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In 1835, Jackson appointed a treaty
commissioner by the name of Reverend John F. Schermerhorn who offered
to pay the
Cherokee Nation 4.5 million dollars to move. In October, 1835, the
terms were rejected by the
Cherokee
Nation. Both
Chief Ross
and John Ridge traveled to Washington in an attempt to open new
negotiations, but they were turned away and told to deal with
Schermerhorn.
Schermerhorn soon organized a group of
pro-removal members and issued a summons for attendance by the
Cherokee
members. Though only about 500 of the
Cherokee
(out of thousands) attended, the Treaty of New Echota was agreed to
which provided for the
Cherokee
Nation to cede its lands in
exchange for $5,700,000 and new lands in
Indian Territory
(now
Oklahoma .) Though the actions was repudiated by more than nine-tenths of the
tribe and was not signed by a single elected tribal official, Congress
ratified the treaty on May 23, 1836.
Chief Ross
and the
Cherokee National Council maintained that the document was a fraud
and presented a petition with more than 15,000
Cherokee
signatures to congress in the spring of 1838. Other white
settlers also were outraged by the questionable legality of the
treaty. On April 23, 1838, Ralph Waldo Emerson appealed to
Jackson's successor, President Martin Van Buren, urging him not to
inflict "so vast an outrage upon the
Cherokee
Nation. But it was not to be.
As the deadline for voluntary removal on
May 23, 1838 approached, President Van Buren appointed General
Winfield Scott to lead the forcible removal operation. Commanding some 7,000 troops, Scott arrived in Georgia on May 26th
beginning a forcible evacuation at gunpoint. An estimated 17,000
Cherokee,
along with about 2,000 black slaves, were forced to move over the next
three weeks. The swift and brutal process drove men, women and
children out of their homes, sometimes with only the clothes on their
backs. They were then gathered in camps where conditions were
terrible. Many of the
Cherokee
died while waiting in the camps, where food and supplies were limited
and disease was rampant.
Fortunately, about 1,000
Cherokee
escaped to the North Carolina mountains. Others who lived on
individually owned land (rather than tribal domains) were not subject
to removal. Those lucky enough to have not been evacuated would
eventually form new tribal groups including the Eastern Band
Cherokee,
based in North Carolina that continues to exist today.
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Two
routes were utilized to move the thousands of
Cherokee. The first of three detachments, totaling about 2,800 people, left on June
6th by steamboats and barges on the Tennessee River at present-day
Chattanooga, Tennessee. After several transfers, including a short
railroad detour, they at the mouth of Salisaw Creek near Fort Coffee on
June 19, 1838. The other two groups suffered more because of a severe
drought and disease (especially among the children), and they did not
arrive in
Indian Territory
until the end of the summer.
The
rest of the
Cherokee were not so fortunate, forced to travel to
Indian Territory
on overland trails. For those forced to march by land, the
Cherokee
petitioned for a delay until cooler weather would make the journey less
hazardous.
Chief Ross,
who had finally accepted defeat, also managed to have the remainder of the
removal turned over to the supervision of the
Cherokee
Council.
Organized into detachments of 700 to 1,600 people, each was headed by a
conductor and an assistant appointed by
Chief John Ross,
the marches began on August 28, 1838 consisting of thirteen groups.
The
most commonly used overland route followed a northern alignment, while
other detachments followed more southern routes, and other slight
variations. The northern route began in Tennessee, crossed southwestern
Kentucky and southern
Illinois.
After crossing the Mississippi River north of Cape Girardeau,
Missouri,
these detachments trekked across southern Missouri and the northwest
corner of
Arkansas before arriving in
Oklahoma
near present day Westville.
Along the 2,200 mile journey, road conditions, illness, cold, and
exhaustion took thousands of lives, including
Chief John Ross'
wife, Quatie. Though the federal
government officially stated some 424 deaths, an American doctor traveling
with one the party estimated that 2,000 people died in the camps and
another 2,000 along the trail. Other estimates have been stated that
conclude that almost 8,000 of the
Cherokee
died during the Indian Removal.
When they finally reached
Oklahoma ,
the groups were often met by US. troops from Fort Gibson and the
Arkansas
River. Most of the
Cherokee
went to live with those who had already arrived, settling near present-day
Tahlequah,
Oklahoma. Problems
quickly developed among the new arrivals and those
Cherokees
who had already settled. Reprisals were taken against the group who had
signed the Treaty of New Echota leading to the assassinations of Major
Ridge, John Ridge, and Elias Boudinot. Only Stand Watie eluded his
assassins.
As
these problems were resolved, the
Cherokees
proceeded to adapt to their new homeland, reestablishing their own system
of government. The population of the
Cherokee Nation
eventually rebounded, and today the
Cherokees
are the largest
American Indian group in the
United States.
In the end, members of
the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole Nations suffered the same fate
as the
Cherokees.
Considered to be one of
the most regrettable episodes in American History, the U.S. Congress
designated the
Trail of Tears
National Historic Trail in 1987. Commemorating the 17
Cherokee
detachments the trail encompasses about 2,200 miles
of land and water routes, and traverses portions of nine states.
The National Park
Service, in partnership with other federal agencies, state and local
agencies, non-profit organizations, and private landowners, administers
the
Trail of Tears.
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©
Kathy Weiser/Legends
of America, updated November, 2009.
The Trail of Tears runs through the
Pea Ridge Military Park, Kathy Weiser,
November, 2009.
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Old
Cherokee
National Capitol Building. The
Cherokee
Council first met in 1839 under a large open shed in this area, then later
in log buildings. During the Civil War, these were burned down by
Cherokee
General Stand Watie and his Confederate troops. After the war, the Council
made provisions for a new building, and it was finished and occupied by
1870.
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"I saw the helpless
Cherokees
arrested and dragged from their homes, and driven at the bayonet point
into the stockades. And in the chill of a drizzling rain on an October
morning I saw them loaded like cattle or sheep into six hundred and
forty-five wagons and started toward the west....On the morning of
November the 17th we encountered a terrific sleet and snow storm with
freezing temperatures and from that day until we reached the end of the
fateful journey on March the 26th 1839, the sufferings of the
Cherokees
were awful. The trail of the exiles was a trail of death. They had to
sleep in the wagons and on the ground without fire. And I have known as
many as twenty-two of them to die in one night of pneumonia due to ill
treatment, cold and exposure..."
-- Private John G. Burnett, 2nd Regiment, 2nd
Brigade, Mounted Infantry, Cherokee Indian Removal 1838-39
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Map courtesy
About North Georgia
Also See:
Cherokee -
Forced From Their Homeland on the Trail of Tears
Chief John Ross
of the Cherokee Nation
One Man's
Tribute to the Trail of Tears |
