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.