Trail Of Tears Sparknotes

In Trail of Tears, John Ehle sketches the people and events that led to the infamous Trail of Tears, the removal of the Cherokee Nation to “Indian Territory” where they would “never” be bothered by whites again. Ehle’s bias is evident in the title; the “rise” of

Some wanted to fight to keep the land that their family has lived on forever.

In the year of 1828, the president Andrew Jackson was appointed to the office of the American government with this the fact of the remaining Indians tribes were important which were named “The Five Civilized Tribes” including the Cherokee and with the pass of the “Treaty of Etocha” forced the Cherokee out of the land of Georgia also known as the “Trail of Tears” where thousands upon thousands of Cherokee were killed during the extraction of the Cherokee’s land.

In the early 19th Century, the Manifest Destiny led many White Americans to conquer new territories and force Native Americans out of their homeland. The growing population caused the need for people to move to have more space for farms and crops. The religious groups were also wanting to sweep God’s word across the nation by going west. The Native Americans were unwilling to give up their land and fought to keep it. Outmatched by the U.S. Military, the Indians were forced to leave and settle in a territory that was not claimed by Whites. Andrew Jackson, the 8th President of the United States, participated in some of the battles with the Natives Americans and the removal of 5 different tribes from their homeland into what is now Oklahoma.1 This research paper is to study about Andrew Jackson, his battles with the Natives, and what led to the Trail of Tears.

The “Trail of Tears,” was an unmitigated disaster-at least for the Native American Tribes involved. – (Page 269) “As the population grew, white citizens demanded that their governments, at both the state and national levels, do something about the Native American tribes in their midst who held claims to land …” – (Page 249) “The United States had recognized the Cherokee as a nation in a number of treaties, and in 1827 delegates of this tribe initiated action to draft a constitution that would more formally recognize this status.” – (Page 249). This caused a problem with the constitution, because new states could not be established in pre-existing state. “Georgia, where most of the Cherokee lived, opposed the plan and called for the removal of all Native American.” – (Page 249). In fact, the Cherokee nation fought back. “The case reached the United States Supreme Court, Cherokee Nation v. Georgia.” – (Page 250). The Cherokee lost; but a year later Chief Justice John Marshall “ruled that the state had no right to extend sovereignty over the Cherokee within its borders.” Andrew Jackson disagreed with the chief justice, and wanted for the chief justice to enforce his decision.

In the early 1830s, approximately 125,000 Native Americans thrived on millions of acres of land in Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, and Alabama. In the next 10 years, a scarce number of natives lingered anyplace in the Southeastern United States. In 1838 and 1839, the Cherokee nation was brutally forced to give up its rightful land and travel on foot to designated “Indian Territory” in modern-day Oklahoma. Upon this involuntary journey, thousands of Indians faced exhaustion, disease, and famine. This heartbreaking event became known as the Trail of Tears. The Trail of Tears is important to the history of the United States because it is the wickedest human civil rights tragedy to ever fall upon the Native American population, and it was the beginning of the destruction of an entire people.

Thornton, Russell “Cherokee Population Losses During Trail of Tears: A New Perspective and a New Estimate.” Ethnohistory, Vol. 31, No. 4 (Autumn, 1984): 289-300

With the discovery of the New World came a whole lot of new problems. Native American Indians lived in peace and harmony until European explorers interrupted that bliss with the quest for money and power. The European explorers brought with them more people. These people and their descendants starting pushing the natives out of their homes, out of their land, far before the 1800s. However, in the 1800s, the driving force behind the removal of the natives intensified. Thousands of indians during this time were moved along the trail known as Nunna dual Tsung, meaning “The Trail Where They Cried” (“Cherokee Trail of Tears”). The Trail of Tears was not only unjust and unconstitutional, but it also left many indians sick, heartbroken, and dead.

The Trail of Tears was a controversial yet pivotal event in American history. The 116-day forced march that removed Indians from Georgia caused 1 in 4 Cherokee Indians to die of cold or disease. There were many arguments made about the Trail of Tears, showing the benefits and detriments of the march. The political and military arguments for the removal of Cherokee Indians from Georgia were that it would prevent attacks on the U.S., and that it was required by the Treaty of New Echota.

The Trail of Tears was a series of relocations of the Native American people by the United States government in 1832. Although a very controversial idea, president Andrew Jackson pushed for the Indian Removal Act of 1830 which allowed the relocation of the Native Americans from their homeland to Indian Territory of present day Oklahoma (O'Brien). The Trail of Tears had a negative impact on the Native American people, while benefiting the United States with a time of economic prosperity and growth.

Having little knowledge of the Cherokee removal and the history that took place in this moment in America’s past, the book Trail of Tears: Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation by John Ehle, offers an insight to the politics, social dynamics and class struggles the Cherokee Nation faced in the late 1830s. The book was very comprehensive and the scope of the book covers nearly 100 years of Native American History. Ehle captures the history of the Native American people by showing the readers what led to the events infamously known as the Trail of Tears. The author uses real military orders, journals, and letters which aid in creating a book that keeps

The Trail of Tears is a historical title given to an event that happened in 1838.In this event, the Cherokee community of Native Americans was forced by the USA government to move from their native home in the Southern part of the contemporary America to what is known as the Indian territories of Oklahoma. While some travelled by water, most of them travelled by land. The Cherokees took 6 months to complete an 800 miles distance to their destination.

The book An American Betrayal: Cherokee Patriots and the Trail of Tears finds its basis in the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The dispute between the two groups took place with President Jackson leading the Americans and John Ross leading the Cherokee Indians. The author tries to give an account of the events following the Indian Removal Act of 1830 through the eyes of the Cherokees. The Red Indians felt betrayed by the white man and as a result, tension mounted between the two sides and eventually led to a series of massacres and murders before the forced evacuation. However, either side, with each attempting to protect its interests and people, tell the story differently. Based on his approach to the historical event, it is likely that Smith’s goal was to provide insight to the betrayal experience by the Cherokee’s from the American’s promise to them.

The Trail of Tears was a trail often used by Native Americans on their way of escaping the white settlers during the Indian Removal Act. The group of tribes were called the Five Civilized Tribes. It consisted of the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole Nations. The tribes lived on land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida. The land of the tribes were rich in value. The discovery of gold made the white settlers want the land of the Natives, which was found near Dahlonega, Georgia in 1928. “Trail of Tears” originated from a description of the Choctaw nation in 1831 when the Indian Removal Act began. The trail was known as “trail where they cried”, which is known today as “The Trail of Tears”. There were over

The authors’ name of the book called Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation is John Ehle. Trail of Tears was published in the United States by Anchor Books, a division of random house, New York and in Canada. This book was published in September 22, 1989. This book has 424 pages.