Trail of Tears Memorial in Jerome, Missouri

MISSOURI LEGENDS

One Man's Tribute to the Trail of Tears

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Trail of Tears Painting

Trail of Tears painting by Robert Lindneux in the Woolaroc Museum, Bartlesville, Oklahoma

As settlers began to push west from the eastern seaboard during the early nineteenth century, the government forced thousands of American Indians from their ancestral lands. Though there were numerous treaties with the five civilized tribes of the southeastern United States, the pioneers demanded more land. In response, President Andrew Jackson signed the Removal Act of 1830 which forced the Cherokees, Creek, Choctaws, Chickasaws and Seminoles to evacuate their lands and move to Indian Territory, which would later become Oklahoma. Jackson supported this act by stating, "No state could achieve proper culture, civilization, and progress, as long as Indians remained within its boundaries."

Long time we travel on way to new land. People feel bad when they leave old nation. Women cry and make sad wails. Children cry and many men cry, and all look sad like when friends die, but they say nothing and just put heads down and keep on go towards West. Many days pass and people die very much. We bury close by Trail.

-- Survivor of the Trail of Tears

The Cherokees, the largest tribe in the Southeast, fought exile with a combination of passive resistance, national publicity and lawsuits. The Cherokee were not nomads like some of the other tribes, but rather, had established homes and communities where they had cultivated the land. A treaty with the United States preserved their rights in parts of Tennessee and Georgia, but when gold was discovered in Georgia, the state proclaimed that "all laws, orders, and regulations of any kind made with the Cherokee Indians are declared null and void." This resulted in a frenzied land-grab and the forced evacuation of the Cherokee from their homeland. President Jackson further backed this up by saying, "Humanity weeps over the fate of the Indians, but true philanthropy reconciles the mind to the extinction of one generation for another."

Map courtesy About North Georgia

Because they had successfully resisted the government's efforts to move them from their homeland for several years, their removal was particularly brutal when it finally came. In the spring and summer of 1838, more than 15,000 Cherokee Indians were forcibly removed by the U.S. Army from their ancestral lands in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama. Held in concentration-like camps through the summer, they were then placed on a death march to Oklahoma, where almost one fourth of their members would perish along the way from cold, hunger and illness. The Cherokees came to call the march Nunahi-Duna-Dlo-Hilu-I or Trail Where They Cried.

Once in Oklahoma, the tribes were solemnly sworn a “permanent treaty” that this would be their Promised Land "for as long as grass grows and water flows." That promise, too, would later be broken, when again, westward expansion demanded more land.

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From the Rocky Mountain General Store

Four 66 Tin Signs - Set of four Old Route 66 weathered style signs. Measuring 10"x16", made of heavy gauge metal, signs have rolled edges for safe handling. Includes: Main Street USA - Chicago to L.A., Eat here and get gas - Alice's Eatery & Service Station, America's Highway, and U.S. Route 66.