Trail Of Tears Research Paper

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The factual story behind the Trail of Tears is one of the most neglected subjects in the history of the United States of America. This is remarkable as it was one of the founding events in the formation of the country. Five civilized Native American tribes, the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee, and Seminole, were forcibly relocated from their homelands in the east, to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. This was not a diplomatic relocation, as many of the Native Americans did not wish to be removed from the land that had been theirs for thousands of years and, after two rulings in court, legally belonged to them. The Trail of Tears resulted in much suffering and even death to thousands of Native Americans, but this is disregarded…show more content…
Disease was the first effect felt from this arrival. Cherokee population plunged from more than thirty thousand people to around sixteen thousand by 1700 because they did not have a strong immunity to deadly European illnesses such as smallpox or typhus, nor did they possess the knowledge on how to treat them. This immense death toll may have affected their reassurance in beliefs and customs for a perfectly harmonious world. Despite the epidemics, the Cherokees became great allies to British colonists in the “new world.” An economic relationship grew out of the large value and desire for furs in Europe. The “Indian trade” in those times is today often indicated as the “fur trade”. Europeans provided guns, knives, hoes, tomahawks, fabrics, rum, and more that became almost necessary to Cherokee life. In order to get more furs and skins for this exchange at a faster pace, the natives had to hunt more game using guns rather than the bow and arrow, which resulted in a quicker depletion of animal populations. Along with that, alcoholism began to take effect on communities resulting in occasionally deadly accidents or assaults. With epidemics, alcoholism, and the foreign automated weapons offered from arriving settlers, the resilient ideas behind the Cherokees “balanced” world began falling…show more content…
These led to wars, the most significant being the French and Indian War. The Cherokees entered this battle on the side of the British, but transferred to the side of the French after attacks by white frontiersmen and deceit from colonial officials. Thousands of Cherokee deaths and famine followed, due to the invasion and destruction of fifteen Cherokee towns from British forces. These wars over fur trade eventually transformed into conflicts over land and territory control. After the French and Indian War in 1763, the British crown Proclamation set an official boundary for white purchase, which outlawed settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains, pleasing the Cherokees profusely. Unfortunately, this was only a “paper blockade” and most settlers colonized on Cherokee land despite it. Because of this, the Cherokees began to view the colonists as

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