The Cherokee Peoples’ Trail of Tears
Nunna daul Isunyi: “the Trail Where They Cried”
The Cherokee Peoples’ Trail of Tears
History 101 – American History to 1877
Professor Fliegelman
February 19, 2011 Why did the relocation in the late 1830s of the Cherokee people come to be known as the “Trail of Tears”? The Cherokee people were forcefully removed from their ancestral lands and relocated to the west, a direction that in their beliefs had been associated with death. The thousand mile trek that followed was an arduous one of pain and death. The sorrow and loss during this journey coupled with the hurt that was felt from our government caused it to be remembered as the Trail of Tears.
What led to the relocation of the Cherokee? Upon initial contact the Cherokee nation lived in the southern Appalachians with a strength of approximately 50,000 people. They claimed hunting grounds that extended into Kentucky, but primarily lived in South Carolina, western North Carolina, east Tennessee, north Georgia, and northeastern Alabama. Their lands were plentiful in both game and natural resources and were rich with fertile soils. As more and more white settlers came to the Americas the need for additional land and materials grew, and it was to the Cherokee nation’s lands that they looked. These lands were the next step in the expansion to the west for the white settlers. Coastal lands had been the initial point of entry to this new world and the Cherokee where now in the way. To the settlers, the expansion to the west meant a better life and a chance at new found wealth, but to the Cherokee the westward direction meant only darkness and death. Cherokee believed that their land had been given to them directly from God. Puritan settlers held the belief that it was their God-given right to seize the native homelands on the premise that “civilized” men were just in displacing an inferior culture. These differences in cultural beliefs and practices along with many
The Cherokee Peoples’ Trail of Tears
History 101 – American History to 1877
Professor Fliegelman
February 19, 2011 Why did the relocation in the late 1830s of the Cherokee people come to be known as the “Trail of Tears”? The Cherokee people were forcefully removed from their ancestral lands and relocated to the west, a direction that in their beliefs had been associated with death. The thousand mile trek that followed was an arduous one of pain and death. The sorrow and loss during this journey coupled with the hurt that was felt from our government caused it to be remembered as the Trail of Tears.
What led to the relocation of the Cherokee? Upon initial contact the Cherokee nation lived in the southern Appalachians with a strength of approximately 50,000 people. They claimed hunting grounds that extended into Kentucky, but primarily lived in South Carolina, western North Carolina, east Tennessee, north Georgia, and northeastern Alabama. Their lands were plentiful in both game and natural resources and were rich with fertile soils. As more and more white settlers came to the Americas the need for additional land and materials grew, and it was to the Cherokee nation’s lands that they looked. These lands were the next step in the expansion to the west for the white settlers. Coastal lands had been the initial point of entry to this new world and the Cherokee where now in the way. To the settlers, the expansion to the west meant a better life and a chance at new found wealth, but to the Cherokee the westward direction meant only darkness and death. Cherokee believed that their land had been given to them directly from God. Puritan settlers held the belief that it was their God-given right to seize the native homelands on the premise that “civilized” men were just in displacing an inferior culture. These differences in cultural beliefs and practices along with many
Bibliography: Lumpkin, Wilson, and Wymberley J. DeRenne. The Removal of the Cherokee Indians from Georgia. New York: Dodd, Mead &, 1907. Maddox, Lucy. Removals: Nineteenth-century American Literature and the Politics of Indian Affairs. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. Oliver, Susan. "The Trail Where We Cried." Cerritos College Home Page. January 17, 2011. Accessed January 19, 2011. http://www.cerritos.edu/soliver/American Identities/Trail of Tears/The Trail Where We Cried.htm. Perdue, Theda, and Michael D., Green. The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears. New York: Viking, 2007. Sturm, Circe. Blood Politics: Race, Culture, and Identity in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. Udall, Stewart L. The Forgotten Founders: Rethinking the History of the Old West. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2002.