Journal_Entry

Journal Entry 1830, My name is Morning Sun, I am a Cherokee Indian. The time is very unsettling as the new government has said that we have to give our land and homes to them. After migrating from Northern Europe, my people have lived in the area that one day will be Georgia, eastern Tennessee, and North Carolina the since the early 16th century (Cherokee, 2007). At that time my people numbered 22,500 and controlled about 40,000 square miles in the Appalachian Mountains (Cherokee, 2007). We lived peacefully until recently, when the white man discovered the rich gold on our land. A minority of Cherokee agreed to give the United States all Cherokee land east of the Mississippi River in a treaty signed in 1835 for $5 million. However, there was a majority of tribal members who took their case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The court decided in the tribes favor that Georgia has no jurisdiction over the Cherokee and had no claim to their land (Cherokee, 2007). The Removal Act of 1830 displaced Indian Nations from the Southeast to Oklahoma (CREDOreference, 2004). My people along with four other nations were forced to leave our homes. The first to be moved were the Choctaws, in October 1831 about four thousand people started out on foot, by wagon, or horseback. This took place during the winter over snow-covered trails, without adequate shelter and food. During this removal entire families and in some cases whole communities perished of disease, exposure, and exhaustion. This was become known as The Trail of Tears. In 1832 the Creek Nation followed the Choctaws, but not as peacefully (CREDOreference, 2004). Conservative factions of the tribe refused to leave their homeland and the result was the Creek War of 1836-1837. The American army captured more than fourteen thousand five hundred Creek and marched them overland to Oklahoma (CREDOreference, 2004). Two thousand five hundred Creek traveled in chains, but many died during the trip, and thirty-two hundred died of exposure and disease after arriving in Oklahoma. Next were the Chicasaws which were the easiest removal mainly there were fewer tribal members and better preparations. Nonetheless, they suffered with five hundred having died of smallpox. Eventually it was my people’s turn to be removed. Those of the Cherokee Nation that were in support of the removal, numbering about two thousand were moved easily. Georgia militia invaded the Cherokee Nation, destroying crops, burning homes, and scattering families (CREDOreference, 2004). Federal troops rounded up the remaining Cherokees and put them in concentration camps. Many of my people died, and many were sick when they moved westward in 1838. Nearly one-quarter of my tribe perished. The Seminoles were deceived by government agents into signing a removal treaty. When federal authorities insist that the Seminoles honor the treaty, the Seminoles fought resulting in the Second Seminole War in 1835. The U.S. Army began to move the Seminoles from Florida, the last band of Seminoles were chained and moved westward in February 1859. During this time my father, older brother and grandfather were killed by the army. My mother was injured and never able to walk correctly. My sister and I were left to care for our younger brother and grandmother. It was a very hard time for my people we had to learn to hunt in unfamiliar and how to farm the land. My mother and grandmother cry for my father, brother, and grandfather all the time. I am also very sad as not only did I lose my father, grandfather and brother, I lost many of my friends. This new land is so strange and frightening; I can no longer sit under my favorite tree by the creek and think. My family is always afraid that the army will come again and we will lose more of our people. There has been so much sickness and death since we were forced to move here, our medicine man has been unable to find his special herbs he needs to help the sick and injured. I pray always that the armies never come again to cause pain and I will reach the year of my eighteenth year of my birth, which is only three years away. References: Cherokee. (2007, Febuary 7). Retrieved March 27, 2010, from Encyclopedia Brittania Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/109474/Cherokee CREDOreference. (2004). Retrieved March 28, 2010, from History: http://www.credoreference.com/entry/ogirholidays/history/7