Georgia s Story of Cherokee Removal

The Trail of Tears began for many Cherokee families in Georgia. From the Cherokee capital at New Echota, they raised their voices in anger and fear against the loss of their homeland. More than 9,000 Cherokees left Georgia. They traveled the Trail of Tears to their new homelands in Arkansas and Oklahoma. More than 4,000 Cherokees died along the way. Tah-Chee, A Cherokee Chief Cherokee Lands In Georgia In1836, the Cherokee Nation in Georgia s Story of Cherokee Removal Georgia covered more than 6,000 square miles. Cherokee lands included four physiographic regions. These are the Appalachian Plateau, the Ridge and Valley, the Blue Ridge, and the Piedmont. The Appalachian Plateau lies in the far northwest corner of the state. Mountains rise to 2,000 feet here and are separated by a narrow valley called Lookout Valley. This valley offered the best soils for 1

Cherokee farming. It also contains forests filled with game for hunting. well-drained, red clay soil was often covered with lush growth. River and stream valleys in the Piedmont The Ridge and Valley area has many small valleys surrounded by provided the Cherokee with farm land and forests for hunting. narrow low hills. Ridge and Valley forests provided the Cherokee with many resources. In its forests, they found food and materials to make tools, transportation, and housing. Within the Ridge and Valley is the Great Valley. Its soils proved favorable for Cherokee agriculture and the raising of livestock. Cherokees used the resources of their surroundings for food, water, medicines, tools, clothing, housing materials, and trade goods. Their knowledge of plants, animals, insects, birds, and reptiles created everything from wasp soup and bloodroot dye to sassafras tea and turtle-shell rattles. To the east of the Ridge and Valley lie both the Piedmont and the Blue Ridge regions. The Blue Ridge is made up of rugged, heavily forested mountains, streams, and valleys. A few gaps in the mountains can be easily climbed. The Cherokee constructed trails and roads across both Rabun and Unicoi Gaps. The Cherokee knew their homeland and how to use its resources. For example, chestnut, white oak, and hickory trees each served the Cherokee in different ways. The chestnut was a favorite food for these Indians, who spent winter evenings shelling them around a common fire. Women The Piedmont consists of rolling terrain with deep river valleys. Its made enormous flat loaves of chestnut bread. They wrapped each 2

serving in corn shucks. Cherokees built their buildings, homes, and furniture of white oak. They used hickory to make tools such as corn pounders. When mixed with cold water, hickory nuts made hickory milk, a rich and nourishing drink. Hollowed out poplar trunks became dugout canoes. Bloodroot, a native plant, provided a red dye for their baskets. Bloodroot and other plants such as lady s slipper served as medicines. The Cherokee called The Cherokee grew plants such as lady s slipper Moccasin Flower corn, squash, and beans for food. moccasin flower. Their forests produced mushrooms, moss, lichens, and other edible plants. Moss and lichens served as a source for salt. They hunted deer, bear, and turkey along with smaller game such as raccoon, fox, beaver, opossum, and woodchucks. The birds of the forest and grasslands such as owls, hawks, ravens, and crows filled their legends. They hunted quail, doves, ducks, wild geese, and ruffled grouse. Cherokees used feathers from Bloodroot certain birds for decoration. They 3

gathered eggs for food, and roasted whole birds to eat. sheep all required feeding and fencing. By the 1830s, Cherokees in Georgia owned nearly 80,000 head A Changing Way of Life The arrival and settlement of Georgia by people from Europe created great changes in the Cherokee s way of life. By the 1830s, Cherokee farmers had learned to use of livestock. Blacksmith shops appeared as the demand for new farm tools and equipment grew. They made tools such as horseshoes, nails, saddles, bridles, and wagon fittings. plows and other iron tools. This new practice often caused the priceless topsoil to erode, or wear away. Animals such as the wolf, fox, panther, mountain lion, buffalo and elk disappeared when guns became common in the eighteenth century. The introduction of new vegetable crops lengthened the growing season. The growing of cotton developed a new source for money. In 1826, Cherokee leader John Ridge wrote that cotton is generally raised for domestic As roads were built, population grew. Pigs, horses, cattle, goats, and consumption [use] and a few have grown it for market [to sell] and Early American Plow 4

