Trail of Tears by Gloria Jahoda
A Lively But Scholarly Introduction To The Indian Removals Before The Civil War
Insightful, rarely told history of Indian courage in the face of White
expansionism in the 19th century. Truth-telling tale of the ruthless brutality
that forced the Native American population into resettlement camps and
reservations, with a look at the few white Americans who fought to help
them.
Personal Review: Trail of Tears by Gloria Jahoda
In 1802, the Georgia legislature signed an agreement giving the federal
government all of Georgia's western land claims in exchange for the
government's pledge to extinguish all Indian land titles within the state. But
by the mid-1820's Georgians began doubting the government would
uphold its part of the bargain. The Cherokee Indian tribe owned a
substantial part of Georgia's land that had been theirs through many
generations. Worried about losing their land, the Cherokee had adopted a
written constitution proclaiming the Cherokee nation had complete
jurisdiction over its own territory.

The potential legal arguments here were significant: Whose rights were
"more" sovereign, Georgia's or the Cherokee's? Could Native Americans
establish independent nations within the United States or within one of the
States? When the Cherokee sought aid from newly elected president
Andrew Jackson, he informed them that he would not interfere with the
lawful prerogatives of Georgia, this despite a Supreme Court ruling in the
Cherokee's favor! Jackson saw the solution to the problem as the removal
of not just the Cherokee, but all Native Americans, to western land, a
position espoused by Thomas Jefferson himself. Segregation, not
cohabitation, was his response. Jackson suggested to Georgia that laws
be passed so that the Indians would have to move west of the Mississippi
River. Georgia did just that passing a law that stated no Native American
had standing under Georgia law, i.e., no standing meant they had no legal
rights and could not file a legal suit to defend themselves under Georgia
law. In short, it was open season not only on Indian property but on their
persons as well.
On May 26, Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830 into
law. It required the forced migration of all Native Americans living east of
the Mississippi River into what is now the States of Nebraska, Kansas and
Oklahoma. Triggered by the Georgia - Cherokee faceoff, the law was an
omnibus bill, impacting tribes from Wisconsin to Florida, New York to
Mississippi. These tribes included but were not limited to the Seneca,
Cayuga, Chippewa, Ottawa and Illini, the Peoria, Kaskaskia, Sac, Fox and
Kickapoo, the Creek, Choctaw, Catawba, Chickasaw and Alabama, the
Wyandot, Mascoutah, Menominee, Miami and Shawnee, the Oconee,
Oneida, Tuscarora, Wea and Seminoles, the Munsee, Caddo, Winnebago,
Piankeshaw and Potawatomi. There were to be no exceptions; everyone
must go.
It was a 1, 2 punch. No standing under state law combined with federal
forced exodus set the stage for the largest land swindle in US history and a
forced migration of almost a hundred thousand people from all parts of the
East into what was then described as the Great American Desert, territory
which was already the home of other Native Americans to include the
Kansa, Osage, Missouri, Kiowa, Pawnee and Comanche. The Indians did
not go meekly. Three different wars were fought, a second Creek
insurrection in Alabama, the Black Hawk War in Illinois - Wisconsin and the
Second Seminole War in Florida. But in the end the results were the same
and the Native American emigration was completed over the ensuing 20
years.
I think it almost impossible to get through this book without shuddering
mentally a couple of dozen times. It's a little bit difficult to accept the fact
that the United States treated people in such an abjectly cruel and horrid
fashion but after reviewing the bibliography one has no doubt it occurred in
the fashion stated. Native superstition regarding steam boat transportation
and lack of government support for ground transport resulted in nothing
less than the slaughter by forced march of young and old men, women and

children. The term "genocide" truly does spring to mind. Forced to move,
these people were simply not adequately provided for and these
movements, which occurred over twenty years, literally became periodic
and repetitive death marches. It is estimated that one quarter of all Native
Americans who made the trip, approximately 25,000 people, died of
starvation, cholera, fatigue and exposure. But this tragedy does not quite
end with the migration. The Indians who settled in Kansas and Nebraska
are removed a second time in the 1850's to make way for the
transcontinental railroad.
Prior to reading Professor Jahoda's book I was only vaguely aware of this
exodus and thought the Trail of Tears a single conduit for a few thousand
people. But the map provided by the National Park Service, indicating the
magnitude and complexity of the Trail of Tears, is quite chilling. The cities
of Sandusky, Ohio, Tampa, Florida, Chicago, Illinois, Chattanooga and
Nashville, Tennessee, St. Louis, Missouri, and all points in between, all
played their part.
The United States received 20,000,000 acres of watered, agricultural and
timber lands in exchange for 4,000,000 acres the government then thought
was unfit for human life. The misery described within this book is truly
heart wrenching.
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