How many cherokee were forced to leave

Settlers of European ancestry began moving into Cherokee territory in the early eighteenth century; from that point forward, the colonial governments in the area began demanding that the Cherokees cede their territory.

By the end of the Revolutionary War , the Cherokees had surrendered more than half of their original territory to state and federal governments. In the late s U. A Cherokee man named Sequoyah created the Cherokee syllabary, which enabled the Cherokees to read, write, record their laws, and publish newspapers in their own language.

The purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France in gave U. There, Jefferson suggested, Native Americans could acculturate at their own pace, retain their autonomy, and live free from the trespasses of American settlers.

Gilmer , and Wilson Lumpkin , increasingly raised the pressure on the federal government to fulfill the Compact of , in which the federal government had agreed to extinguish the Indian land title and remove the Cherokees from the state. The Cherokee government maintained that they constituted a sovereign nation independent of the American state and federal governments.

The Cherokee government , especially its principal chief, John Ross , took steps to protect its national territory. He then continued his work by making legal moves for the Cherokees as president of the constitutional convention. The Cherokee National Council advised the United States that it would refuse future cession requests and enacted a law prohibiting the sale of national land upon penalty of death. In the Cherokees adopted a written constitution, an act that further antagonized removal proponents in Georgia.

Print by Charles Bird King. McKenney and J. In Andrew Jackson was elected president of the United States, and he immediately declared the removal of eastern tribes a national objective. In Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, which authorized the president to negotiate removal treaties. In Cherokee Nation v. A year later, in Worcester v. President Jackson, however, refused to enforce the decision and continued to pressure the Cherokees to leave the Southeast.

This parcel, set aside by Congress in , was located in what is now Oklahoma. Even though it was completed without the sanction of the Cherokee national government, the U.

Senate ratified the treaty by a margin of one vote. On May 26, , General Floyd's military companies swiftly rounded up more than 3, Cherokees from their north Georgia homes and sent them to the Tennessee camps. By late June, the last of the Georgia Cherokees had been sent from the state. To round up the approximately 1, Alabama Cherokees, their slaves, and intermarried whites, Col. Lindsay ordered ten infantry companies from the Bellefont base to Ft. Morrow, Ft. Payne, Ft.

Likens, and Ft. The soldiers worked quickly and by the end of June, some Alabama Cherokees waited in the Tennessee detention camps for their final removal to the west. Facing an overwhelming military force, they offered almost no resistance. Trail of Tears Commemorative Motorcycle Ride With such a rapid accumulation of Cherokees as prisoners, the camps quickly became overcrowded and unsanitary.

Outbreaks of measles, cholera, whooping cough, dysentery, and typhus, insufficient food and water , and exposure to the elements caused great suffering and death. The same conditions so drastically afflicted the three detachments that left for the west that Scott postponed further removal until the fall. Scott also agreed to John Ross's request that the remaining Cherokees be permitted to travel without military overseers. Payne in present-day DeKalb County rather than wait in Tennessee internment camps through the summer.

They pledged their good conduct and willingness to surrender when removal resumed and asked for protection from the white settlers and whiskey sellers who were harassing them. As the summer progressed, the number of Ft. Payne Cherokee prisoners swelled to include who had been recaptured after escaping from wagon trains and rail cars, sent from Ft.

Morrow, 30 from Ft. Lovell, and from the Tennessee camps. Although many Cherokees at Ft. Payne contracted diseases and several died, most remained healthier than the majority of the Cherokee Nation held in the crowded Tennessee camps, where conditions worsened in the summer heat. By mid-summer, most of the Alabama militia was mustered out, leaving command of the few remaining Alabama posts to the regular army. On September 28, , the Benge party of more than 1, Cherokees departed Ft.

Payne, crossed the Tennessee River, and left Alabama for the west. The entire party survived the journey. Another eight contingents left the Tennessee camps in October, and the final nine departed in November. Traveling in inadequate clothing through an unusually harsh winter, these contingents suffered terribly and hundreds died.

By the end of December, the removal of some 15, members of the Cherokee Nation was complete. The forts and camps in Alabama were abandoned and the property was sold at public auction. On September 28, , the Etowah Historical Society's Heritage Museum in Gadsden dedicated a memorial and exhibit to commemorate the th anniversary of Cherokee removal. The installation, located at the Elliot Community Center, includes artwork and photographs in the exhibit space and a permanent fountain and informational plaques about Cherokee history and the removal process.

Additional Resources Anderson, William L. Cherokee Removal, Before and After. Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, as more explorers sought to colonize their land, Native Americans responded in various The Oregon Trail was a roughly 2,mile route from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon City, Oregon, which was used by hundreds of thousands of American pioneers in the mids to emigrate west.

The trail was arduous and snaked through Missouri and present-day Kansas, Davy Crockett objected to Indian removal. However, while serving as a U. Tensions between the two groups From the moment English colonists arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, in , they shared an uneasy relationship with the Native Americans or Indians who had thrived on the land for thousands of years.

At the time, millions of indigenous people were scattered across North America The Indian reservation system established tracts of land called reservations for Native Americans to live on as white settlers took over their land. The main goals of Indian reservations were to bring Native Americans under U. Concluded during the nearly year period from the Revolutionary War to the aftermath of the Civil War, some treaties would define the relationship between the United States and Native Americans for centuries to come.

The treaties were based on the fundamental idea that Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. The 'Indian Problem' White Americans, particularly those who lived on the western frontier, often feared and resented the Native Americans they encountered: To them, American Indians seemed to be an unfamiliar, alien people who occupied land that white settlers wanted and believed they deserved.

Migrants Travel West on the Oregon Trail. Eating On The Campaign Trail. Woodrow Wilson Addresses Native Americans. Native American History Timeline Long before Christopher Columbus stepped foot on what would come to be known as the Americas, the expansive territory was inhabited by Native Americans.