Forced migration or incarceration of an entire population is usually motivated by racism with a heavy dose of greed for land. One such tragedy was the forced migration of Native American tribes from the southeastern states to an area designated as Indian Territory, (now Oklahoma) and the largest such migration was of the Cherokee nation in 1838.
Along with the U.S. government policy of forced ceding of Indian land, was a policy of preparing the Indians for assimilation into white society. In the nineteenth century the U.S. government abetted by Christian churches and missionaries attempted to force assimilation of all tribes by complete eradication of Native cultures. This effort included violent dispossession of land, prohibiting Native languages, and changing Native lifestyles. Even in the early twentieth century, Indian children were sent to “white” boarding schools to try to enculturate them, also all native American artwork and language was disallowed. Despite a significant disadvantage in political power and material resources, Native Americans developed a resistance to assimilation to ensure the survival of their communities. These government assimilation efforts were particularly successful among the tribes who became known as “The Five Civilized Tribes:” Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole. The Cherokees went furthest in becoming “civilized” in the hope it would protect them against continued encroachment by white settlers. They adopted European-style farming, set up grist mills and lumber mills, lived in European-style houses, and converted to Christianity. They even devised their own alphabet so they could write their language, and wrote a constitution for the Cherokee nation with the expectation of recognition as an independent entity.
The state of Georgia objected that recognition of the Cherokee’s as sovereign nation would create a state within a state and demanded that the government remove them. Other states made the same demands. To prevent a constitutional crisis President Jackson ordered compulsory removal. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 required the relocation of more than 100,000 Indians living east of the Mississippi River. White settlers had begun encroaching on Indian lands in the Southeast soon after the Revolutionary War and the squatters eventually brought pressure on the federal government to remove the Indians. In the beginning, inducements were offered to encourage voluntary migration as much as possible. Many voluntary relocations occurred but not enough to satisfy the terms of the Indian Removal Act. President Jackson negotiated a land exchange treaty with the Cherokee. Forced relocations were then carried out by U.S. government. Tribes subjected to movement between 1830 and 1850 were of the Cherokee, Muscogee, Seminole, Chickasaw, Creek, and Choctaw nations located primarily in the southeastern states. Each tribal relocation has a tragic story of hardship and illness, but the experience of the Cherokees was especially hard. The Cherokees referred to their ordeal as the “trail that made us cry,” and became known as the Trail of Tears.
In late summer of 1838 a group of Cherokees left the stockade where they had been held for months awaiting the beginning of their long journey. One of them later recalled, “At this very moment a low sound of distant thunder fell on my ear. In the western direction a dark spiral cloud was rising above the horizon and sent forth a murmur I almost fancied a voice of divine indignation for the wrongs of my poor unhappy countrymen, driven by brutal power from all they loved and cherished in the land of their fathers, to satisfy the cravings of avarice.” Others who saw the cloud also regarded it as an omen of tragedy.
Another writer observed the looks of sadness and anger on the Cherokee’s faces: “Some carry a downcast look of despair, others have a wild frantic appearance as if they were about to pounce like a tiger upon their enemies.” Above all they felt they had been betrayed by the U.S. government, especially by President Andrew Jackson himself.
Relocation of so many people over a distance of up to a 1,000 miles, depending on the route taken, would be daunting task even today. In the nineteenth century it was brutal. The Cherokees were not moved as one single unit, but traveled in several groups of varying size over dirt roads that turned into impassable mud mires during rainy periods. In hilly areas the Cherokees often had to double team the wagons. River crossings provided other problems. Low water season on the Tennessee River required long waits for the water to rise enough for a ferry to operate. Winter ice floes on the Mississippi often stopped crossing for a month or more. Even with ideal conditions river crossings were a major operation. One group of 1,766 people, eighty-eight wagons, 881 horses, and many oxen required two and a half days to cross the Tennessee River in fair weather, using four ferries from early morning to late evening. The treks continued in the heat of summer and the cold blasts of winter. A limited number of people, the elderly and disabled, were able to ride in a wagon or on horseback. One observer wrote, “Many go on horseback and multitudes go on foot—even aged females, apparently nearly ready to drop into the grave, were traveling with heavy burdens on their back—on the sometimes frozen ground and sometimes muddy roads, with no covering for their feet except what nature had given them.”
Government escorts determined campsites in advance at ten to fifteen mile intervals, which was considered a day’s journey for such a large group. Campsites must have ample space for wagons plus grass for livestock. Shelter was canvas tents and food was primarily cornmeal and salt pork. The lack of clean drinking water was a frequent problem sometime leading to sickness. Also illnesses such as measles, whooping cough, dysentery, and respiratory infections often swept through the migrant groups. Army doctors and Cherokee doctors treated the illnesses as well as possible under the adverse conditions, but the Cherokee doctors were hampered by the lack of herbs they normally found in their native area.
Some Cherokee groups took a route that used river boats for much of the trip. This required overland travel to the Tennessee River system, then downstream to the Ohio River, to the Mississippi River, to the mouth of the Arkansas River, then upstream on the Arkansas River to the eastern parts of the new Indian Territory (east of present day Tulsa, Oklahoma).
The Cherokees arrived in the Indian Territory exhausted and discouraged. Of 16,000 Cherokees who trekked from the east, 4,000 died enroute. The U.S. government had agreed to provide rations for a year after arriving in Indian Territory. Provisions consisted of salt pork or fresh beef, wheat flour, corn, and salt. Unfortunately distribution was erratic and the Cherokees went through periods of ample food supplies followed by periods of scarcity.
Looking at the Trail of Tears today we can see some ugly underlying motives, namely racism and greed for land owned by Native Americans. Unfortunately these impulses were given the sanction of the U.S. government thus subverting the ideals of America. In the nineteenth century few Americans, except the tribes, were aware of the tragedy of the Trail of Tears, and many who were aware failed to see it as a tragedy.
In 2006 the then Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, Chadwick Smith, wrote, “…this episode of history should be studied because it is the culmination of two sins that have plagued humankind since the beginning of time: simple greed and lust for power.” He further added, “We are a people who have faced adversity, survived, adapted, and who now prosper and excel.”
Haywood, John. The Great Migrations. London: Quercus Books. 2008.
King, Duane. The Cherokee Trail of Tears. Portland, Oregon: Graphic Arts Books. 2007.
Perdue, Theda and Michael Green. The Cherokee Nation Trail of Tears. New York: Penguin Books. 2007