Trail of Tears

Profile managers: Deborah Mayes [send private message] and Native Americans Project WikiTree [send private message]

About the Trail of Tears Team

A Team of the Native Americans Project

Goals

• To provide information and resources about the Trail of Tears
• To accurately represent the events and people associated with the Trail of Tears

Members

• R.P. "Dek" Prentice
• who else?

Introduction

In the early part of the nineteenth century the United States government carried out a systematic removal of indigenous peoples from locations throughout the (present day eastern) United States. By no means the beginning of conflict between European settlers and the Native nations, the 1830 signing of the Indian Removal Act by President Andrew Jackson broadly begins forced removal of these peoples from their homelands.

In the southeastern states and territories prior to 1800, the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee(Creek) and Seminole were autonomous nations with an estimated total population above 100,000 citizens. They inhabited areas that now include the U.S. States of: Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida. The Indian Removal Act was specifically used to force these nations into the so named "Indian Territory" west of the Mississippi River (now the eastern half of the State of Oklahoma) under the guise of protecting their sovereignty.

Watch History Brief: Indian Removal run time 7:18

Routes

The first of these nations to be relocated were the Choctaw in 1832. From the outset, the removal process was marked by poor planning and apathy for the well-being of people expected to journey as much as 1000 miles. Travel was difficult, mostly on foot and often during inclement weather. Lack of proper clothing during winter, and sparse rations, caused illness and death. Over the course of the decade these privations suffered by the travelers culminated in the forced death march of the Cherokee in 1838 and 1839. More than 10,000 people (possibly 20,000 even up to 25% of the travelers)* from these nations lost their lives by the end of Removal when the last Cherokee arrived to their new Indian Territory home in March, 1839. This deprivation and loss of life while being forced into the new land came to be known in Cherokee as "NU-NO-DU-NA-TLO-HI-LU" (The Trail Where They Cried), in English The Trail of Tears.

* The exact number who began the journey and those who perished are estimates as no census was taken during each relocation.

References

WikiTree Project Links

• Cherokee Page

• Chickasaw Page

• Choctaw Page

• Muscogee (Creek) Page

• Seminole (WikiTree page needed)

General

• Native Americans Project
  • Native American Page

• Union Indian Agency created 30 June 1874, consolidated the Creek, Choctaw (including Chickasaw), Seminole and Cherokee agencies
  • Five Civilized Tribes, a term coined circa 1875 with the creation of the Union Agency

Web Sites

• About North Georgia: Cherokee Trail of Tears

• Access Genealogy: Trail of Tears Evaluation Cherokee & Choctaw

• America's Library: John Ross/Chief Little John Cherokee

• Arkansas Heritage Trails: Trail of Tears

• Encyclopedia of Alabama: 1819-1838: Early Statehood and Indian Removal

• Encyclopedia of Arkansas: Trail of Tears

• Encyclopedia of Oklahoma: Indian Removal Andrew K. Frank

• First People of America and Canada: Trail of Tears - Cherokee

• Genealogy Trails: Trail of Tears

• Legends of America: Trail of Tears

• Library of Congress: Indian Removal Act: Primary Documents in American History

• National Library of Medicine: Native Voices

• National Parks Service: Trail of Tears - National Historic Trail

• National Trail of Tears Association: Official SIte

• Our Georgia History: The Trail of Tears Randy Golden

• PBS: Indian Removal

• Philadelphia Inquirer: Letter found that led to Indians' 'Trail of Tears' Edward Colimore

• Seminole Nation Museum: The Seminole Wars See Second Seminole War

• This Day In History: Trail of Tears

• ThoughtCo./About.com: Indian Removal and the Trail of Tears

• UALR Exhibits: A Chronicle of Indian Removal Through Arkansas Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee(Creek), Seminole, & Seneca

• ushistory.org: The Age or Jackson: 24f. The Trail of Tears — The Indian Removals

• War Paths 2 Peace Pipes: Trail of Tears

• Wikipedia: Trail of Tears

Videos

• IMDB: The Trail of Tears 2006 Documentary
  • Amazon Prime Video $ Trail of Tears runtime 53:00 each part (5)

• PBS - American Experience: President Jackson and the Indian Removal Bill run time 1:19

• Reading Though History: History Brief: Indian Removal run time 7:18

Books

• Anderson, William, ed. (1991). Cherokee Removal: Before and After. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-1482-2.

• Bealer, Alex W. (1996) [1972]. Only the Names Remain: The Cherokees and The Trail of Tears. Boston, Massachusetts: Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0-316-08519-9.

• Carter, Samuel (1976). Cherokee Sunset: A Nation Betrayed. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-06735-6.

• Davis, Ethan. (Journal Article) An Administrative Trail of Tears: Indian Removal, The American Journal of Legal History, Vol. 50, No. 1 (Jan 2008-2010), pp. 49-100, Oxford Univ Press https://www.jstor.org/stable/25664483

• Debo, Angie. (1934) The Rise and Fall of the Choctaw Republic. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-1247-6.

• DeRosier, Arthur H. (1989) The Removal of the Choctaw Indians. Knoxville, Tennessee: University of Tennessee Press. ISBN 0-87049-329-9.

• Ehle, John (1989) [1988]. Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation. New York: Anchor Books. ISBN 0-385-23954-8.

• Fitzgerald, David; King, Duane (2008). The Cherokee Trail of Tears. Portland, Oregon: Graphic Arts Books. ISBN 978-0-88240-752-4.

• Foreman, Grant (1989) [1932]. Indian Removal: The Emigration of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indians (11 ed.). Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-1172-0.

• Jahoda, Gloria (1995) [1975]. Trail of Tears: The Story of the American Indian Removal 1813-1855. Henry Holt & Co. ISBN 978-0-517-14677-4.

• Mann, Barbara Alice (2009). The Tainted Gift: The Disease Method of Frontier Expansion (Native America: Yesterday and Today). Santa Barbara, California: Praeger. ISBN 978-0-313-35338-3, ISBN 0-313-353387

• Mooney, James (2007) [1888]. King, Duane, ed. Myths of the Cherokee. New York: Barnes & Noble. ISBN 978-0-7607-8340-5.

• Perdue, Theda; Green, Michael (2008) [2007]. The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-311367-6.

• Prucha, Francis (1984). The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indians. Lincoln, Nebraska: Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-3668-9.

• Remini, Robert (2001). Andrew Jackson and his Indian Wars. New York: Viking. ISBN 0-670-91025-2.

• Wallace, Anthony (1993). The Long, Bitter Trail: Andrew Jackson and the Indians (Hardback ed.). New York: Hill and Wang. ISBN 0-8090-6631-9.

• Wilson, James (1998). The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America. New York: Grove Press. ISBN 978-0-8021-3680-0.

Other links that need checking and incorporating above (if not already there)

Trail of Tears

• Encyclopedia of Alabama - Cherokee Indian Removal

• History.com - The Trail of Tears

• Digital Library Oklahoma,edu - TRAIL OF TEARS

• Crystal Links - The Trail of Tears

• US History - The Trail of Tears — The Indian Removals

• Native Voices - 1838 - Cherokee die on Trail of Tears

• Sequoyah Research Center - Family Stories from the Trail of Tears - taken from the Indian-Pioneer History Collection, Grant Foreman, editor