, signed theTreaty

of New l-xhota in 1835. The conditions for removal were

set: In exchange for $5 million the tribe would relocate

to IndianTerritory. Though the majority ofCherokee

protested the agreement, by May 1836 Congress made

it law. The treaty gave the Cherokee two years to

voluntarily move.

Cherokee Trail of Tears

Most Cherokee refused to recognize the Treaty of New

Echota: few had moved after two years. In the spring of

1838,7,000 soldiers under Gen. Winfield Scott moved

against the Cherokee Nation. The removal effort begun

in Georgia, where Cherokee families were uprooted and

driven—sometimes at bayonet point—to "round-up"

camps, then concentrated in larger removal camps.

In June the army loaded Cherokee onto flatboats that

traveled the Tennessee. Ohio, Mississippi, and Arkansas

rivers to Indian Territory. The first boat reached its

goal in 13 days, but desertions and fatalities plagued the

next two groups. Diseases raged through the cramped,

poorly-supplied boats.

To save his people, Principal ChiefJohn Ross petitioned

General Scott to let the Cherokee control their own

removal. Ross organized detachments of about 1,000

each, and the Cherokee traveled by foot, horse, and

wagon for 800 miles, taking up to eight months to reach

Indian Territory. Despite prearranged supply points,

they suffered terribly during the hard winter. Of about

15,000 Cherokee forced from their homes, many

hundreds died in the camps or on the journey. The

Cherokee Nation remained alive though, in the spirits

ofthe people and in the ashes saved from the Sacred

Fire they carried along the trail.

A Nation Renewed

Weak and traumatized, 17 detachments ofCherokee

arrived in Indian Territory in 1838 and 1839. The treaty

strife and the harsh removal had also divided the

Cherokee into three factions: pro-treaty, anti-treuty,

and the “Old Settlers."

Despite the political discord, the Cherokee reconstructed

their lives. In September 1839 delegates signed a constitution. The tribe reelected John Ross as Principal Chief

and Tahlequah became the Cherokee capital. In 1S44

the Cherokee Supreme Court building opened its doors.

The Cherokee Advocate, a bilingual newspaper, began

publication. By 1S46 the three factions had signed a treaty

that addressed many oftheir differences. The Sacred

Fire of the Cherokee Nation burned again.

Meetingother challenges as they rebuilt their nation, the

Cherokee proved resilient in the ensuing years. Today the

Cherokee and otherremoved tribes endure as vigorous

Indian nations. The Trail ofTears story is one ofracial

injustice, intolerance, and suffering. But this is also a

story ofsurvival, of a people thriving in the present while

rememberingthe past—not only in Oklahoma, but in

the homelands of southern Appalachia.

Dwindling Cherokee Lands

1721 The Cherokee sign the first

of several treaties that, over the

next 70 years, force them tocede

over half their lands

1791 (July 2) The Treaty of

Hotston places the Cherokee

under US protection

Trail of Tears

1828 The discovery of gold

in northern Georgia leads to

the 'Georgia Gold Rush” the

following year, much of it on

Cherokee lands

¿ft •* .

-- . : ..

Far left: Lands of the

Cherokee people were

steadily reduced in the

100 years before their '

> removal. Left Sequoyah

* George Gilt) completed an 86-

Character Cherokee syllabary in 1821,

enabling many Cherokee to become

* literate. Above: Their newspaper, the

Cherokee Phoenix. was bilingual.

at

18JO (May 26) Congress passes

the Indian Removal Act: President

Andrew Jackson signs it into law

two days later.

1832 Lotteries are held for

appropriated Cherokee lands

in Georgia.

I The Trail ofTears, by Max D. Standley,

portrays displaced Cherokee on the long

road from their old home in Appalachia

to their new one in Indian Territory.

•w*to -

1832 (March 3) In Worcester v.

Georgia the US Supreme Court

confirms that the Cherokee

Indians are a nation holding

distinct sovereign powers.

1835 (Dec 29) Twenty 'treaty

party* leaders sign the Treaty of

New Echota. which leads to

Cherokee removal

1838 (May) Cherokee are

forcibly removed from their

homes and marched to nearby

temporary camps and forts.

far left: Deed forCherokee

land transferred in 1832 to

a white settler in Georgia's

land lottery. Center/eft.

Andrew Jackson, president

1829-37. was determined to

remove the southeastern

tribes. left; John Ross,W

Cherokee Principal

Chief 1828-66. led

the resistance

to his tribe’s

removal.

Left Blocked by icebound

rivers, many Cherokee

endured weeks of harsh

winter weather without

adequate clothing. Right:

The five 'Civilized Tribes*

were removed from their

homelands in the 1830s.

Southeast Indian Removal

1839 (Jan. 4) The first land

route detachment, led by

Cherokee Elijah Hicks, arrives

in Indian Territory; final detachments arrive in late March

1987 Congress establishes

the Trail of Tears National

Historic Trail. In 2009 more

routes are added

1838 A group of North Carolina

Cherokee avoid removal because

they live on land ceded tothem

by earlier treaties These Cherokee

are the bases for today's Eastern

Band of Cherokee Indians

1838 (Aug. 23) Cherokee Hair

Conrad leads the first land

route detachment out of Fort

Cass. Tennessee Twelve more

detachments depart over the

next two months, most traveling

by the northern route

1838 (Sept. 28) Cherokee leader

John Benge leads a detachment

out of Fort Payne. Alabama

1838 (Oct. 11) John Bell, a white

man married to a Cherokee

woman, leads 660 pro-treaty

Cherokee to Indian Territory

1839 (Sept. 6) Cherokee

delegates sign a constitution for

the reunited Cherokee Nation.

One will not hear the anguished voice

ofaforgotten and broken people. -

instead one might hearthèpride of t

people whofaced overwhelming

? adversity and perse'ùeréd^r^J^^

-Cherok,. Nation

The Appalachian Mountain in

eastern Tennessee and North j

Carolina were home and hunting’

grounds to countless generations

of Cherokee people before they

Svere forcibly removed - j. .