Native Americans In The Early 1830's

What would you do if you were had to move away from you home? In the early 1830’s the
Native Americans and the settlers lived in peace. Native Americans lived on their own land, as well as the settlers. They only had a few years left before they would be forced to leave their homes. Forced to leave by new settlers who hadn’t even been there for 400 years. The homes that were owned by their ancestors. That their ancestors had worked on for years. The route to their new “home” would be long, dangerous, and deadly. And where there is death there are tears. Towards the end of the 1830’s roughly 125,000 native Americans lived on land in Georgia,
Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida. As an Army General Andrew Jackson had spent years leading
In
1831, under duress the Choctaw were the forced to be forced out on foot some linked in chains while walking. An arrangement was made in 1830 with the Chickasaw and the Creek, but neither were finalized until 1832. The Creek leaving in 1836. Then the Chickasaw followed in
1837 after they sold their items for profit. A small group of Seminole leaders also negotiated but

the people of the tribe later retaliated saying they had no authority over them. The disagreement became so fierce that a second war took place from 1835 to 1842. There were a total of three wars between the U.S. and the Seminole tribe. Many ended up captured and removed but some did escape to Florida. The Cherokee decided to take legal action against the removal in both
1831 and 1832 but both attempts failed in providing relief to the group.
In 1835 a treaty was signed by 100 Cherokee leaders agreeing that they would give up their land east of the Mississippi. Trading it for money, livestock, land, and a variety of other supplies.
But these leaders also signed their death warrants when they signed that treaty. Because of
After crossing the Ohio River into Golconda, Illinois it continues until it reaches the Mississippi River just north of Cape

Girardeau. The trial continues into Missouri, then enters Arkansas north of Fayetteville. The trail continues in the direction of Oklahoma for another thousand miles. The trip was supposed to last two months. But due to endless obstacles including bad roads, freezing water, disease, death, and malnutrition it ended up taking a total of four months. Many became sick and other not supplied enough for the expedition. Four thousand of the estimated 15,000 died on route, and with the other four-thousand people who died inside the internment camps included it would round to about eight-thousand total dead. While around one thousand managed to avoid internment and built communities in North Carolina. Like Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri,
Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Oklahoma.
By the end of the decade few Indians still lived east to the Mississippi river.
The Cherokee actually first called it the “trail where they cried” because of its disastrous outcome. It was later rephrased to “Trail of Tears”. The trails that were taken back then