The Trail Of Tears And The Removal Of The Indians

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The Trail of Tears event of the removal of the Indians happened in 1838. “At the beginning of the 1830s, nearly 125,000 Native Americans lived on millions of acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida–land their ancestors had occupied and cultivated for generations.”(History.com Staff). In this event, the Cherokee community of Native Americans was forced by the US government to move from their native home in the Southern part of the contemporary America to what is known as the Indian territories in Oklahoma. Arguments over land, restrictions, and laws were common amongst the Indians and settlers/whites. The settlers also called the “white men” believed that the movement of the Indians would bring peace. The settlers also believed that they needed the land more than the native Americans so taking the land was a must do thing. Although there have been many different opinions on the trail of tears the Indians should not have been forced to move out of their homelands.
Leading up to the Trail of tears Migration from the original Cherokee Nation began in the early 1800’s. Some Cherokees, that were not comfortable with the whites moving in on their territories, the Indians moved west on their own and settled in other areas of the country. A group known as the Old Settlers previously had voluntarily moved in 1817 to lands given to them in Arkansas where they established a peaceful way of life. Later, however, they were forced to migrate to Indian