Trail of Tears (1838–39).In the late eighteenth century, the Cherokees led all other tribes in responding to
George Washington's policy of assimilation, establishing a written constitution, a bicameral legislature, and a supreme court. White Americans, however, sought their removal in order to use their land “more efficiently,” and President Andrew
Jackson asked Congress to remove them west of the Mississippi. The Removal Bill and the failure to enforce the
Worcester v.
Georgia (1832) decision sealed the Cherokees' doom. A few unauthorized headmen signed away the nation's remaining land at New Echota, in present day Georgia, in December 1835, and the government gave them two years to remove themselves.
By May 1838, only 2,000 of approximately 16,000 Cherokees had moved, and Maj. Gen.
Winfield Scott entered Cherokee territory with about 2,200 federal troops and nearly 5,000 state volunteers from Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, and Tennessee. They herded the Cherokees into stockades, and then, in June, forced three groups—approximately 2,745 men, women, and children—to begin the 850‐mile march from Tennessee to Indian territory. Sickness and death in the stockades led Chief John Ross to request a delay until cooler weather. The remainder were removed, in thirteen detachments, between 23 August and 5 December 1838. Approximately 4,000 died as a result of their ordeal, most not on the trail itself.
Cherokee removal—the Trail of Tears—remains one of the greatest tragedies that the United States has inflicted upon a minority population. Removal and assimilation, however, remained incomplete. Remnants of the tribe comprise the Eastern Bank of Cherokees today, and many preserve traditional culture.
[See also
Native Americans, U.S. Military Relations with.]
Bibliography
William L. Anderson, ed., Cherokee Removal Before and After, 1991.
Theda Perdue and and Michael D. Green , Cherokee Removal: A Brief History with Documents, 1994.
William L. Anderson
