The Trail of Tears

 

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 -

Note: The Indian Removal Act empowered by president Andrew Jackson allowed the U.S. Government to move eastern Indians west of the Mississippi, mainly Cherokees. The purpose was to put pressure off arising conflicts since the flawed thinking was that the white settlements would never penetrate that part of the continent. The project was ill-conceived and culturally chauvinistic. Even the staunchest defenders of this act were admitting defeat at the time. In the spring and summer of 1838, more than 15,000 Cherokee were removed by the U.S. Army from their ancestral homelands in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama. They were held in concentration camps through the summer and fall then forced to travel nearly 1,000 miles during an extremely harsh winter to Indian Territory in Oklahoma. It is estimated that almost 4,000 died of hunger, dysentery, exposure and other causes during the trek. Members of the tribe call the forced evacuation of their homelands and the horrendous journey "Nunahi-Duna-Dlo-Hilu-I", which translates to "Trail Where They Cried". The infamous removal concept was later refined into the reservation idea