The Trail of Tears

Andrew Jackson and The Trail of Tears

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Introduction
For thousands of years, these mountains were home to the Cherokee. But they were just a small piece of the vast nation which covered 40,000 mi.² here in the Apalachee mountains. In in 1819, as more and more Americans started encroaching on Indian land, the US government signed a treaty that guaranteed that Cherokee land would be off-limits to white settlers forever. (…)
Confident, the Cherokee nation proceeded to build itself a new capital in 1825 here in what is known New Echota, Georgia. It had its own courthouse, council house and post office, and even space for the first Indian language newspaper office in the nation. 

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Andrew Jackson and “The Trail of Tears”

Andrew Jackson (7th president of the US)

In 1829, Andrew Jackson was elected US president. He believed that Native Americans were savages and had no rights to the land, and began proceedings to remove the Cherokee from the southern states to clear the way for white settlements. The next year, he signed the 1830 “Indian Removal Act” – which set in motion one of the most brutal actions ever taken by the US government.

​Thousands of Native Americans were pulled from their homes from Georgia and other states across the south. Many were shackled in chains, and forced to walk at gunpoint more than one thousand miles west on a series of routes that all led to Oklahoma. Up to a third the 15,000 Cherokee who were forced to make the journey died on the way, which is one reason that journey came to be known as “The Trail of Tears”.  (…)

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​Sources
Texte : « Smithsonian Channel »
Carte : Magazine « Histoire et Civilisations »

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Oklahoma and the Cherokee Nation Today