On January 10, 1806, President Thomas Jefferson addressed a gathering in front of the White House in Washington, D.C. The occasion — a concluding ceremony following a series of meetings with the chiefs of the Cherokee Indian Nation, and others, who had been invited to Washington as a gesture of friendship.
Jefferson opened with:
“My friends and children, chiefly of the Cherokee Nation,
“Having now finished our business an to mutual satisfaction, I cannot take leave of you without expressing the satisfaction I have received from your visit. I see with my own eyes that the endeavors we have been making to encourage and lead you in the way of improving your situation have not been unsuccessful; it has been like grain sown in good ground, producing abundantly. You are becoming farmers, learning the use of the plough and the hoe, enclosing your grounds and employing that labor in their cultivation which you formerly employed in hunting and in war; and I see handsome specimens of cotton cloth raised, spun and wove by yourselves. You are also raising cattle and hogs for your food, and horses to assist your labors. Go on, my children, in the same way and be assured the further you advance in it the happier and more respectable you will be.”
Such repugnant, condescending, and patronizing language is no longer used by civilized people nor politicians. But even though attitudes have changed over the past 200 years Native Americans are still treated like children by the federal government through policies carried out by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Department of Interior. Treaties were ignored in 1806 and they are ignored today.
Jefferson went on to say:
“Our brethren, whom you have happened to meet here from the West and Northwest, have enabled you to compare your situation now with what it was formerly. They also make the comparison, and they see how far you are ahead of them, and seeing what you are they are encouraged to do as you have done. You will find your next want to be mills to grind your corn, which by relieving your women from the loss of time in beating it into meal, will enable them to spin and weave more. When a man has enclosed and improved his farm, builds a good house on it and raised plentiful stocks of animals, he will wish when he dies that these things shall go to his wife and children, whom he loves more than he does his other relations, and for whom he will work with pleasure during his life. You will, therefore, find it necessary to establish laws for this. When a man has property, earned by his own labor, he will not like to see another come and take it from him because he happens to be stronger, or else to defend it by spilling blood. You will find it necessary then to appoint good men, as judges, to decide contests between man and man, according to reason and to the rules you shall establish. If you wish to be aided by our counsel and experience in these things we shall always be ready to assist you with our advice.”
Seven treaties with the Cherokee later, the United States, “because he happens to be stronger,” took all Cherokee land East of the Mississippi River. In exchange the Cherokee were given $5 million and an Indian Reservation in Oklahoma Territory. Of course, the Cherokee were never handed $5 million. That’s the amount that was to be spent on their behalf, for public facilities and “mills to grind your corn.”
The treaty that put the move in motion was the Treaty of New Echota, signed at Echota, Georgia, on Dec. 29, 1835. Two and a half years later the relocation plan went into effect with legal authority provided by the U.S. Congress. In 1830 Congress had passed the Indian Removal Act although many Americans were against the concept, most notably Tennessee Congressman Davy Crockett.
But President Andrew Jackson quickly signed the bill into law.
However, the treaty required ratification by the Senate and there was strong opposition, but it passed by a single vote. Among those speaking out against ratification were Daniel Webster and Henry Clay.
In one of the saddest episodes of our brief history, men, women, and children were taken from their land, herded into makeshift forts with minimal facilities and food, then forced to march a thousand miles. Under the general indifference of army commanders, human losses and suffering was extremely high.
The Routes to Oklahoma
The first three detachments of Cherokee left by water in June, 1838. Those groups left under military supervision, before the Cherokee asked for and were granted permission to supervise their own migration. River routes were followed Northwest from Northern Georgia and Western North Carolina/East Tennessee to the Mississippi, then South down the Mississippi to the mouths of rivers from the West, to Oklahoma.
Twenty-eight hundred Cherokee were divided into three detachments, each accompanied by a military officer, a corps of assistants, and two physicians. The first group with about 800 in the party departed June 6, with the other two detachments starting after the fifteenth of June. Those detachments traveled water routes and are thought to have experienced a much higher rate of deaths and desertions than those who followed later overland.
It’s a myth that the relocation was only Cherokee. It included the Seminole of Florida, the Choctaws from Mississippi and Alabama, the Creeks from South Georgia, and others.
Trail of Tears Timeline — 1838
Trail of Tears — 1839
Treaties signed over fifty year span:
Treaties signed with the Cherokee |
|
Hopewell |
Nov 28, 1785 |
Holston |
Jul 02, 1791 |
Philadelphia |
Feb 17, 1792 |
Philadelphia |
Jun 26, 1794 |
Tellico |
Oct 24, 1804 |
Tellico |
Oct 25, 1805 |
Tellico |
Oct 27, 1805 |
Washington |
Mar 22, 1816 |
Chickasaw Council House |
Sep 14, 1816 |
Cherokee Agency |
Jul 08, 1817 |
Washington |
Feb 27, 1819 |
Washington |
May 06, 1828 |
Washington |
Mar 14, 1835 |
New Echota |
Dec 29, 1835 |
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