Mural (8-by15 foot) by Elizabeth Janes (1938-39) depicting
the
arrival of
Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma in the 1830s, on
display at the
Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City.
The Trail of Tears was part
of the Indian removal, a series of forced displacements and ethnic
cleansing of approximately 60,000 Native Americans of the Five
Civilized Tribes between 1830 and 1850 by the United States
government. Tribal members "moved gradually, with complete migration
occurring over a period of nearly a decade.”
Members of the so-called Five Civilized
Tribes – the Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw nations
(including thousands of their black slaves) were forcibly removed from
their ancestral homelands in the Southeastern United States to areas
to the west of the Mississippi River that had been designated Indian
Territory. The forced relocations were carried out by government authorities
after the passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830. The Cherokee
removal in 1838 (the last forced removal east of the Mississippi) was
brought on by the discovery of gold near Dahlonega, Georgia in 1828,
resulting in the Georgia Gold Rush.
The Trail of Tears was part of a larger
pattern of behavior, called Indian removal, beginning in 1830 with
the Indian Removal Act and continuing all the way through the 20th
Century with the American Indian boarding schools program. The
pattern was calculated to eradicate the Native culture. The Smithsonian's National
Museum of the American Indian describes it as a genocide.
The relocated peoples suffered from exposure,
disease, and starvation while en route to their newly designated Indian
reserve. Thousands died from disease before reaching their destinations or
shortly after. – Wikipedia
Pamela Starr Dewey, social
historian and author, has put together an eye-opening, heart-rending multi-media documentary,
what she calls a “docu-commentary,” on the Trail of Tears in the context of the
social history of the US. This is essential viewing for anyone who wants to
know the full history of the US. Go to the following YouTube link:
by
Pam Dewey
Go to Pam’s YouTube web site, Meet
Myth America, for free access the other forty-two of her docu-commentaries,
and other material on US history. - JL
