Trail of Tears — Cherokee Removal
The Trail of Tears was the implementation of Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal policy — specifically, the forced relocation of the Cherokee Nation from their ancestral homeland in Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Alabama to 'Indian Territory' west of the Mississippi (modern Oklahoma). The legal background: The Indian Removal Act (1830) authorised the President to negotiate removal treaties with southern tribes. The Cherokee Nation refused to cede its territory and challenged Georgia's removal laws in the Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Marshall ruled in Worcester v. Georgia (1832) that the Cherokee were a distinct political community, that their territory was not subject to Georgia state law, and that the removal laws were unconstitutional. Jackson reportedly responded: 'John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it.' The Treaty of New Echota (1835) was signed by approximately 100 Cherokee — a small minority led by the Ridge family, acting without authorisation from the elected Cherokee government. More than 15,000 Cherokee signed petitions against it; the elected government under Chief John Ross protested the treaty's invalidity. The US Senate ratified it by one vote. The removal: In 1838, the Van Buren administration ordered the US Army to enforce the treaty. Cherokee were rounded up at gunpoint and held in stockade camps through the summer — where hundreds died of disease — before being marched west in the autumn and winter of 1838–39. The routes crossed the Tennessee and Ohio rivers; winter temperatures were severe; clothing and provisions were inadequate. At least 4,000 of approximately 16,000 Cherokee died on the march, earning it the name 'Nunna daul Tsuny' ('the place where they cried') — translated into English as 'Trail of Tears.' The pattern was applied to the Five Civilised Tribes (Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole) — 60,000–100,000 people in total removed to Indian Territory. The Creek removal (1836) and Second Seminole War (1835–42, the longest Indian war in US history) were part of the same policy.
- Year: 1838 CE
- Category: Political
