Hello! Welcome to this web page! Hopefully, by the time you're done reading this you will have a little clearer picture about what the Trail of Tears was about and what the Indians experienced as they progressed along the trail.
I would like to start out with a very moving paragraph that I found on The Trail of Tears across Missouri web page, by Joan Gilbert.
"When...no alternative remained to them as a nation but death or removal, they seemed not to hesitate saying 'It is death anyhow. We may as well die here.'...They cling to the graves of their fathers and say, 'Let us die with them... if we leave...these hills and vales, this mountain air, we shall sicken and die.'"--Sophia Sawyer, missionary and teacher of the Cherokees
I thought that this paragraph very well explained about what the Indians felt like and what their emotions were. Now, onto the trail of the Trail of Tears!
This awful incident all started with a bill and a treaty in 1837.This treaty of fate for the Indians was between the representatives of the U.S. and the Chiefs of the Choctaw Nation. The treaty was for trading "10.3 million acres of land east of the Mississippi for 10.3 million acres in Oklahoma and Arkansas".
The result of this treaty ended up that 15,000 Indians that believed that they were "industrious, educated, and peaceful" were to move out of their land during the spring and summer of that year. Many of the 15,000 Indians that were making this 1,000 mile trip died along the way. Because the Indians were to keep on moving at a fast pace, there was hardly ever time to prepare a grave or a proper ceremony for the deceased one.
According to one of the web pages I looked at (see sources at bottom of page), the Indians believed that "the Whites in Washington cared little for our (their) situation." In my humble opinion, I believe that the people in Washington thought that they could just throw the Indians around for the simple fact that they were indeed Indians.
Well, thank you for taking the time to read this page! I hope you were successful in finding what you were looking for! Goodbye!
Sources: www.shawnee.org/public/TOTA/default.htm
www.peaknet.net/~aardvark/index2.html
www.rosecity.net/tears2.html
www.shawnee.org/public/TOTA/formation.htm
www.gorp.com/gorp/resource/us_trail/historic.htm
http://rosecity.net/tears/trail/cgc.
www.system.missouri.edu/upress/spring1996/gilbert.htm
www.bhm.tis.net/~fcp/tot.html
www.cherokee~nc.com/trailof.htm
www.helb.com
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