The history of European settlement in the continental United States is a story of the displacement of one group of people by another. Initially living side-by-side with their Indian¹ neighbours, the Europeans came to this part of North America firstly as colonists and later became citizens of a new country. The United States of America began conflicts with the native people living among them. Treaty after treaty was made and broken. Gradually, the Native Americans were reduced in number by war, famine, disease² and ultimately by forced relocation.

The relocation of the Cherokee Nation as a result of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 was one of the last steps in the process of ethnic cleansing that paved the way for total white domination of the eastern USA.

The Cherokee journey, known as the Trail of Tears, is one of many sad chapters in the history of US western expansion, though it did lead to the creation of a sovereign state within a state - the Cherokee Nation - with its own constitution, government, and democratic processes, all of which mirrored those of the US. Though it is now more widely-known, the story of the Trail of Tears was glossed over and ignored by American history textbooks for many years.

The Cherokee in 1838

The people known as the Tsalagi³, or Cherokee, lived up until the early 19th Century in the area of the south-eastern United States which is now divided between the states of North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. The Cherokee were one of the 'Five Civilised Tribes' (the other four tribes were the Creek, Seminole, Chickasaw and Choctaw), which adopted European ways: living on farms rather than being nomads or semi-nomads, wearing European-style clothing, adopting European naming customs - the Cherokee were originally matrilineal, tracing descent through the mother - and becoming Christians.

In addition, the Cherokee, who had no objection to inter-marriage with other groups, had many members who were part Scottish-Irish. A prominent Cherokee surname, 'Bushyhead', refers to the descendants of John Stuart, a Scotland-born British officer who married into the Cherokee, and was given this surname in recognition of his curly red hair. There were also black Cherokee because the tribe welcomed fugitive slaves.

Despite the ethnic diversity of the Cherokee people, they also imitated another custom of the European settlers - the more prosperous farmers often owned slaves. The entire question of slavery, both before and after the War of Independence, is much more complex than is commonly assumed. Indians captured in battle were sometimes sold into slavery, but there were free black people who owned slaves as well. In addition, during the colonial period 'indentured servitude' - voluntary or involuntary commitment to a master for seven years - was common.

In 1825, hoping to establish themselves as a sovereign entity, the Cherokee built themselves a modest capital in Georgia, which they called New Echota. This planned community, laid out by the Cherokee, which housed a new government, was set up along the same lines as the US Republic, with similar branches of government. The new capital boasted a bilingual newspaper, The Cherokee Phoenix, still published in Oklahoma today as The Cherokee Phoenix and Indian Advocate. The newspaper was written in both English and Cherokee, thanks to the invention only a few years earlier of a Cherokee writing system, called a 'syllabary', by the dedicated genius, Sequoyah. The Cherokee literacy rate was very high.

All of these developments were to no avail, for gold had been discovered in northern Georgia.

Indian Removal

The story of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 starts with Andrew Jackson's accession to the US Presidency as the country's first non-aristocratic, populist President. Jackson, whose home was in Tennessee, had spent years as an 'Indian fighter' against the Creek and Seminole, supported by the Cherokee and his administration's policy was to offer the Indians land west of the Mississippi in order to remove them away from the eastern part of the country.

During Jackson's first term of office the Indian Removal Act of 1830 was passed after four months of bitter debate. The Act decreed the removal of all five nations - the Creek, Cherokee, Seminole, Chickasaw and Choctaw. It was opposed by Christian missionaries, Daniel Webster and Davy Crockett, among others. His vehement opposition to the Act cost Crockett his seat in Congress. He declared: 'I would rather be honestly damned than hypocritically immortalised.' The Cherokee went to the Supreme Court in an effort to stop their removal and the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Cherokee, declaring them a sovereign nation, which the State of Georgia had no power over. Jackson ignored the Supreme Court's ruling. He is quoted as having said: 'Well, John Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it.' The State of Georgia ignored the ruling as well.

The Cherokee resisted removal by all possible legal means, but finally, in 1838, their efforts were exhausted. General Winfield Scott⁴ occupied the Cherokee territory and began rounding up people for forced evacuation accross the Mississippi - this became known as the Trail of Tears.

Removal policy had been vigorously opposed by the Cherokee's Principal Chief, John Ross, but supported by another respected leader, Major Ridge and his nephew, Elias Boudinot, editor of the Cherokee Phoenix. Ridge, his son and Boudinot were murdered in retaliation for their support for removal upon their arrival in Oklahoma.