have realized very good profits. Indian women made use of the cotton they grew to make cloth and clothing. The government gave the Cherokee spinning wheels, cotton cards, and looms. The raising of sheep for wool also became important. European ways of life, many white settlers did not want to live with the Cherokee as their neighbors. These new settlers wanted to settle on the rich farmland of north Georgia. Yet, this land belonged to the Cherokee people. The settlers remembered the violence of the recent past when Indians and the arriving white European settlers brought fruit trees into Georgia. Cherokees quickly began growing peaches. settlers fought for land. Some violence continued between white settlers and the Cherokee. Because there were soon so many of these trees, many new arrivals to Georgia thought peaches were a native plant. The Cherokee also planted apple, cherry, pear, quince, and plum trees. Wheat, rye, and oats grew very well, and some Cherokee families planted them on their farms. The Cherokee and the White Settlers The 1835 Cherokee census listed 8,936 Cherokee Indians in Georgia. Although most Cherokees adopted Not all settlers to Georgia despised the Cherokee. Some recognized them as honorable people. Many men married Cherokee women. Others helped them to learn how to grow new crops. The Cherokee taught the new settlers how to use the resources of the land. Still, Georgia s government favored the removal of all Indians. They wanted them to move west of the Mississippi River. In 1802, 5

Georgia gave its lands west of the Chattahoochee River to the federal government. In return, the federal government pledged to remove all Indians from the state. In 1826, Wilson Lumpkin was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He was appointed to the Committee on Indian Affairs. He introduced a resolution to find a Wilson Lumpkin way to remove the Indians. He also worked to find a suitable home for them west of the Mississippi River. Cherokee lands and distributed them by lottery to white settlers. In 1829, the country elected President Andrew Jackson as its seventh president. Jackson supported Indian removal. The U.S. House of Representatives approved the Indian Removal Bill on 28 May 1830. In 1834, the Georgia General Assembly ordered the state militia to protect Georgia citizens. The militia also protected those Indians that agreed with removal plans. Wilson Lumpkin, who was now governor, directed Colonel William From 1830-1835, the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles, and Creeks signed removal treaties. The state then extended its laws over the Bishop to construct barracks for his men. He also had to find a suitable place to store their supplies. Colonel Bishop built his Cherokee Nation. They surveyed all 6

headquarters at Spring Place, Georgia. By 1838, Ft. Wool became the center of Cherokee removal work in Georgia. Ft. Wool was located at In December 1835, a group of Cherokee led by John Ridge, Elias Boudinot, and Major Ridge met treaty commissioners at New Echota. These three men signed a treaty giving up all southeastern Cherokee land, and the time of removal was set for two years later. The Georgia legislature decreed that all Indians would leave Georgia by 25 May 1838. New Echota, the Cherokee Nation s capital. At Ft. Wool, Cherokee families signed up for removal. The federal government paid them small amounts of money for their land. They also gave them some payment for houses, barns, and other outbuildings they had built. The government passed out rations to poor Cherokees who did not have enough food. John Ridge Major Ridge 7

The Army built 14 more military posts in Georgia. These posts stood about 10 to 20 miles apart. Each had access to major roads. Each post provided shelter for troops and supplies during the Cherokee removal. Removal Federal troops organized the Cherokees into 13 groups of about 1,000 each. A conductor and his I saw the helpless Cherokees arrested and dragged from their homes, and driven at the bayonet point into the stockades. And in the chill of a drizzling rain on an October morning I saw them loaded like cattle or sheep into six hundred and forty-five wagons and started toward the west...on the morning of November the 17th we encountered a terrific sleet and snow storm with freezing temperatures and from that day until we reached the end of the fateful journey on March the 26th 1839, the sufferings of the Cherokees were awful. The trail of the exiles was a trail of death. They had to sleep in the wagons and on the ground without fire. And I have known as many as twenty-two of them to die in one night of pneumonia due to ill treatment, cold and exposure... Private John G. Burnett Captain Abraham McClellan s Company, 2nd Regiment, 2nd Brigade, Mounted Infantry Cherokee Indian Removal 1838-39 assistant led each group west to Oklahoma and Arkansas. On 1 October 1838, the first groups departed along the trail. Forced to walk, ride in wagons, or on flatboats, each group traveled for about four months to reach their new home. Today, Georgia s Trail of Tears forts are only found on early maps. Archaeologists are working to relocate these sites. These sites, like the actual Trail of Tears, can still tell stories of hardship, hatred, prejudice, and loss. Some sites tell stories of the Cherokee people being forced from their homes and rounded up like livestock. They lived in open stockades before being forced to leave for Oklahoma and Arkansas. Others tell stories of soldiers who guarded and carried out the removal of the Cherokee. Some of these men acted harshly. Others 8

