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| − | '''The Trail of Tears''' is the common name for the forced removal of [[Cherokee]] Indians from [[Tennessee]] to [[Indian Territory]] (later [[Oklahoma]]) in compliance with the [[Indian Removal Act of 1830]] as put into place by President [[Andrew Jackson]]. 17,000 Indians were sent on a forced march of 1,200 miles (some made the journey by boat) Between 2,000 and 4,000 [[Native American|Indian]]s died on the trip, mostly the elderly and small children due to disease, malnutrition, and fatigue. The Trail of Tears became a national historical site in 1987.<ref>The exact number is debated. On the official lists, 13,169 left home and 11,504 arrived in Oklahoma. Russell Thornton et al. ''The Cherokees: A Population History'' (University of Nebraska Press, 1992), .</ref> | + | '''The Trail of Tears''' is the common name for the removal of [[Cherokee]] Indians from [[Tennessee]] and [[Georgia]] to [[Indian Territory]] (later [[Oklahoma]]) in compliance with the [[Indian Removal Act of 1830]] as put into place by President [[Andrew Jackson]]. Under that Act, the US government negotiated relocation treaties with various Indian tribes, and some of them moved voluntarily and peaceably. Some Indians also stayed and became American citizens. |
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| − | ==Eyewitness Account==
| + | Some Cherokee leaders signed a relocation treaty in 1833, and in 1836 the Cherokees were given two years to move voluntarily. In 1838, President [[Martin Van Buren]]'s administration forced about 17,000 Cherokee Indian to move to Oklahoma. Between 2,000 and 4,000 died on the trip, mostly the elderly and small children due to disease, malnutrition, and fatigue. The Trail of Tears became a national historical site in 1987.<ref>The exact number is debated. On the official lists, 13,169 left home and 11,504 arrived in Oklahoma. Russell Thornton et al. ''The Cherokees: A Population History'' (University of Nebraska Press, 1992).</ref> |
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| − | The events that took place during the forced removal of the Cherokee were not just considered a great wrong by the victims, but to many of the U.S. soldiers who objected to the practice, who nonetheless carried out their orders as required under the law.
| + | Jackson had expressed the opinion that the relocation was a generous offer to the Indians, and that they would be very much better off with the freedom and autonomy of their new territories. Private John G. Burnett participated in the forced relocation, and wrote about the great suffering that the Cherokees endured. |
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| − | An eloquent account of such a soldier's experience is found in a letter by Private John G. Burnett, Captain Abraham McClellan’s Company, 2nd Regiment, 2nd Brigade, Mounted Infantry, Cherokee Indian Removal, 1838-39. On the occasion of his 80th birthday in 1890, he wrote a letter to his family telling his life story, and the following excerpt describes his experiences during the Trail of Tears period:
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| − | :''"The removal of Cherokee Indians from their life long homes in the year of 1838 found me a young man in the prime of life and a Private soldier in the American Army. Being acquainted with many of the Indians and able to fluently speak their language, I was sent as interpreter into the Smoky Mountain Country in May, 1838, and witnessed the execution of the most brutal order in the History of American Warfare. 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.''
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| − | :''One can never forget the sadness and solemnity of that morning. Chief John Ross led in prayer and when the bugle sounded and the wagons started rolling many of the children rose to their feet and waved their little hands good-by to their mountain homes, knowing they were leaving them forever. Many of these helpless people did not have blankets and many of them had been driven from home barefooted.''
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| − | :''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. Among this number was the beautiful Christian wife of Chief John Ross. This noble hearted woman died a martyr to childhood, giving her only blanket for the protection of a sick child. She rode thinly clad through a blinding sleet and snow storm, developed pneumonia and died in the still hours of a bleak winter night, with her head resting on Lieutenant Greggs saddle blanket.''
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| − | :''I made the long journey to the west with the Cherokees and did all that a Private soldier could do to alleviate their sufferings. When on guard duty at night I have many times walked my beat in my blouse in order that some sick child might have the warmth of my overcoat. I was on guard duty the night Mrs. Ross died. When relieved at midnight I did not retire, but remained around the wagon out of sympathy for Chief Ross, and at daylight was detailed by Captain McClellan to assist in the burial like the other unfortunates who died on the way. Her unconfined body was buried in a shallow grave by the roadside far from her native home, and the sorrowing Cavalcade moved on."''