Even before the implementation of the Removal Act, Georgia militia had begun constructing forts and Cherokee men, women and children were herded into them. Conditions in the forts were severe. An estimated one-third of the death toll from the removal of the Cherokee can be attributed to confinement in these Georgia forts.

The Trail of Tears - from Georgia to Oklahoma

In October 1838, 13 contingents of Cherokee set out from New Echota to join the trail already made by the other four nations. They were led by Cherokee chiefs and accompanied by the US Army. Other groups were led by contractors who were paid 65 dollars per head to shepherd the evacuees to Indian Territory. From this money, the contractors were expected to provide food for the evacuees and hay for their horses, which was not forthcoming. Most of the party travelled by covered wagon along roads which - after the drought of the summer and followed by a rainy autumn - were difficult to travel. Hunting parties fanned out along the route bringing in much-needed game to the evening camps.

The drought of summer 1838 was followed by a harsh winter, bringing suffering, sickness and death to the 16,000 Cherokee on the route.

About a quarter of them died, leading to the name by which the Cherokee designated the move, 'The Trail Where They Cried' or 'The Trail of Tears'. An interesting legend that grew up from the Trail of Tears concerns the plant called the Cherokee Rose. Originally a mid-18th-Century import, the flower, now the state flower of Georgia, came to symbolise the loss of loved ones suffered on the route.

When the contingents reached the Mississippi River in December and January, the problems became even worse, as the extreme cold had made this huge river (about three-quarters of a mile wide at the point of crossing in Missouri) fill with ice floes - barges sank and people drowned. The crossing took one month.

The survivors finally reached Oklahoma in March 1839. On 12 July, the Cherokee Act of Union brought together the eastern and western Cherokee nations as one people, and on 6 September the Cherokee constitution was adopted and Tahlequah, Oklahoma declared the new capital.

The North Carolina Cherokee

Some of the Cherokee, known as 'traditionalists', lived outside the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation in the mountains of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina. These Cherokee had not completely accepted the 'white man's road' as the others had and were scheduled for removal by the US government.

One such was Tsali, an elderly man who lived with his family near the Nantahala River. While under escort by the military, Tsali, his three sons, his brother-in-law, and their wives and children - a group of 12 in all - broke free and escaped. In the scuffle, two soldiers were killed and one wounded. Tsali and the other men hid in the mountains successfully for a time, along with other fugitive Cherokee. They were finally captured. Tsali, his brother-in-law and two of his sons were executed by firing squad. The military declared amnesty for the rest of the Cherokee in the mountains and allowed them to come out of hiding without facing the threat of arrest.

The US government declared an end to removal and allowed the remaining Cherokee to stay in the mountains of North Carolina, where their descendants - about 10,000 strong - still live today. These descendants still hold on to the belief that it was Tsali's sacrifice which made it possible for them to continue to live in their ancestral mountains.

The Mexico Cherokee

Even before the Indian Removal Act, some Cherokee had migrated west of the Mississippi into the Indian Territory of what is now Arkansas, under pressure from the white settlement. As early as 1817, there were about 5,000 of them in the Arkansas region. Some of these migrants moved on to Texas; they were later joined by more people invited there by Sam Houston - whose second wife was Cherokee, and who had himself been made a citizen of the Cherokee Nation - as he wished the Cherokee to serve as a buffer against the Comanche and Kiowa during the Texans' war with Mexico.

When removal came, the Cherokee 'Old Settlers' moved out of Arkansas and joined the others, either in Oklahoma or in Texas. Some of the Texas Cherokee were experiencing trouble with the Texans at the same time and moved down into Mexico. A small number of their descendants still live there and have been recognised by the Mexican government as the Cherokee Nation in Mexico.

After arriving in Oklahoma, Sequoyah went to Texas and Mexico to visit the Cherokee there and to bring them his syllabary. He died in the Republic of Texas in 1843.

Legacy

The modern Cherokee Nation, with a population of about 175,000 in Oklahoma and about 10,000 of the Eastern Band still living in North Carolina, is still an independent entity with its capital in Tahlequah, Oklahoma (population 15,000). The current Principal Chief of the Cherokee is Chad Smith.

The Cherokee have made significant contributions to American life and culture. Some famous people of Cherokee ancestry include the entertainer-philosopher Will Rogers, the activist Ward Churchill, actors Johnny Depp, Burt Reynolds and James Garner, singers Eartha Kitt, Johnny Cash, Cher and Elvis Presley and the painter Robert Rauschenberg.