Why trail of tears happen

State governments joined in this effort to drive Native Americans out of the South. Several states passed laws limiting Native American sovereignty and rights and encroaching on their territory. In Worcester v. Georgia , the U.

As president, he continued this crusade. The law required the government to negotiate removal treaties fairly, voluntarily and peacefully: It did not permit the president or anyone else to coerce Native nations into giving up their land. However, President Jackson and his government frequently ignored the letter of the law and forced Native Americans to vacate lands they had lived on for generations.

In the winter of , under threat of invasion by the U. Army, the Choctaw became the first nation to be expelled from its land altogether. Thousands of people died along the way. The Indian-removal process continued. In , the federal government drove the Creeks from their land for the last time: 3, of the 15, Creeks who set out for Oklahoma did not survive the trip.

Some wanted to stay and fight. Others thought it was more pragmatic to agree to leave in exchange for money and other concessions. To the federal government, the treaty was a done deal, but many of the Cherokee felt betrayed; after all, the negotiators did not represent the tribal government or anyone else. Some traveled by boat, but the conditions there were usually no better.

The U. An exceptionally harsh winter plagued the Choctaw, the first nation to face the forced migration. Leaving in several groups in , more than fourteen thousand Choctaws left Mississippi. French observer Alexis de Tocqueville described one journey as a "sight [that] will never fade from my memory.

The Indians brought their families with them; there were among them the wounded, the sick, newborn babies, and old men on the point of death. They had neither tents nor wagons, but only some provisions and weapons. For other Indians disease and malnutrition proved equally devastating. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, Sequoyah Research Center. University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Trail of Tears National Historic Trail.

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Become a Volunteer Involve Students. Other Online Encyclopedias Other Resources. Lesson Plans History Day Volunteers Donors. Historically, Cherokees occupied lands in several southeastern states. As European settlers arrived, Cherokees traded and intermarried with them.

They began to adopt European customs and gradually turned to an agricultural economy, while being pressured to give up traditional home-lands. Between and , over 90 percent of their lands were ceded to others.

By the s, Sequoyah's syllabary brought literacy and a formal governing system with a written constitution. In the same year the Indian Removal Act was passed - gold was found on Cherokee lands. Georgia held lotteries to give Cherokee land and gold rights to whites. Cherokees were not allowed to conduct tribal business, contract, testify in courts against whites, or mine for gold.

The Cherokees successfully challenged Georgia in the U. Supreme Court. President Jackson, when hearing of the Court's decision, reportedly said, "[Chief Justice] John Marshall has made his decision; let him enforce it now if he can. Most Cherokees opposed removal. Yet a minority felt that it was futile to continue to fight. They believed that they might survive as a people only if they signed a treaty with the United States. In December , the U. Only to Cherokees were there; none were elected officials of the Cherokee Nation.

Twenty signed the treaty, ceding all Cherokee territory east of the Mississippi to the U.