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".