Genocide and stolen land in North America:

   the Indian Removal Act and the Trail of Tears
With the discovery of gold in Georgia in 1829, a land rush developed instantly. Much of where the gold was found happened to be on Cherokee land. The white men of the area began to immediately look for a way to remove the Native Americans from the land and claim it as their own.

The Indian Removal Act of 1839 was the first step toward accomplishing that. Backed by then President Andrew Jackson, it permitted the US government to "negotiate" (imposing its will) with the Native Americans for their land and offer them "substitute land" west of the Mississippi, often in arid and less productive areas, and, of course, far from their ancestral countries.

Theoretically the native communities were to be compensated and all migration costs covered by the government. In fact, this "compensation" was seldom awarded and the native had to move their families and belongings through their own means.

Many skeptical natives began to move to Mexico. But the Mexican government became alarmed at how many were immigrating and imposed restrictions.

The Supreme Court, under the leadership of chief justice John Marshall ruled that Indian tribes were independent nations and not protected by federal law, therefore they did not have any means to find protection.

Things came to a head in 1831 when the state of Georgia moved to impose jurisdiction over the Cherokee people. The Cherokee Nation v. State of Georgia brought the problem to national prominence.

The chief justice of the Supreme Court, John Marshall, declared that Native American tribes were independent nations that should be capable of taking care of their own affairs.

In 1833, the Choctaw Nation was forcibly removed and “escorted” by armed guard to western territories. This set a precedent for things to come. Two years later, the Seminoles defied any attempts at forced removal of their people and started a war that would last for seven years.

Meanwhile, the Cherokee had been under extreme pressure by the state of Georgia to remove from their lands and relocate. This included both state-sanctioned and unsanctioned harassment of the Cherokee people on a regular basis.

Finally, in 1835, weary of their mistreatment by the state of Georgia and hoping to avoid a war like the Seminole and Choctaw were experiencing, some Cherokee "agreed" (obviously by force) to sign a treaty that would have them give up their Georgia lands and relocate 2,200 miles away.

The preparation and negotiation would stretch out over a period of nearly three years. But the delay pushed Government patience and conflict began to appear inevitable.

A Journey of Death – Into the Cruel Woods

On May 1838, 7,000 US soldiers entered the Cherokee lands in Georgia and forced the Native Americans from their homes. The men were led to the stockades, arrested while working in the fields for no other crime than being born a Native American.

The women and children were corralled into wagons with whatever belongings they had on them at the time. Very few had blankets with them for the cold and rainy nights ahead. Many were not given time to put on shoes and had to walk barefoot for the length of the journey. Grieving parents were not even given time to bury their dead properly.

This sign marks the path of the infamous Trail of Tears stretching from Georgia to Oklahoma

The Trail of Tears is a term used to describe the forced relocation of the Cherokee Nation from Georgia to the Indian Territory in the western United States. Actually, there were two main paths, one known as the Northern Route and the other as the Water Route.

Each trail was over 2,000 miles long, crossing nine states combined, and along the way more than a third of all Cherokee people died. For the Cherokee Nation, this incident is known as the “The Trail Where They Cried.”

Under orders from General Winfield Scott, the Cherokee were pushed along the trail at a merciless pace, only stopping when their “escorts” allowed it. Many of the soldiers, 3,000 in fact were volunteers. Many of them sympathized with the natives’ plight and some even tried to stop the numerous beatings and mistreatment of the natives along the way. But they were quickly punished by their superiors and locked in stockades for their compassion.

Death was a regular occurrence on the trail, and it wasn’t unusual to lose 20 Cherokee in a single night to pneumonia and mistreatment. Very few of them had ample protection against the elements, so the old and very young tended to die first. Many mothers gave up their blankets for their children, allowing the little ones to make it through the journey when their parents did not.

By November, the procession of soldiers and natives had only reached about halfway to their destination. They were met by terrible sleet and snowstorms that killed off Cherokee by droves. They were buried in unmarked, shallow graves far from their homes and families.

The Cherokee Arrive at Their New Oklahoma Territory

In March of 1839, after almost a year of riding in wagons, walking across dirt trails and knowing nothing but suffering for as long as they could remember, the remaining two thirds of the Cherokee arrived at their new lands. They weren’t greeted by ready-built structures and new homes to live in. The vast, open land lay before them, untamed and as tough as any they had encountered yet.

Many of those that arrived in the new Indian Territory were children whose parents had perished along the way. They were homeless and without families, and they had to find someone to care for them or try to fend for themselves. Even though their relocation was over, the journey for survival had just begun. Many of them would not survive the following months in this new land, as there was no food prepared for them and growing crops was an uncertain prospect in these wild lands.

This Trail of Tears and the mistreatment of the Cherokee were all approved by Andrew Jackson. He openly defied the Supreme Court to make it happen, but was still using the Indian Removal Act as his reasoning for the forced relocation.

This law was, of course, intentionally misused during the Trail of Tears, and its concession for assistance with migration became an excuse for armed soldiers to force the Native Americans out and march them to their destination, harassing and hurrying them along at every opportunity, pushing the old and feeble harder than they could tolerate and making the journey as miserable as possible for the Cherokee.

The Trail of Tears Aftermath – A Permanent Stain

In 1835, President Andrew Jackson addressed Congress with a message about the Indian Removal Act. He promised that the Native Americans would be treated fairly, that they would be amply provided for and that the removal would be for their physical and moral improvement.

Even if Andrew Jackson had good intentions at the time (which is doubtful, looking at his indifference toward Native Americans), the reality is that the removal of thousands of Cherokee and other natives from their homes was anything but beneficial to them. It wasn’t simply the massive number that died on the trail that suffered. The relocating had numerous long-term effects that are still being felt today.

The post-removal death and illness rates were extremely high for the Cherokee. People were dealing with the grief and stress of not knowing where their loved ones were. Many of their family members were still back in Georgia, incarcerated and awaiting an unknown fate. Families had been divided, never to be rejoined again.

Difficult Times Settling in Oklahoma

The Cherokee leaders did what they could to take care of those who were without parents. They established laws to care for the education and welfare of orphaned children in 1841. By that time, many who made it to the new territory in Oklahoma had already died, but the Cherokee government was trying to recover as well.

There was little food to be had there, and the Native Americans had to resort to hunting and gathering for most of their food as opposed to the lives of farming and cultivating they had enjoyed back in Georgia. This meant there was less food to go around and many died of starvation as the people slowly recovered.

Over the long term, physical recovery finally took place. The Cherokee repopulated, they established homes and a nation for their people once more and they began to thrive and ensure their culture lived on in their descendants. But the tragedy they had lived through continues to define them today.

It bred a deep distrust of outsiders and government in particular. It also created tension that is still evident today between all native peoples and the whites. The idea that the Supreme Court can be defied by a president and government that wants gold is not something that is easily forgotten.