The Trail Of Tears: One Of The Darkest Time Periods In The American History

One of the darkest time periods in history goes down to the Trail of Tears, years 1838-1839. The time of when the Jews were being drawn out of their own country. This was universally one of the most tragic times as people were literally demanding the Jewish people to abandon their own home country. This was the catastrophe that made human beings feel alienated from their own rights and their own home country. This devastating event was Andrew Jackson’s Indian removal policy. It was where the Cherokee nation was enforced to give up their own land that was east of the Mississippi River and then had to continue to migrate onward to present-day Oklahoma. Due to this monumental time period, the Indians referred to this as the Trail of Tears because it was such a unfortunate series of events.

Dale Van Every’s “Trail of Tears” was demonstrating all of the devastating events that occurred during this and the things that happened during these years. The threats that were being made against the Cherokee people were ruthless and insensitive. It was damaging them as they were left homeless, hungry, destitute, and still remained incredulous that so fearful a fate could actually impend. For years the Cherokee people had been harassed mentally and physically by mainly white American men. They were being discriminated and judged for their own beliefs and lifestyles. However, it was believed that most of the white men had wished the Cherokee people well because John Ross; a well-respected Cherokee chief, had given them reports. His many reports that were being provided to the Indians were teachers, missionaries, and counselors that had shared similar struggles and tribulations as the Indians did. John Ross played a crucial role in the plan for the Indian removal act, occurring in Washington.

This overall prospect of dismissal for the Indians was exceptionally dreadful for them because it was…. With the circumstances of everything that was going on, however, and the way they were forcing them to migrate out of their homelands caused for the Indians to slow the preparation of them moving because they wanted peace and nonviolence. Major General Winfield Scott was another somewhat respected man that had an effective role within this movement because he had taken command of the military operation in general, so basically, he was calling the shots and it was enforced that you listen to him. General Scott had told the Indians that their final destination was to reach Mississippi. Because Scott was unsure if the Indians would do as he said, he had warned them that if they attempted to make any moves against this plan, in other words, if they were to try to hide or resisted to follow orders, then they would instantly be hunted down and once found shot dead. Because of the way that John Ross displayed his actions and behalf towards the Indians, it came across as a quite a shock to General Winfield Scott as Ross genuinely had contrition and regards of good deeds for the Indians/compassion?

Although Scott had a mindset of how to treat the Cherokee people during this system of events, even if it meant he had to force or threaten them to go against their own beliefs, it could be taken into perspective that he had some compassion towards them, otherwise it could’ve just been Ross that made him show more REMORSE AND RESPECT towards the Indians. Because of that, Gen Scott attempted to make an order to his troops to not be harsh or harmful to the Indians, as they were just trying to move them out rather then doing it in an aggressive way. Many of the reasons that Scott’s authority was not as effective as planned to be was because there came to be little if not any discipline, there was quite a small amount of resistance, and the military power was sought to be self-evident. Shortly after the Cherokee Indians were finally all rounded up and before they were beginning to be sent Westward, the Indians were then left to be kept in makeshift concentration camps.

Throughout the movement, James Mooney had written the “Myths of the Cherokees” and it was later published by the Nineteenth Annual Report in 1900. Mooney’s first hand sources that he had used for his writing was any survivors, wife officers, and the many Cherokee victims.

So, to OVERALL SUMMARIZE James Mooney’s report was that it had the greatest amount of emotion that any other passages. He also included that every Indians hiding would eventually be found, and that the Cherokee removal was the most crucial of them all. During the movement, the Indians found other sources that had benefited them in transportation other than just walking. These other sources of transportation used were traveling by steamboats, keelboats, and by flatboats. The movement, however was found to be even more difficult due to it being EXCRUCIALATING hot in the summertime. Tsali was a HITHER to undistinguished mountain Cherokee, however he was later executed along with his sons. His sacrifice had permitted this fraction of the nation to become the remnant of the East Cherokee and to “cling to their homeland where they still are colorful inhabitants of the North Carolina mountains. Tsali’s fate had a great impact on the fate of the Cherokee Indians that were living in North Carolina because it had that of a federal and state recognition of Cherokee titles due to their mountain holdings. General Scott had agreed to postpone the last stages of the movement because they were wanting it to take places in the more HEALTHFUL weather of autumn.

The final stage of the movement began on November 4. While the postpone was taking place, the Indians were living in stockades as their source of a shelter. Andrew Jackson was a popular and well-known American that had complained about the delay in the movement. The final movement’s timing was inconvenient because everyone had traveled and were continuing the move, then they began to start slowly dying, but then finally making it through the harsh 6 months of this event. In total, the Cherokee Indians had traveled 800 miles, and by the end of it, the number of Indians that were known to have died during the removal process was about 400.

President Van Buren described the event of the movement in a way making it seem as if it was a happy and positive thing. The “Native of Maine” disagreed with the president’s statement and opinions on the event because the Native of Maine focused mainly on the negative results as in the harshness and brutalities they endured. The Chickasaw had at length embarked upon their self-governed migration. The Chickasaw situation had started out way better than what the Cherokee Indians were experiencing due to things such as having traveled in comfort, being well supplied with equipment, and that they actually had food and money. Things they also benefited in more was that they had good prices for their lands in Tennessee and Mississippi, where they were traveling to, and they had uninterrupted control over their affairs, making their movement considered as their own leadership.