The Trail of Tears

Podcast Transcript

Between 1830 and 1850, the United States forcibly displaced 60,000 Native Americans living in the Southern United States under the ‘Indian Removal Act.’

While being moved, thousands would die due to starvation, disease, and exposure.

Its impact has led some scholars to classify the event as a genocide. Regardless of how it is classified, it remains one of the greatest tragedies in American history.

Learn about the Trail of Tears: why it was enacted and why it was so deadly on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

The event, which is known as the Trail of Tears, was one of the largest but certainly not the last, mass forcible removal of native people in North America.

In the United States in the early 1830s, there was a group of Native American nations referred to as the Five Civilized Tribes: the Cherokee, Choctaw, Seminole, Muscogee-Creek, and Chickasaw, which all lived in what is today America’s Deep South.

Since European settlement began in the Americas, there had been pressure to remove Native tribes from areas settled by Europeans, specifically in the Southeast.

We can trace some of this back to the British Proclamation of 1763.

This Proclamation stated that the region between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River would be Native American Territory.

Before and especially after the American Revolution, this treaty was ignored, as White Americans began to settle the region.

This was accelerated in 1829 when gold was discovered in Georgia on Cherokee Land.

The mines within Georgia were producing 300 ounces of gold a day at their peak.

Settlers who had already been pushing for indigenous resettlement now began to campaign harder for removal.

Two of the most notable advocates for relocation were Congressman Davy Crockett of Tennessee and President Andrew Jackson.

With a push by settlers, land speculators, members of Congress, and President Jackson, the ‘Indian Removal Act’ was passed in 1830.

This act was the first major case of the US officially violating Native Americans’ legal and political rights as government policy.

The ‘Indian Removal Act’ allowed President Jackson to nullify Native American land claims in the region and to remove them from the territory.

In some cases, there would be compensation or aid provided for transportation, but for all intents and purposes, it was a forced removal.

The initial reactions by the five nations differed, and most approached the circumstances by negotiating for reimbursement and protection of their assets.

The first Nation to be relocated was the Choctaw.

The Choctaw were located within parts of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, and for years had their land chipped away under multiple treaties.

They had finalized their negotiations with the Government and had agreed to give the government their land if they were given logistical support by the government to transport themselves and their belongings.

They also requested that a few of the Choctaw be allowed to stay in the territory.

Jackson and the government were surprised by the cooperation of the Choctaw and began going forward with the removal.

The plan was that they would be moved over three different phases. However, things did not go as planned.

Though the Government had agreed to provide aid, it had no experience in moving large numbers of people. Not to mention that they had to transport livestock, household items, and farming equipment.

Due to ill-prepared bureaucratic ineptitude, this first journey saw massive numbers of Choctaw deaths.

The first group was subjected to flooding, famine, and a harsh winter.

Of the 17,000 people forcibly relocated into the “Indian Territory,” somewhere between 2,500 and 6,000 of them died.

Of those who remained on their land in Mississippi, they faced harassment, intimidation, and legal conflicts.

1832 saw the removal of the Chickasaw and the Muscogee.

The Chickasaws held land located within Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky.

They were hesitant to trust the Federal Government’s assurances that they would be reimbursed for their property.

As such, many of the Chickasaw sold their landholdings to finance their own transportation.

Initially, the Chickasaw attempted to buy the Choctaw land inside the “Indian Territory” in Oklahoma.

The debate between the Chickasaw and Choctaw lasted for five years, with Jackson’s Administration struggling to mediate the negotiations.

Eventually, a deal was achieved, with the Choctaw leasing the territory from the Chickasaw.

Another part of the agreement was that the Chickasaw would have representation on the Choctaw’s councils.

Many of the moves made by the Chickasaw resulted in significantly fewer losses than those of the Choctaw.

They kept most of their money, and most of them survived the relocation.

However, they lost their national identity and faced new external threats.

Many of the Chickasaw were forced to relocate to towns and were stuck in temporary camps. They became reliant on government supply drops, and their leadership fell apart.

1832 was also the start of relocation for the Muscogee, who are sometimes known as the Creek, or the Muscogee-Creek..

The Muscogee lived in Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, and they had been having issues with the United States Government for years.

Though the Muscogee had been friendly, making deals to maintain a peaceful relationship, they were met with hostility.

One issue was ignoring previous treaties that had maintained Native American sovereignty.

These issues became so severe that Muscogee Leadership made it illegal for them to cede any more land, and to do so would be a capital offense.

This tribal law was changed in 1825 when the Muscogee gave up the vast majority of their remaining land in Georgia.

By the 1830s, the majority of the Muscogee population lived in Alabama, and the Alabama state government sought to control Muscogee land.

The Muscogee reached out to Jackson and his administration, and were ignored.

The Muscogee land was divided into allotments owned by individual members of the tribe.

However, they were then given an ultimatum to either sell this land and move to the Indian Territory or they would be forced to follow Alabama State Laws.

This deal was widely fraudulent, as many of these allotments were simply settled by white Americans with little to no punishment.

This led to conflict with the Muscogee raiding farms and committing violence in what became known as the Creek War of 1836.

