THE TRAIL OF TEARS...

 

In 1838 and 1839 the Cherokee nation was forced to leave their home in Georgia and relocate in present-day Oklahoma as part of Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Policy. This resulted in the death of 4000 Cherokees while only a few were able to flee to the mountains. Before the Cherokees were forced they took their case to the Supreme Court. In Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831) the Supreme Court ruled that the Cherokee Nation did not possess original jurisdiction in the legal matter. The next year in Worcester v. Georgia, Marshall Court held that the Georgia law was unconstitutional because the Cherokee Nation was “a distinct political community.” However Andrew Jackson did nothing to enforce the court’s decision. Do to these circumstances the Cherokee felt as if there was nothing left to do but sign a treaty giving up their land in the southeast. The eight-hundred mile journey was full of neglect by soldiers and private contractors, only eight thousand of the seventeen thousand exiles survived the force march to Oklahoma.

In my opinion a major reason for President Andrew Jackson’s decision to relocate all of the natives was racism. First we have to understand that racism is a belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race. President Jackson viewed all natives as “barbarians” who could never be civilized even though the creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokees, and Seminoles tribes were already practicing many features of the white society. In today’s society racism is still being noticed, stereotypes are being put on different ethnicities. Some examples of racial stereotypes are: all Native Americans love to gamble, all Hispanics are illegal aliens and all Muslims are terrorists. Even now stereotypes still play a major role in American society. This affects how people view other people which leads to humans being treated unfairly and with injustice. I think it’s amazing that even today with all the technology and how far we have come as a society we still have the problem that “old hickory” struggled with, biased opinions that give way to injustice, segregation and discrimination which at its very core is the opposite of what America is supposed to be.

 

The Black Hawk War

During the Indian Removal Act and force march of the tribes in the South, a group of Sauks, Fox, Meskwakis, and Kickapoo also known as the "British Band" because they sometimes flew a British flag to defy claims of U.S. sovereignty, and because they hoped to gain the support of the British at Fort Malden in Canada.

In 1830, seeking to make way for settlers moving into Illinois, the United States required the Sauk to move and accept new lands in present-day Iowa. There they struggled to prepare enough acreage for their crops. The winter of 1831-1832 was extremely difficult. In April 1832, Black Hawk led one thousand Sauk and Fox people back to northern Illinois. Black Hawk hoped to forge a military alliance with the Winnebago and other tribes, intending to plant corn on their ancestral farmland. Prior to migrating to the Iowa territory the tribes originated around modern day Rock island, Illinois in the northwest corner  and southwestern Wisconsin.

Land Highlighted in yellow was ceded to the US Government as a result of a treaty signed in St. Louis in 1804.

Fearing this resurgence of nearly a thousand men, women and children; white settlers became uneasy and immediately stood up a volunteer militia. Under inclusion of these volunteers were young and aspiring Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. The militia began their hunt of Black hawk at an abandon Sauk village Saukenuk (Black hawk's home village) at a point where the Mississippi and the Rock river meet, they then worked their way North. When the militia caught up, Black Hawk reconsidered his actions and decided to surrender. Yet an undisciplined militia ignored a peace flag and attacked the Natives. The Indian warriors promptly returned fire. The militia retreated in a panic, many forgetting their firearms. Black hawk collected the weapons and retreated northward along the Rock River into Wisconsin. 

With hostilities now underway, and few allies to depend upon, Black Hawk sought a place of refuge for the women, children, and elderly in his band. Accepting an offer from the Rock River Ho-Chunks, the band traveled further upriver to Lake Koshkonong in the Michigan Territory and camped. With the non-combatants secure, members the British Band, with a number of Ho-Chunk and Potawatomi allies, began raiding white settlers. Not all Native Americans in the region supported this turn of events; most notably, Potawatomi chief Shabonna rode throughout the settlements, warning whites of the impending attacks. The initial raiding parties consisted primarily of Ho-Chunk and Potawatomi warriors.

