What is the true story of the Trail of Tears?

The story of the actual Trail of Tears is pretty simple. Beginning in the 1830s, the Cherokee people were forced from their land by the U.S. government and forced to walk nearly 1,000 miles to a new home in a place they had never seen before. Thousands of people died on the harsh and totally unnecessary journey.

What is a fact about the Trail of Tears?

More than 15,000 Cherokee Natives were removed from their homeland by the U.S. military. More than 100,000 Native Americans were forced to relocate because of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. It is estimated that more than 4,000 Cherokee men, women, and children died of starvation, disease, or exposure.

Why the Trail of Tears was wrong?

It was morally wrong because the arguments used to justify the move were based on falsehood. It stripped property rights from a minority that lacked the means to defend itself and redistributed their property to people who wanted it for themselves. It was legally wrong on Constitutional and judicial grounds.

Why was Trail of Tears important?

The impact to the Cherokee was devastating. Hundreds of Cherokee died during their trip west, and thousands more perished from the consequences of relocation. The Trail of Tears National Historic Trail commemorates the removal of the Cherokee and the paths that 17 Cherokee detachments followed westward.

How was the Trail of Tears illegal?

But Congress passed the removal law in the spring of 1830. The Indian Removal Act offered tribes in the East lands in an area west of the Mississippi (soon to be called “Indian Territory”). The U.S. government promised to compensate the tribes for the property they would have to abandon.

What happened to the Cherokee tribe during the Trail of Tears?

The Cherokee people called this journey the “Trail of Tears,” because of its devastating effects. The migrants faced hunger, disease, and exhaustion on the forced march. Over 4,000 out of 15,000 of the Cherokees died. It commemorates the suffering of the Cherokee people under forced removal.

What happened to the Cherokee tribe after the Trail of Tears?

General Winfield Scott sped the removal along as well as put many Indians into stockades along the way. The Trail of Tears found its end in Oklahoma. Nearly a fourth of the Cherokee population died along the march. Upon reaching Oklahoma, two Cherokee nations, the eastern and western, were reunited.

What really happened at Wounded Knee?

Wounded Knee Massacre, (December 29, 1890), the slaughter of approximately 150–300 Lakota Indians by United States Army troops in the area of Wounded Knee Creek in southwestern South Dakota. The massacre was the climax of the U.S. Army’s late 19th-century efforts to repress the Plains Indians.

Who caused the Trail of Tears?

In 1838 and 1839, as part of Andrew Jackson’s Indian removal policy, the Cherokee nation was forced to give up its lands east of the Mississippi River and to migrate to an area in present-day Oklahoma. The Cherokee people called this journey the “Trail of Tears,” because of its devastating effects.

What was the trail of Tears and why did it happen?

The Trail of Tears was a result of the Indian Removal Act passed by the Congress in 1830. This Act gave the government a free hand to displace thousands of tribes from their native homelands to places that were unheard off until then. The tribes were forced to sign numerous treaties.

What were dangers of the trail of Tears?

The Cherokee people called this journey the “Trail of Tears,” because of its devastating effects. The migrants faced hunger, disease, and exhaustion on the forced march. Over 4,000 out of 15,000 of the Cherokees died. The Choctaws also lost several thousand people.

What were some of the causes of death on the trail of Tears?

The Trail of Tears refers to the forced relocation in 1838, of the Cherokee Native American tribe to Indian Territory in what would be the state of Oklahoma, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 4,000 of the 15,000 Cherokees affected. This was caused by the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

What events led to the trail of Tears?

Events Leading Up to the Trail of Tears. Autonomous Tribes were living in the Deep South. The Indian Removal act forced Indians to assimilate into the laws of the settlers. Those who refused were forced northwest by means of the Trail of Tears to Indian Territory, which was later known as Oklahoma.