This war ended quickly, and the Muscogee were forced to move into the Indian Territory.

15,000 Muscogee were forced to relocate, with 3,500 of them dying on the voyage there.

The fourth tribe to be relocated was the Seminoles.

The Seminoles were located entirely within Florida, which was Spanish territory until the United States acquired the land in 1821.

After acquiring the land, the US government and the Seminole began to make treaties.

When the Indian Removal Act was passed, the Seminole Treaty with the government stipulated that the Seminoles agree to be relocated West if the land was suitable.

They would be relocated to the Muscogee Nation within the Indian Territory due to their past connection.

The Seminole used to be a part of the Muscogee; however, this relationship was severely strained due to the Seminoles being viewed by the Muscogee as deserters.

Many of the Seminole were worried about rejoining the Muscogee Nation because they would likely be met with extreme hostility.

When the Seminole studied the land in the Indian Territory and talked with the Muscogee leaders, they deemed the move acceptable and signed a statement saying they were willing to relocate.

However, when leadership returned to their homes in Florida, they claimed that they were forced into signing are renounced the statement.

As some of the Seminole began to be relocated, others resisted.

A group of Seminoles and Black Seminoles, who were the descendents of Seminoles and freed slaves, would ambush and kill 110 soldiers who were marching near their territory in what became known as the Dade Massacre.

Florida, understanding that Seminoles would be resisting relocation, began to prepare for war, which ended up lasting for a decade.

During this War, the Seminole would capture supply trains and destroy plantations..

The resistance cost the US government roughly $20,000,000, which is equivalent to approximately $651,655,172 today.

The war ended with most of the Seminole exiled to Muscogeelands, with a small group remaining in the Everglades.

In the end, the Seminole resistance was one of the most successful ones in American history..

Though there were only about 500 Seminoles left in Florida after the Seminole Wars, the survivors became the only recognized tribe that never relinquished their sovereignty or signed a peace treaty with the US.

The final tribe is the Cherokee, who are perhaps the best known victims of the Trail of Tears.

The Cherokee were located in Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Alabama.

They resisted the Indian Removal Act through legal action.

The two best-known cases were the Cherokee Nation v. Georgia in 1831 and Worcester v. Georgia in 1832.

These cases claimed that the United States and Georgia were violating previously ratified treaties.

In Cherokee Nation v Georgia, the Supreme Court ruled that the Cherokee Nation was not a foreign state, but rather domestic and dependent.

This case didn’t determine if Georgia’s relocation policies were lawful, but instead defined the legal status of Native Americans.

In Worcester v. Georgia, the Supreme Court decided that Georgia was breaking the law and that moving into Cherokee Land was unconstitutional.

With that decision, many of the Cherokee felt that their rights and the ruling would be respected.

This was not the case.

Andrew Jackson famously said that “John Marshall had made his decision; let him enforce it now if he can.”

By 1835, a minority of the Cherokee believed it was worthless to fight the government and opted to sign the Treaty of New Echota.

This treaty was signed by none of the elected officials of the Cherokee Nation, yet it claimed to cede all territory.

The vast majority of the Cherokee protested the agreement. About 15,000 Cherokee were against the treaty, versus 300 to 500 who were for it, but it was nonetheless ratified by the Senate.

In 1838, the Cherokee were forced from their homes by the US military. They typically were awoken at gunpoint and brought to internment camps.

From there, they were held anywhere from a few days to a few weeks before being forced on the grueling trip to the Indian Territory.

While waiting at the camps, many fell ill.

Similar to the Choctaw, the plan was to move them in three different groups.

The first group traveled overland and faced horrible conditions of drought and disease.

To prevent further deaths, the Cherokee asked for relocation to be postponed until the Fall, which was granted.

The second group consisted of 12,000 Cherokee. They would also be relocated over land.

This march was roughly 1,000 miles and was brutal.

Those on the march were not in proper clothing, and many did not have shoes.

Many of the Cherokee fell ill and were forced to march longer distances to avoid spreading disease to towns.

When crossing the Ohio River, the Cherokee were charged for ferrying across the River.

They were charged $1 per person vs the normal 12 cents, which was an enormous amount of money at the time.

Many died while waiting for the ferry, while the local population murdered others.

As the Cherokee crossed into Illinois, the winter temperatures were brutal, with soldiers writing that it was the coldest they had ever experienced.

As the trek continued, the conditions continued to expose them to starvation and illness.

Thousands died.

The final group went over water, which also faced terrible conditions on the boats, with disease running rampant.

The remaining Cherokee were eventually settled in the Indian Territory, but the impact was brutal.

The Cherokee dubbed the journey “The Trail of Tears” due to the large number of lives lost on the trek.

Of the 16,000 forcibly relocated, 4,000 died.

The total number of deaths between the five nations is estimated to be somewhere between 13,000 and 17,000.

The Trail of Tears saw a blatant rejection of the Supreme Court and multiple violations of Native American sovereignty and previously signed treaties. These actions led to the death of thousands of Indigenous peoples, creating one of the darkest chapters in American History.

The Executive Producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The Associate Producers are Austin Oetken and Cameron Kieffer.

Research and writing for this episode were provided by Olivia Ashe.

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