INDIAN REMOVAL IN THE UNITED STATES

Essential Question: How did the decision of President Jackson affect

the lives of Native Americans?

The Legend of the Cherokee Rose

No better symbol of the pain and suffering of the Trail of Tears than the Cherokee Rose. The mothers of the Cherokee grieved so much that the chiefs prayed for a sign to lift the mother’s

spirits and give them strength to care for their children. From that day forward a beautiful new flower, a rose, grew wherever a

mother’s tear fell to the ground. The rose is white for the mother’s tears. It has a gold center, for the gold taken from the Cherokee lands, and seven leaves on each stem that represents the seven Cherokee clans that made the journey. To this day,

the Cherokee Rose prospers along the route of the Trail of Tears.

Black Hawk War

• 1827 - US govt says all Native Americans must leave Illinois

• Chief Black Hawk of the Sauk refuses, saying no one can own land

• US settlers moved into village when they were away hunting

• After Sauk attacks, US troops drive out Indians

As the population grew, the colonists pushed

farther west into the

territories occupied by

the American Indians.

Inevitably, this movement led to clashes over land.

By the time Andrew Jackson became President in 1829, the native population east of the

Mississippi River had dwindled to 125,000.

In contrast, the non-Indians population had risen to 13 million.

Jackson saw Indian Removal as an opportunity to provide for the

needs of the white farmers and

businessmen. He also claimed that

removal was also in the best interest of the Indians.

Why?

Jackson to the Indians:

“Where you now are, you and my white children are too near to each other to live in harmony and peace. Your game is gone, and many of your people will not work and

till the earth. . . The land beyond the Mississippi belongs to the President and no one else, and he will give it to you forever.”

How did the Five Civilized Tribes try to avoid

removal?

1. Adopted farming life style

2. Began to receive formal education

3. Had own written language

4. Established their own newspaper (Cherokee Phoenix)

5. Adopted white man’s idea of black slavery & established plantations

Cherokee Indians

• Lived peacefully in the Appalachian Mountains of Georgia and Tennessee

• Adopted culture of whites -wrote and spoke English

• Had own written language and newspaper

• Based their government on the U.S. Constitution

Cherokee Chief John Ross

• Gold was discovered=American greed

• The government of Georgia gave land owned by the Cherokee to settlers looking for land.

• John Ross, the Cherokee Chief went to court to protect the Cherokee’s right to their own land.

• .

Chief John Ross

Major Ridge

Throughout the late 1820s, legal conflict over ownership of Cherokee lands led the

issue to the halls of the U.S. Supreme Court.

How do you think the Supreme Court decided?

Why?

The Supreme Court and Chief

Justice John Marshall ruled the Cherokee

could keep their lands because of

earlier federal treaties.

Furthermore, the court ruled the treaty was an agreement between two nations and couldn’t be overruled by Georgia.

What do you think President Jackson and

Georgia did next?

Georgia ignored the court’s ruling. President Jackson refused to enforce the ruling. He

remarked, “Well, John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it”.

As part of the Indian Removal Act

of 1830, federal agents misled

tribal leaders into signing removal

treaties with the government.

In 1838, the Georgia militia was ordered to force the Cherokee out of Georgia.

The Trail of Tears

The Indian Removal Act

• Many white settlers began moving onto Cherokee lands.

• The Cherokees were peaceful, but they protested the settlers’ taking their land.

• In 1830 President Jackson signed a law called the Indian Removal Act.

• Anyone living east of the Mississippi River was forced to leave their land and move West.

• The Cherokees and other tribes were forced to leave their land and go to Indian Territory.

Native American Tribes

Cherokee Tribe Choctaw Tribe

Native American Tribes

• Affected all Native Americans east of the Mississippi River.

• Tribes included

– Choctaw

– Creeks

– Chickasaw

– Cherokee

– Seminoles

Trail of tears today

The forced march begins

Trail of Tears

• Government agreed to feed and cloth, but they must leave the west

• Many were barefoot, no coats, no blankets while traveling across the frozen Mississippi River…WINTER

• Wars ensued to save Native American land

• 17,000 Cherokee began journey to Oklahoma

– 6 months, 25% never made it, 8,000 lives & all land lost

The Trail

• The trail is not one distinct road, but a web of routes and rivers traveled in the 1830’s by tribal groups from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

“The trail where they cried.”

• The description “Trail of Tears” is thought to have originated with the Choctaw.

• It was connected with the relocation of the Cherokee Nation from October 1838 to March 1839.

17,000 Cherokees were brutally rounded up and marched to Indian territory in Oklahoma.

As many as 4,000 died along the “Trail of Tears”.

“I fought through the Civil War and have seen men

shot to pieces and slaughtered by the thousands, but

the Cherokee removal was the cruelest work I ever

knew.”

Georgia Soldier involved in removal process

This picture, The Trail of Tears, was painted by Robert Lindneux in

1942. It commemorates the suffering of the Cherokee people under forced removal. If any depictions of the "Trail of Tears" were created at the time of the march, they have

not survived.

1. What was the Black Hawk War?1. Government forced all natives out of Illinois

2. How did the five civilized tribes respond in order to avoid removal from their lands?

1. Adopted farming life style

2. Began to receive formal education

3. Had own written language

4. Established their own newspaper (Cherokee Phoenix)

5. Adopted white man’s idea of black slavery & established plantations

3. What is significant about the state of Georgia?1. Gold was discovered and land of Natives was given away

4. Who was John Ross?1. Chief of the Cherokee who led them down the Trail of Tears

5. What did the Supreme Court decide, and how did President Jackson respond to their decision?

– Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Cherokee

– Jackson ignored the ruling and ordered them off the land

6. What did the Indian Removal Act require of the Native Americans?

– All Natives east of the Mississippi River were forced West

7. Where did most Native Americans settle on the Trail of Tears?

– Oklahoma