Trail of Tears: the Removal of the Cherokee Nation Essay Example

The old Cherokee nation was a large thriving tribe located in northern Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama, and Tennessee, which was a region known as Appalachia. Because of greedy landowners wanting more money, land for themselves and land for their crops, this forced the Cherokees out of their land and into another region. The government, specifically Andrew Jackson, wanted the land because it was land that he “needed”. He needed this land because he felt it would increase the white population and give him more wealth and power. He enforced a removal of the Cherokee nation and all natives in the south. This removal would later be known as “The Trail of Tears.” The Cherokee were a civilized tribe of natives, more civilized than most native tribes. They were considered civilized because a lot of them were educated and they had their own language. They used all of their natural resources to their advantage. They were a very agriculturally based people. The women in the Cherokee tribes did the majority of the farming and the men hunted and cleared the land for farming. Descent was matrilineal, meaning everything was passed down through the women, not the men like in most societies. As more and more “civilized” people came into contact with the Cherokee, the more and more they started to lose their customs and traditions. They were picking up habits and customs of the white settlers in order to assimilate with them. In 1783, the Treaty of Paris did not represent the Indians and had some of their land taken over by the United States. Henry Knox, Secretary of War, believed that by developing an Indian policy accepted by the Indians, would achieved the goal of the States. He figured that by “civilizing” the Natives he could bring them a sense of “Enlightenment.” Knox wanted the Natives to stop hunting and be “normal” farmers. Also, he wanted them to read and write in the English language, wear European style clothes, and most of all become Christians. He felt that by