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| − | Burnett also recounted that despite his life being saved by Cherokee allies in battle, [[Andrew Jackson]] showed a deliberate indifference to the fate of the Cherokee nation as he initiated the policies which led to their relocation: | + | |
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| − | :''"Chief Junaluska was personally acquainted with President Andrew Jackson. Junaluska had taken 500 of the flower of his Cherokee scouts and helped Jackson to win the battle of the Horse Shoe, leaving 33 of them dead on the field. And in that battle Junaluska had drove his tomahawk through the skull of a Creek warrior, when the Creek had Jackson at his mercy.''
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| − | :''Chief John Ross sent Junaluska as an envoy to plead with President Jackson for protection for his people, but Jackson’s manner was cold and indifferent toward the rugged son of the forest who had saved his life. He met Junaluska, heard his plea but curtly said, "Sir, your audience is ended. There is nothing I can do for you." The doom of the Cherokee was sealed. Washington, D.C., had decreed that they must be driven West and their lands given to the white man, and in May 1838, an army of 4000 regulars, and 3000 volunteer soldiers under command of General Winfield Scott, marched into the Indian country and wrote the blackest chapter on the pages of American history."''
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| − | :''"In one home death had come during the night. A little sad-faced child had died and was lying on a bear skin couch and some women were preparing the little body for burial. All were arrested and driven out leaving the child in the cabin. I don’t know who buried the body.''
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| − | :''In another home was a frail mother, apparently a widow and three small children, one just a baby. When told that she must go, the mother gathered the children at her feet, prayed a humble prayer in her native tongue, patted the old family dog on the head, told the faithful creature good-by, with a baby strapped on her back and leading a child with each hand started on her exile. But the task was too great for that frail mother. A stroke of heart failure relieved her sufferings. She sunk and died with her baby on her back, and her other two children clinging to her hands.''
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| − | :''Chief Junaluska who had saved President Jackson’s life at the battle of Horse Shoe witnessed this scene, the tears gushing down his cheeks and lifting his cap he turned his face toward the heavens and said, "Oh my God, if I had known at the battle of the Horse Shoe what I know now, American history would have been differently written."''
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| − | Burnett ended this account with the observation that U.S. History as taught in the late 1800's had already downplayed or concealed the nature and suffering of the Trail of Tears. This did not mean that the atrocities did not take place, and he left his testimony to posterity so others would know what had actually happened:
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| − | :''"At this time, 1890, we are too near the removal of the Cherokees for our young people to fully understand the enormity of the crime that was committed against a helpless race. Truth is, the facts are being concealed from the young people of today. School children of today do not know that we are living on lands that were taken from a helpless race at the bayonet point to satisfy the white man’s greed.''
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| − | :''Future generations will read and condemn the act and I do hope posterity will remember that private soldiers like myself, and like the four Cherokees who were forced by General Scott to shoot an Indian Chief and his children, had to execute the orders of our superiors. We had no choice in the matter.
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| − | :''However, murder is murder whether committed by the villain skulking in the dark or by uniformed men stepping to the strains of martial music.''
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| − | :''Murder is murder, and somebody must answer. Somebody must explain the streams of blood that flowed in the Indian country in the summer of 1838. Somebody must explain the 4000 silent graves that mark the trail of the Cherokees to their exile. I wish I could forget it all, but the picture of 645 wagons lumbering over the frozen ground with their cargo of suffering humanity still lingers in my memory.''
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| − | :''Let the historian of a future day tell the sad story with its sighs, its tears and dying groans. Let the great Judge of all the earth weigh our actions and reward us according to our work."'' <ref>http://www.cherokee.org/Culture/128/Page/default.aspx</ref>
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| | ==References== | | ==References== |
Some Cherokee leaders signed a relocation treaty in 1833, and in 1836 the Cherokees were given two years to move voluntarily. In 1838, President Martin Van Buren's administration forced about 17,000 Cherokee Indian to move to Oklahoma. Between 2,000 and 4,000 died on the trip, mostly the elderly and small children due to disease, malnutrition, and fatigue. The Trail of Tears became a national historical site in 1987.[1]
Jackson had expressed the opinion that the relocation was a generous offer to the Indians, and that they would be very much better off with the freedom and autonomy of their new territories. Private John G. Burnett participated in the forced relocation, and wrote about the great suffering that the Cherokees endured.
