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Trail of Tears

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... the lower Appalachian states of Georgia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, ... to Oklahoma, fulfilling a promise the government made to Georgia in 1802. ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Trail of Tears


1
Trail of Tears
  • Grade 4
  • Social Studies Online

2
Blueprint Skill Era 4 - Expansion and Reform
(1801-1861) 
  • Read and interpret a passage about the Trail of
    Tears.

3
Cherokee culture
  • Before contact, Cherokee culture had developed
    and thrived for almost 1,000 years in the
    southeastern United States--the lower Appalachian
    states of Georgia, Tennessee, North and South
    Carolina, and parts of Kentucky and Alabama.

4
Background information
  • Since first contact with European explorers in
    the 1500s, the Cherokee Nation had been
    recognized as one of the most progressive among
    American Indian tribes.

5
Cherokee life until 1710
  • Life of the traditional Cherokee remained
    unchanged as late as 1710, which is marked as the
    beginning of Cherokee trade with the whites.

6
Frontier contact
  • The period of frontier contact from 1540-1786,
    was marked by white expansion and the cession of
    Cherokee lands to the colonies in exchange for
    trade goods

7
Cherokee interaction
  • After contact, the Cherokees acquired many
    aspects of the white neighbors with whom many had
    intermarried. Soon they had shaped a government
    and a society that matched the most "civilized"
    of the time.

8
Sequoyah
  • Cherokee culture continued to flourish with the
    invention of the Cherokee alphabet by Sequoyah in
    1821.

9
Cherokee migration
  • Migration from the original Cherokee Nation began
    in the early 1800s as Cherokees wary of white
    encroachment moved west

10
A government decision
  • The white communities turned on their Indian
    neighbors and the U.S. Government decided it was
    time for the Cherokees to leave behind their
    farms, their land and their homes

11
Indian Removal Act
  • In 1830 the Congress of the United States passed
    the "Indian Removal Act." Although many Americans
    were against the act, most notably Tennessee
    Congressman Davy Crockett, it passed anyway.

12
The bill became law
  • President Jackson quickly signed the bill into
    law. The Cherokees attempted to fight removal
    legally by challenging the removal laws in the
    Supreme Court and by establishing an independent
    Cherokee Nation.

13
Court ruling
  • In 1832, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of
    the Cherokee on the issue in Worcester v.
    Georgia. In this case Chief Justice John Marshall
    ruled that the Cherokee Nation was sovereign,
    making the removal laws invalid. The Cherokee
    would have to agree to removal in a treaty. The
    treaty then would have to be ratified by the
    Senate.

14
A divided nation
  • By 1835 the Cherokee were divided and despondent.
    Most supported Principal Chief John Ross, who
    fought the encroachment of whites starting with
    the 1832 land lottery.

15
The will of a minority
  • However, a minority (less than 500 out of 17,000
    Cherokee in North Georgia) followed Major Ridge,
    his son John, and Elias Boudinot, who advocated
    removal.

16
Removing the Cherokees
  • The Treaty of New Echota, signed by Ridge and
    members of the Treaty Party in 1835, gave Jackson
    the legal document he needed to remove the First
    Americans.

17
Ratification of the treaty
  • Ratification of the treaty by the United States
    Senate sealed the fate of the Cherokee. Among the
    few who spoke out against the ratification were
    Daniel Webster and Henry Clay, but it passed by a
    single vote.

18
The removal of Indians began
  • In 1838 the United States began the removal to
    Oklahoma, fulfilling a promise the government
    made to Georgia in 1802.

19
General Wool protested the move.
  • Ordered to move on the Cherokee, General John
    Wool resigned his command in protest, delaying
    the action.

20
The invasion of the Cherokee nation.
  • His replacement, General Winfield Scott, arrived
    at New Echota on May 17, 1838 with 7000 men.
    Early that summer General Scott and the United
    States Army began the invasion of the Cherokee
    Nation.

21
Marching to Oklahoma.
  • In one of the saddest episodes of our brief
    history, men, women, and children were taken from
    their land, herded into makeshift forts with
    minimal facilities and food, then forced to march
    a thousand miles.

22
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23
Loss of life
  • Under the generally indifferent army commanders,
    human losses for the first groups of Cherokee
    removed were extremely high.

24
Reorganization of Cherokees into smaller groups
  • John Ross made an urgent appeal to Scott,
    requesting that the general let his people lead
    the tribe west. General Scott agreed. Ross
    organized the Cherokee into smaller groups and
    let them move separately through the wilderness
    so they could forage for food.

25
Arriving in Oklahoma
  • Although the parties under Ross left in early
    fall and arrived in Oklahoma during the brutal
    winter of 1838-39, he significantly reduced the
    loss of life among his people. About 4000
    Cherokee died as a result of the removal.

26
The Trail Where They Cried
  • The route they traversed and the journey itself
    became known as "The Trail of Tears" or, as a
    direct translation from Cherokee, "The Trail
    Where They Cried" ("Nunna daul Tsuny").

27
Map of the Trail of Tears
28
April 1839
  • Cherokees build houses, clear land, plant and
    begin to rebuild their nation.

29
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
  • Those who were able to hide in the mountains of
    North Carolina or who had agreed to exchange
    Cherokee citizenship for U.S. citizenship later
    emerged as the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
    of Cherokee, N.C. The descendants of the
    survivors of the Trail of Tears comprise today's
    Cherokee Nation with membership of more than
    165,000.

30
Resources
  • The Trail of Tears
  • Cherokee Messenger
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