Trail of Tears

The Trail of Tears is the story of the Cherokee Indians and their removal from their ancestral lands. Based primarily in northern Georgia, the Cherokees were recognized as one of the “five civilized tribes” and had gone to great lengths to ensure their sovereignty and show their civility to the American people and government. By the time their removal was demanded, they had a written language, a written constitution, and a governmental body that included a judicial branch.

The story of the Cherokee and their Trail of Tears does not start in 1838 with the first detachment of people down the trail but, rather, 36 years prior with the Compact of 1802. This compact, which served as part of Georgia's colonial charter, ensured that the federal government would help remove all Indians who held land within state boundaries. With the passage of the Indian Removal Act 28 years later, the state of Georgia began putting pressure on the federal government to uphold the charter. The Cherokees, who obviously opposed the relocation of their people, tried to fight this removal act legally and immediately. The tribe confirmed itself as a nation and took the state of Georgia to the Supreme Court in 1831 in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia. The Supreme Court refused to hear the case on the assumption that that the Cherokees did not compose a sovereign nation, but rather a “domestic dependent nation.” The following year in Worcester v. Georgia the Supreme Court did recognize the Cherokee nation as a sovereign nation and ruled in its favor. The court concluded that since the Cherokee nation was sovereign, the Indian Removal Act was invalid; therefore the Indians could not be forcefully removed from their lands. Instead, a treaty had to be brought before [Page 629]the Cherokees, signed by them, and then passed by Congress in order to vacate the Indians.

By the 1830s the Cherokee Nation were experiencing severe factionalism in terms of the removal topic. The minority faction, headed by Major and John Ridge and Elias Boudinot, advocated removal and pleaded with the majority to seek compensation for removal and to head west. This group was composed of roughly 500 members out of a total Cherokee population nearing 17,000. The majority faction, headed by Chief John Ross, fought the various removal acts and lobbied to retain its lands in Georgia. Ross was greatly involved in Washington, DC, and was constantly traveling between the U.S. capital and Georgia in hopes of emerging victorious on behalf of the Cherokee Nation. During one of these trips, in June of 1834, Boudinot and John Ridge convinced Andrew Ross, head of the minority faction, to sign a fraudulent document and turn it in to Congress. The Senate immediately realized its fraudulence and discarded the document without repercussions. During December of the following year, another opportunity presented itself to the treaty faction, or minority, when U.S. Treaty Commissioner John F. Schermerhorn called for a conference at New Echota without the knowledge of John Ross. A mere 200 Cherokee showed up at the conference where Major Ridge and Elias Boudinot both signed a treaty agreeing to the removal of the Cherokee from their land in Georgia. By spring of 1836 the treaty had passed Congress and the entire Cherokee Nation was given two years to eradicate itself from Georgia.

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