Summary of the Trail of Tears

In 1835, three Cherokee men signed a treaty with the United States government that would have a profound influence on the history of a state that did not even exist at the time. Men who did not represent the Cherokee people signed the treaty. John Ridge, Elias Boudinot and Stand Watie signed the treaty giving the government rights to Cherokee lands in northeastern Georgia and accepting land allotted to them, land west of the Mississippi river, in what would become known as Oklahoma.

The Cherokee were given two years to move voluntarily before force would be used (1). Among those who moved west before the forced expulsion of the tribe were the signers of the treaty. Not included among these men was John Ross, Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Two years passed and very few of the citizens of the tribe had moved. The military was sent in under orders from the president to forcibly remove the remaining majority of Cherokees who did not move voluntarily.

Despite a ruling in favor of the Cherokees in the Supreme Court, they were removed regardless. Pressure was placed on the government of state of Georgia to take Cherokee land after gold was discovered in Dahlonega. "As John Ridge predicted, the State of Georgia was growing ever impatient to take over Cherokee land. In 1802 the U.S. Government had promised to evict the Cherokees from territory in Atlanta, Georgia and Tennessee in exchange for Georgia's giving up territory west to the Mississippi River." (4) Georgia attempted to use state laws based on this 1802 agreement to take Cherokee lands rather than wait for the federal government to act. The Supreme Court, headed by Justice John Marshall, ruled that state governments did not have the right to enforce state laws on indigenous tribes. This made little difference in regard to the fate of the Cherokee nation. Long an advocate of Indian removal and not wanting to get involved in a state's rights issue, Andrew Jackson did nothing to uphold the Court's decision. Jackson is quoted as saying, "John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it!" (7). Georgia continued to put pressure on the U.S. Government to expel the tribe.

John Ridge, Elias Boudinot, and Stand Watie, long regarded as powerful men from powerful families in the Cherokee Nation, formed a political faction that represented a small minority of the Cherokee people, and without the approval of the Chief negotiated a deal with the United States government that gave all Cherokee owned lands east of the Mississippi to the U.S. government. This faction felt that leaving was the only sure way that the Cherokee Nation would survive. "The Ridge Party knew that it was punishable by death in Indian law to sign away land by treaty but they felt they were under a moral obligation to help their people to rebuild in a new land away from white persecution." (4). John Ross, the chief, wrote a letter of protest to the U.S. government writing:

"By the stipulations of this instrument, we are despoiled of our private possessions, the indefeasible property of individuals. We are stripped of every attribute of freedom and eligibility for legal self-defence. Our property may be plundered before our eyes; violence may be committed on our persons; even our lives may be taken away, and there is none to regard our complaints. We are denationalized; we are disfranchised. We are deprived of membership in the human family! We have neither land nor home, nor resting place that can be called our own. And this is effected by the provisions of a compact which assumes the venerated, the sacred appellation of treaty" (3)

Despite these letters and protests among the Cherokee people, the U.S. government and then newly elected president Martin Van Buren carried out the plan to remove the Cherokees from their homes in Georgia. Ralph Waldo Emerson, famous American essayist wrote a letter urging the president to avoid removal stating, "I write thus, sir, to inform you of the state of mind these Indian tidings have awakened here, and to pray with one voice more that you, whose hands are strong with the delegated power of fifteen millions of men, will avert with that might the terrific injury which threatens the Cherokee tribe." (6) Despite being given two years to voluntarily move west to land allotted to the Cherokee, few of the tribe's citizens left freely. On May 26, 1838, 7000 soliders under the command of General Winfield Scott began a forced removal. About 4000 Cherokee died on the Trail of Tears, which spanned from the mountains of Northwest Georgia to the foothills of Ozarks at Fort Smith (2).

The faction of men who signed the Treaty of New Echota were hunted down and assassinated for their role in the removal. Only future Confederate general Stand Watie eluded his would be assassins. (5) There is much speculation as to the role that John Ross may have played in the political assassinations. There is controversy to this day whether or not these deaths were justified, as Cherokee law stated that anyone who agrees to gives up land to a foreign governemnt shall be put to death; however, many argue that Ridge, Boudinot and Watie were acting in the interest of the people.

© 2008 Justin Kunsman

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