Trail of Tears

Trail of Tears
                       
       

        Trial of Tears and the Five Civilized Tribes During the early years of 1800s,
        valuable gold deposits were discovered in tribal lands, which by previous
        cessions had been reduced to about seven million acres in northwest Georgia,
        eastern Tennessee, and southwest North Carolina. In 1819 Georgia
        appealed to the U.S. government to remove the Cherokee from Georgia
        lands. When the appeal failed, attempts were made to purchase the territory.
        Meanwhile, in 1820 the Cherokee established a governmental system
        modeled on that of the United States, with an elected principal chief, a
        senate, and a house of representatives. Because of this system, the Cherokee
        were included as one of the so-called Five Civilized Tribes. The other four
        tribes were the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and the Seminoles. In 1832 the
        Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Georgia legislation was
        unconstitutional; federal authorities, following Jackson's policy of Native
        American removal, ignored the decision. About five hundred leading
        Cherokee agreed in 1835 to cede the tribal territory in exchange for
        $5,700,000 and land in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). Their action was
        repudiated by more than nine-tenths of the tribe, and several members of the
        group were later assassinated. In 1838 federal troops began forcible evicting
        the Cherokee. Approximately one thousand escaped to the North Carolina
        Mountains, purchased land, and incorporated in that state; they were the
        ancestors of the present-day Eastern Band. Most of the tribe, including the
        Western Band, was driven west about eight hundred miles in a forced march,
        known as the Trail of Tears. The march west included 18,000 to 20,000
        people, of whom... [continues]

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