Trail of tears

The event known as the trail of tears involved the forced removal of numerous Indian tribes from the southeastern portion of the United States from 1831 to 1837. These tribes included the Cherokees, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muskogee-creek, and Seminoles (the five civilised tribes). These Native Americans were removed from their ancestral lands because of the passage of the Indian removal act of 1830 by president Andrew Jackson. Altogether, nearly 50 thousands Native Americans made the trek westward.

This event is remembered for many reasons. Among them is the Seminole wars (1831-1842) that cost the U.S. government over 20 million dollars. In the end, only a few hundred Seminoles remained. A second major event was the expropriation of Indian lands throughout the south which nearly lead to a violent Civil war. Another major event was the intervention of the U.S. Supreme court in those matters, that declared only the U.S. government and not the States had Jurisdiction over Native American affairs. They upheld Jackson’s Indian removal act. The final event that gives the trail of tears its name was the thousand-mile route march that the Cherokees were forced to make in the winter of 1838. All along the way, Indians were murdered, and gouged for any money they had. This terrible experience starved the Indians and left legacy of hatred until president today. In the end, the Cherokee nation population (today the largest indigenous group in America) left fewer than 1000 in what is today North Georgia and North Carolina. Today’s historians would term this forced relocation of the Native Americans and the theft of their land of the ethic cleansing. This was to be the last chance for Indigenous Americans to hold onto their land and culture against encroachment of the white man.

Ultimately, all of the Indians were settled in the Oklahoma territories by March 1839. Numerous place names in modern Oklahoma reflect the cultural transfer of the Cherokees and the related tribes.

Poem:
In Native American perspective viewing the event –

Our fears were true,
The sick went from life to death,
our wagons broke down,
first, the animals died,
and second the snow came early.
Our trail of tears may be followed
By so many who many only just began.
“Nuna Dat Shun’yi” it is the place where they cried.
It is the place where we died.

In American perspective viewing the event –

New Echota is my home,
The neighbour’s house is empty,
Those people are gone,
And so are my friends.
Soldiers came and took them away,
No explanations, only silent cries no one listen to.
Today my neighbours are white,
only the dirt is red.
Today the snow is white,
only the memories remain.