The first attack came on May 19, 1832, when Ho-Chunks ambushed six men near Buffalo Grove, Illinois, killing a man named William Durley.  Durley's scalped and mutilated body was found by Indian agent Felix St. Vrain. The Indian agent was himself killed and mutilated, along with three other men, several days later at
One such incident was the Indian Creek massacre. In the spring of 1832, Potawatomis living along Indian Creek were upset that a settler named William Davis had dammed the creek, preventing fish from reaching their village.  There were several small skirmish's with the tribesman as outlined below on the map provided.

Finally, on August 2, U.S. soldiers and militia men had Black Hawk and his men, women and children on the run as they attempted to ford the Mississippi River, near what is now Victory in Vernon County. Ignoring a truce flag, the troops aboard a river steamboat fired cannons and rifles, killing hundreds, including many children. Many of those who made it across the river were slain by the Eastern Sioux, allies of the Americans in 1832. Only 150 of the one thousand members of Black Hawk's band survived the events of the summer of 1832. Survivors rejoined the Sauk and Fox who had remained in Iowa. Shortly after the massacre, Black Hawk surrendered to officials at Fort Crawford, Prairie Du Chien. He was imprisoned for four years then eventually the U. S. government sent him to live with surviving members of the Sauk and Fox nation.


The Black Hawk War resulted in the deaths of 77 white settlers, militiamen, and regular soldiers. Estimates of how many members of the British Band died during the conflict range from about 450 to 600, or about half of the 1,100 people who entered Illinois with Black Hawk in 1832.

The Battle of Bad Axe 1832

Black Hawk

The Forced Migration of an Idigenous People

It was well known and widely documented that White, Land-owning Americans exploited African-Americans in slavery; the majority also despised Native Americans and found them to be a nuisance.  President James Madison declared "Next to the case of the black race within our bosom; that of the red on our borders is the problem most baffling to the policy of OUR country."  OUR COUNTRY for which the native Americans settled, planted, hunted first for many years before the Anglo's settled. Though Andrew Jackson's hatred of Native Americans was already concrete, by 1830 when he took the Office of the Presidency he was able to in act policy against them. Jackson's personal view of Natives were that they were barbarians who were better off out of the way.  To which he introduced a policy to move all native Americans west of the Mississippi away from white civilization that he considered "just, humane, liberal policy toward Indians."

 

                Original Map of inclusion in the Indian Removal Act (1830)

In 1830 Congress barely passed the Indian Removal Act authorizing land west of the Mississippi for Indians in exchange for land that they currently resided in the East and South. Between 1830 and 1840 forty-six thousand Native Americans were relocated to the reserved land at the Governments expense including the Choctaw, Cherokee, Seminole, Creek and Chickasaw tribes. The Map Below shows the primary routes of the migration of those Southwestern tribes. More than 4,000 Native Americans would lose their lives on this trek gaining the name " The trail of tears."

                                Indian removal 1830-1835

The Trail of Tears was a bleeding sore in our History and historically stands as a major travesty in not only our nation but the world. The persecution of our indigenous teachers showed the greed and unrelenting  ignorance of our exploration ancestors.




  According to legend, a Cherokee rose, the state flower of Georgia, grew in every spot a tear fell on the Trail of Tears. Today the flowers grow along many of the trails that the Native Americans took West

Indian Removal Act

 

 

 

President Andrew Jackson was known for his aggressiveness and combative personality, Jackson was no stranger to the cruelty of war which fueled him with rage and ferociousness, things that he considered qualities that every man should have. His aggressiveness inspired his troops to give him the name “old hickory,” a name truly deserved for his lack of morality concerning the natives or “barbarians” as he would call them.

                In 1830 Congress approved the Indian removal act by request of Andrew Jackson. It authorized the president to give natives land west of the Mississippi river in exchange for land occupied by the natives in the east and south. Most tribes were not able to resist offers from the federal government however some tribes had the courage to fight for their land and not fall to bribery. A good example of this is Chief Black Hawk, from the Illinois and Wisconsin territory. Chief Black Hawk wanted to occupy the land he had vacated the previous year due to the fact that the territory he was occupying was suffering famine. The Illinois militia reacted fast to Black Hawks invasion by chasing them to the Wisconsin territory where the militia decided to massacre native women and children as they tried to cross the Mississippi river. This was just one of the many heinous acts that led to the “Trail of Tears.”