Trail of Tears Part 4

                           Trail of Tears Part 4

     From August, 28 to December, 5 13 groups of Cherokees left and traveled to the West. During the journey they had to suffer through many things. But the most serious of them included droughts, and after the droughts extreme cold.
     But unluckily the Cherokees did not carry the proper clothes for this kind of weather.
   During the trip John Ross's wife Quatie Ross died. Her death is one of the best known tragedies of the trip. She died on February, 1, 1839 in Little Rock Pulaski County, Arkansas, United States. Quatie died from pneumonia she got because she gave her blanket to a freezing child, the child lived. 
    Even though Quatie was the wife of the chief her funeral was the same as the rest of the funerals of the people who died on the trip. She was buried with no coffin in a shallow grave and after buried the people prayed over her. After the tribe moved on.

   

   About 12,000 Cherokees (and John Ross) arrived at Indian Territory by March 1839.

   A smaller group of Cherokees came together to form there own government with there own customs. Because of this once John Ross arrived at his homeland he found himself caught in the struggle against the old settlers and the Treaty Party for the right to rule his own tribe. The Treaty Party broke off the negotiations later for John Ross got very annoying.

   On June, 22, 1839 3 assassinations partied were formed. The first party was sent out to kill John Ridge. The Party dragged Ridge to his front yard and repeatedly stabbed him while his wife and kids watched in horror as the men stomped on Ridge. John Ridge died in his wife's arms. 

   The second and third party were sent out to kill John Ridge's father and Elias Boudinot.

   The Threat of a Cherokee civil war was shown, alarming the old settlers who turned to John Ross for help. On September,6,1839 war raged periodically through the course of seven years. 

   

    Modern Cherokee vowed never to forget the Trail of Tears. Today the trail is a shrine to the Cherokee people.  

      

Trail Of Tears Part 3

             Trail Of Tears Part 3

    In 1826 the Cherokees found gold in there territory. Almost as it seemed overnight the whites jumped up eager for there share of gold. Georgia passed a law that it illegal for Cherokees to dig for gold inn the state of Georgia.
   The Cherokees found no ally with the newly elected president, Andrew Jackson. Who is most famous for his slaughter on the Indians in the south.

  
   The was lead by John Ross and were very fortunate for it. Ross helped draft the Cherokee constitution, after this the Cherokees named him there chief in the year 1828. The position Ross held until his death in 1866.

   The 'Treaty Party' was a vocal minority, their leader was a man named John Ridge, who was responsible for the law that made it punishable by death to sell any Cherokee lands.

   

   John Ross was thrown out of his home when the Georgian government took possession of some of the more wealthier Cherokee farms. Many Cherokees were already thrown out of there homes and striped of their belongings by the Georgian government. 

   Later it was learned that the public opinion of the Cherokees were so unfavorable that the government gave the Cherokees 2 extra years to move out.

   In May, 1838 General Winfeild Scott arrived in Georgia to take leadership of the Cherokee removal. The Cherokees were forced from there homes on the spot, sometimes not even given enough tome to pack.

   On June 6,1836 over 800 Cherokees boarded into 6 flat boats at Ross landing, Tennessee, heading down the Tennessee River. Of over 800 Cherokees that left at Ross landing, 602 Cherokees made it to Indian territory. Completed on June 17,1838, the Cherokee round up too 25 days.

  Agent Smith (who was on the flatboats with the Cherokees) admitted that the Cherokees "were about naked, barefoot and suffering fatigue". But he also found that "their health was improving and they were well provided with transportation and sustenance". Smith gave the order for the march to continue.

   On July,13,1836 John Ross returned from Washington, and was able to convince the ear department to let the Cherokees organize their own way of travel. The Cherokees decided to travel in 13 groups of about 1,000 each. Unfortunately of the 3,000 Cherokees that traveled out of the East, 1,813 Cherokees survived. 

Trail Of Tears Part 2

      Trail of tears part 2

   North Carolina and Georgia argued that the Cherokee land which was 'conquered territory', belonged to them. During this argument the government felt obligated to protect the Cherokees by invoking a "Hopewell Treaty" which served as a temporary protection for the Cherokees. 
   The Cherokees did there best to hold onto what was there's. But eventually the shear number and force there was of the whites compared to the Indians, wore out the Cherokees. Later the government created the "Treaty Of Holston" in another attempt to protect the Cherokees from North Carolina and Georgia. 

   But the promises the government made were never kept Between 1776-17794 the Cherokees were force to surrender more than 20,000 acres of Indian land to the whites. By 1819 the Cherokees had given up 989,880 acres of land.

   The whites hoped that "the Cherokee nation may be led to a greater degree of civilization, and to become herdsmen and cultivators instead of remaining in the state of hunters". This dream solidified because of the Treaty Of Holston on July 1791 or more simply the Cherokees would be trained to become businessmen.

   The Cherokees, in an effort to acknowledge there wealth, they delivered its first law in 1810 which established a police force. In 1817 another law was delivered which gave the Nations council the right to surrender land. In 1827 a constitution complete with a chief executive, congress, and a judicial system.

   During the years the Cherokees learned how to read and wright with there own language. They were becoming very smart and hard to intimidate.Because if this it was becoming difficult for poor white farmers to point at a rich Cherokee and say that God intended that the "uncivilized whites" gave up there land to the "civilized" whites.

   

Trail Of Tears

                  The Trail Of Tears

   The Cherokees were a peaceful tribe. They didn't fight for land, and only went into battle to avenge a killing of one of there people.When a Cherokee is killed their world is out of balance and the soul of the fallen Cherokee cannot pass to the Darkening 
Lands (their version of the after life), until the killer is slayed as well. The Cherokees only killed when crucial. Destroying their surplus (meaning:an amount of something left over when requirements have been met; an excess of production or supply over demand), and collecting no wealth.
   During the mid 1500's is when the Cherokees first came in contact with the Europeans. Hernado De Soto and Jaun Pardo, Spanish explorers, came to North America looking for gold and other riches. But instead of wealthy villages which they hoped to find in their travels, they found the poor Cherokees living there.

       Pardo (above)                            De Soto(below)

   Unwilling to believe that the Cherokees were not in fact secretly rich, De Soto's soldiers were ordered to force the Cherokees to tell them were there supposed gold mined are, but the mines did not exist.
   Because the Cherokees had none of the natural immunities the Spanish had against European diseases, about 95% of the Cherokee population died from either small pox, measils, or the bubonic plague.
  The Spanish finally abandoned North America after about 200 years.
  In the late 17th century English fur traders entered Cherokee territory. The English called on to the Cherokees for help with the trade when the demand for dear skin increased, forcing the Cherokee people to rethink their relationship with nature. They now kill for trade, and by 1708 the Cherokees had sold about 50,000 dear skins. By 1735 they had reached to close to a million.
   During the war in 1756-1763 between the English and the French, the Cherokees allied with the English. But the attack from the French were intense, burdened the Cherokees into switching sides and allied themselves with the French.
   But a year later the English retaliated by destroying 15 Cherokee villages including cornfields and orchards.
   As England began to win the war, they destroyed Cherokee communities at will, and killing most captives on the spot. Years later the British Empire staked claim on North America on what they called "right to discovery".