had sympathy for these people and treated them with kindness. It is a sad story in our history. It is a story of men, women, and children herded together and forced to march more than a thousand miles to a new, but different, homeland. Some made the trip by boat. Others walked, rode in wagons John R oss or on horses the entire way, guarded by soldiers. Loss of life was high, especially among the young and the very old. Only after John Ross, a Cherokee leader, appealed to General Winfield Scott were the Cherokee allowed to lead their own people west in small groups. These small groups could forage along the way for food. Most arrived in Arkansas and Oklahoma during the brutally cold winter of 1838-1839. More than 4,500 Cherokee died along the Trail Where They Cried or Nunna daul Tsuny in the Cherokee s own language. Suggested Reading: Check your local library for the following: 1. Life on the Trail of Tears Fischer, Laura, 2003 2. The Trail of Tears Burgan, Michael. 2001. 3. The Journal of Jesse Smoke : a Cherokee Boy Bruchac, Joseph. 2001. 4. Soft Rain : a Story of the Cherokee Trail of Tears Cornelissen, Cornelia. 1998 5. On the long trail home Stewart, Elisabeth Jane. 1994. 6. The Trail of Tears Stein, R. Conrad. 1993. 7. Remember my name Banks, Sara H. 1993. 8. Only the names remain; the Cherokees and the Trail of Tears Bealer, Alex W. 1972 9

Additional Books Available From Bookstores: 1. Trail of Tears Joseph Bruchac, Diana Magnuson (Illustrator) Pub. Date: September 1999 2. Trail of Tears 1838 L. Salas, Jack D. Baker Pub. Date: January 2003 3. Trail of Tears Sabrina Crewe, D. L. Birchfield Pub. Date: December 2003 4. Trail of Tears Manufactured by Scholastic Books Pub. Date: April 2002 5. Westward Expansion (FlashCharts Series) FlashKids Editors Pub. Date: January 2004 6. Trails of Tears: American Indians Driven from Their Lands Jeanne Williams, Michael Taylor (Illustrator) Pub. Date: January 1995 7. The Trail of Tears Deborah Kent Library Edition Pub. Date: March 2005 8. On the Long Trail Home Elizabeth J. Steward Pub. Date: August 1994 9. Only the Names Remain: The Cherokees and the Trail of Tears Alex W. Bealer, Kristina Rodanas (Illustrator) Pub. Date: April 1996 10. Cherokee Legends and the Trail of Tears Thomas Bryan Underwood, Tom B. Underwood, Amanda Crowe (Illustrator) Pub. Date: August 2001 11. Singing Violet: The Decade between Georgia's Gold Rush and the Trail of Tears A. Fran Booth Pub. Date: May 2002 12. Lucy of the Trail of Tears James D. Yoder Pub. Date: December 1999 13. Cherokee Stuart A. Kallen, Cathryn J. Long Pub. Date: September 1999 14. The Story of the Cherokee People Thomas B. Underwood, Tom B. Underwood, Jacob Anchutin (Illustrator) Pub. Date: March 1996 15. Trail of Tears Richard Conrad Stein, R. Conrad Stein Pub. Date: March 1993 16. Night of the Cruel Moon: Cherokee Removal and the Trail of Tears Stanley Hoig Pub. Date: August 1996 17. The Trail of Tears: The Cherokee Journey from Home Marlene Targ Targ Brill Pub. Date: May 1995 18. Trail on Which They Wept: The Story of a Cherokee Girl Dorothy Hoobler, S. S. Burrus, Thomas Hoobler, Carey-Greenberg Associates Pub. Date: June 1992 10

19. Cherokee Windsong Evelin Sanders Pub. Date: June 1996 20. Long Trail: A Play about the Cherokee Trail of Tears Donna Getzinger Pub. Date: January 2002 WEBSITES: Trail of Tears History http://ngeorgia.com/history/nghisttt.html http://www.neosoft.com/powersource/cherokee/history.html http://www.rosecity.net/tears/ http://www.kidskonnect.com/trailoftears/trailoftears/home.html http://www.powersource.com/cocinc/history/trail.htm http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h1567.html Timeline http://www.rosecity.net/tears/trail/timeline.html Classroom poster http://www.cviog.uga.edu/projects/gainfo/trailpst.htm Cherokee http://www.cherokee.org/ http://www.cherokee-nc.com/ http://www.arch.dcr.state.nc.us/tears/ General s address to the Cherokee May 10, 1838 http://www.cviog.uga.edu/projects/gainfo/scottadd.htm General s order to the Cherokee May 17, 1838 http://www.cviog.uga.edu/projects/gainfo/scottadd.htm 11