The Trail of Tears
For Mod 6 I took the virtual field trip to Little River Canyon National Preserve. Interestingly I came across this article written last week that is evidence that either people are not really aware what “The Trail of Tears” is and what happened or they are just insensitive to the loss of human life. I’m hoping it’s the first. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/18/1256482/-Trail-ofTears-sign-sparks-outrage-in-Alabama?detail=email
The principal of the school seems to be dealing with the situation correctly teaching students the truth about our barbaric past, although we seem to be just as barbaric today, just killing other minorities, in other parts of the world……. Here is some information related to The Trails of Tears….. According to the U.S. “Clearing Alabama and Mississippi of their Indian populations would enable those states to advance rapidly in population, wealth, and power." (NPS, nd) “The most infamous of the removals took place in 1838, two years after the end of President Jackson's final term. The Indian were forcibly removed by the military. This journey, where thousands of Native Americans died, is known as the "Trail of Tears". (NPS, nd) In a letter to letter to Martin Van Buren, President of the United States 1836, from Ralph Waldo Emerson, he writes “In speaking thus the sentiments of my neighbors and my own, perhaps I overstep the bounds of decorum. But would it not be a higher indecorum coldly to argue a matter like this? We only state the fact that a crime is
projected that confounds our understanding by its magnitude, a crime that really deprives us as well as the Cherokees of a country for how could we call the conspiracy that should crush these poor Indians our government, or the land that was cursed by their parting and dying imprecations our country, any more? You, sir, will bring down that renowned chair in which you sit into infamy if your seal is set to this instrument of perfidy; and the name of this nation, hitherto the sweet omen of religion and liberty, will stink to the world.” (Cherokee Nation, nd) “Under orders from President Jackson the U.S. Army began enforcement of the Removal Act. The Cherokee were rounded up in the summer of 1838 and loaded onto boats that traveled the Tennessee, Ohio, Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers into Indian Territory. Many were held in prison camps awaiting their fate.” (Cherokee Nation, nd) “The Choctaw (9,000) became the first nation to be removed from their land in the winter of 1831. Many were bound without food or supplies. The last of the Muscogee (Creek) were driven out in 1836. Approximately 21,000 Muscogee (Creek) removed. The Chickasaw (6,000) and Seminole people (4,000) were also driven out.” (NPS, nd)
“An estimated 4,000 died from hunger, exposure and disease. The journey became a cultural memory as the "trail where they cried" for the Cherokees and other removed tribes. Today it is
widely remembered by the general public as the "Trail of Tears". The Oklahoma chapter of the Trail of Tears Association has begun the task of marking the graves of Trail survivors with bronze memorials.� (Cherokee Nation, nd)
References Cherokee Nation (n.d.). A Brief History of the Trail of Tears. Retrieved November 20, 2013, from http://www.cherokee.org/AboutTheNation/History/TrailofTears/ABriefHistoryoftheTrailofT ears.aspx
Cherokee Nation (n.d.). Ralph Waldo Emerson's Letter. Retrieved November 20, 2013, from http://www.cherokee.org/AboutTheNation/History/TrailofTears/RalphWaldoEmersonsLetter .aspx U.S. National Park Service (n.d.). Trail of Tears - Little River Canyon National Preserve (U.S. National Park Service). Retrieved November 20, 2013, from http://www.nps.gov/liri/historyculture/trail-of-tears.htm