The_Trail_Of_Tears

The Trail Of Tears The Trail of Tears In the spring of 1838, the U.S. Army forced more than 15,000 Cherokee Indians from their homelands in North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia (Perdue & Green, 1). They were forced to travel over 1,000 miles to what is now Oklahoma (Gilbert, 2). Many walked the entire trip without shoes or much clothing. Food was scarce; the little amount of food they did receive had gone bad and made many sick, killing thousands. Many more along the way died as a result of terrible illnesses. The bodies were buried in silent graves at each stop along the trail (3). The Cherokee Indians called the journey Nunahi-Duna-Dlo-Hilu-I, which translates to “Trail Where They Cried,” now known as the Trail of Tears. The removal is a direct result of the Removal Act signed by President Andrew Jackson in 1830 (2). The Act stated that “no state could achieve proper culture, civilization, and progress, as long as Indians remained within its boundaries.” Thereby forcing five Indian tribes to move to the Indian Territory, Oklahoma. The Cherokee Indians experienced a lifetime of hardships in just a few short years. From having their traditional lives that generations had grown accustomed cherokees, cherokee, people, removal, treaty, land, trail, journey, indians, gilbert, white, thousand, indian, became, united, settlers, one, known, food, died, west, states, lands, john, groups, government, georgia, children, women, without, winter, weather, trip, tennessee, stockades, poor