The ~Christian Country Farm~

INDIAN "REMOVAL"

   True. Unfortunately, they moved for an entirely different reason--they were forced.

     From the time Columbus landed in North America, Indians' lives would never be the same. At first, Indians and Europeans often met as friends and traders. But the friendships didn't last long. The newcomers wanted land, and the land belonged to the Indians. As the settlers pushed farther into Indian lands, they fought the Indians, took their land without asking, and signed treaties {agreements between nations} forcing or tricking them into giving it up.

     In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act. This meant that Indians in the East were forced to leave their homelands and go to the Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River.


WHAT WAS THE TRAIL OR TEARS?

     The Trail of Tears, or the "Trail Where They Cried," as the Cherokees called it, was a terrible forced march from the tribe's sacred homelands in Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee to the Indian Territory in the West. In the late 1830's soldiers forced young and old at bayonet point through blinding blizzards and freezing temperatures. Four thousand Cherokees, or one in every four, died of cold and starvation on the journey. More died of disease and poor living conditions once they reached the hot, dry land that is now Oklahoma.

WHAT DID THE PLAINS INDIANS THINK ABOUT THE FIRST PIONEERS? 

     At first, the coming of white settlers seemed to many Indians to be a good thing. A number of Indian tribes, including the Dakota, Comanche, and Cheyenne, lived on the Great Plains in the 1800's. The tribes that were part of the fur trade especially liked getting guns and other goods that made them more powerful than their enemies.

     But soon the Indians realized that the white people brought bad things, too. The worst, more deadly than any weapon, was disease. European germs such as smallpox, measles, and influenza wiped out huge numbers of Indians across North America.


Taken from "The Pioneers" by Kenneth C. Davis

Untitled Comment

04:19 PM, Aug. 28, 2006 .. Posted by YPAmy5

Just wanted to let you know how much I am enjoying all these pioneer/American History posts!
My DD9 will be studying pioneers in homeschool this year. Thanks for sharing some info!
Also- While I might not always comment- (bad about that) I do read! Thanks again!
Amy W