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Presenter: Jerry Ellis
The Walking the Cherokee Trail of Tears videoconference is suitable for students in grades 4-12.
The Walking the Cherokee Trail of Tears book written by Jerry Ellis is recommended for adults.
Here is a link to purchase the Walking the Cherokee Trail of Tears book written by Jerry Ellis. The discount code is WTR9 and will give buyers a 25% discount through December 31, 2009. http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/Walking-the-Trail,672186.aspx
Presenter’s Jerry Ellis website about his beautiful Bed and Breakfast: www.tanagerhouse.com
WALKING THE CHEROKEE TRAIL OF TEARS
The United States was formed on the premise "that all men are created equal" and "justice for all". However one of the most brutal stories in history took place in this country. It is known as the Trail of Tears.
The territory in the Land of the Cherokees once covered eight states, but the Cherokees were forced to relocate to Oklahoma (then called Indian Territory) to make room for white settlers. The "Trail of Tears" was the forced removal (by the United States government) of the Cherokee Nation from its ancestral homeland in parts of North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama to land set aside for American Indians in what is now the state of Oklahoma. Cherokee call this trail "Nunna-da-ul-tsun-yi", meaning "The Place Where They Cried."
The Cherokees journey by water and land was over a thousand miles long, during which over 4,000 Cherokees died of disease and starvation along the way. Tragically, the story is also one of conflict within the Cherokee Nation as it struggled to hold on to its land and its culture in the face of overwhelming force.
This videoconference and lesson plan will bring to life the story of the Trail of Tears and the Cherokee Nation in the 1830s.
Objectives
Students will
- Discuss the removal of the Cherokee Nation
- Talk about the Trail of Tears and what historical evidence that led up to it
- Learn about the harsh conditions the American Indians faced during relocation
- Simulate the forced relocation as was imposed on the Cherokee Nation by the Indian Removal Act of 1830
- Explore key figures surrounding this historical event
- Practice journal writing
Vocabulary
- Removal – to take something or someone out of their place
- John Ross – 1790 – 1866 - He was the principal chief of the Cherokee Indians
- Elias Boudinot – 1800 – 1839 - Cherokee publisher and supporter of Major Ridge
- Plantation – a large area of land where crops, usually tobacco or cotton, are grown
- Mandatory – something that is required
- Impatient – not able to wait or to be restless
- Migration – people or animals moving from place to place
- Andrew Jackson – 1767 – 1845 - seventh president of the United States and a major player in the removal of the American Indians
- Sequoyah – 1760 – 1843 - Sequoyah created the Cherokee written alphabet
- Exiled – a person who is forced to move from their home
- Coerced – to force someone to do something they don’t want to do or shouldn’t do
- Systematically – to be organized
- Confinement – to keep something within particular boundaries, sometimes by force
Materials
- A document similar in style to the "Indian Removal Act of 1830" that states that the class is going to be relocated to another part of the school. If possible, you might arrange to have the "emissary" who delivers the document to your class to dress up in the style of President Andrew Jackson.
- Journals/writing paper for student reflection
- A copy of the poem The Never-Ending Trail by Abe "Del" Jones
- Pictures of Chief John Ross of the Cherokee Nation and other resources related to the Trail of Tears(websites provided)
- Several copies of map
Pre-Activity
MAP
(National Park Service)
This map shows the routes followed by the Cherokee Nation to reach "Indian Territory," now the state of Oklahoma, in the 1830s.
Questions using the Map
1. How many different routes are shown? Why do you think there might have been so many?
2. Find the water route. What rivers does it follow? What advantages to you think it might have over an overland route? What difficulties might it present?
3. Locate the land route. How does it compare with the other main routes? What major rivers did it cross? What advantages and what disadvantages might the Land Route have?
4. The largest group of Cherokees followed the land route. They left Tennessee in the late fall of 1838 and arrived in Indian Territory in March. What problems do you think they might have encountered on the journey?
5. Use the map to discuss the distances covered by the Cherokees. Through what
states did they have to travel to get to Indian Territory?
The Lesson
BACKGROUND
Cherokee culture thrived for thousands of years in the southeastern United States before European contact. When the Europeans settlers arrived, the Indians they encountered, including the Cherokee, assisted them with food and supplies. The Cherokees taught the early settlers how to hunt, fish, and farm in their new environment. They introduced them to crops such as corn, squash, and potatoes; and taught them how to use herbal medicines for illnesses.
By the 1820s, many Cherokees had adopted some of the cultural patterns of the white settlers as well. The settlers introduced new crops and farming techniques. Some Cherokee farms grew into small plantations, worked by African slaves. Cherokees built gristmills, sawmills, and blacksmith shops. They encouraged missionaries to set up schools to educate their children in the English language. They used an alphabet developed by Sequoyah (a Cherokee) to encourage literacy as well. In the midst of the many changes that followed contact with the Europeans, the Cherokee worked to retain their cultural identity.
Two circumstances combined to severely limit the Cherokees. In 1828 Andrew Jackson became president of the United States. In 1830--the same year the Indian Removal Act was passed--gold was found on Cherokee lands. There was no holding back the tide of Georgians, Carolinians, Virginians, and Alabamians seeking instant wealth. Georgia held lotteries to give Cherokee land and gold rights to whites. The state had already declared all laws of the Cherokee Nation null and void after June 1, 1830, and also prohibited Cherokees from conducting tribal business, contracting, testifying against whites in court, or mining for gold. Cherokee leaders successfully challenged Georgia in the U.S. Supreme Court, but President Jackson refused to enforce the Court's decision.
Class Activity 1
Stage this activity as a "simulation" of the story of the Trail of Tears. This story was perpetuated by the Indian Removal Act of 1830. According to www.civics-online.org, this Act was "the Jackson-era legislation" authorizing the president to transfer Eastern Indian tribes to the western territories promised (falsely) ‘in perpetuity’. The actual relocation culminated in the 1838 "Trail of Tears" forced march, one of the most shameful occurrences in the history of federal domestic policy."
Immediately after the start of class, have a person (dressed up like Andrew Jackson if possible) come into your classroom and present you and your students with the " Class Removal Act of 2009." Jackson or his "emissary" will deliver a scrolled document and leave.
As the teacher, you will open the document and deliver the news to the class that they must relocate because another class is being moved into your school and they want your space. This document should say something to the effect that "this document demands the removal of your class from their current classroom. The class will have to relocate to the school yard, gym, or multi-purpose room upon receipt of this document, or will be forced out."
In preparing the "Class Removal Act" document, you might adapt some of the language found in the actual Indian Removal Act of 1830 such as:
Be it enacted by the Board of Education of the ____ School District that it shall and may be lawful for the Superintendent of Schools to cause such territory belonging to any class to be relocated to another part of the school…
After reading the Act to the class, the teacher should then open up a discussion about what the teacher and the students should do. The class could talk about what they could do to stop the removal, wonder aloud why they were selected as the class to be removed… and so on. Provide at least 15-20 minutes for this serious discussion. (The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was not fully enforced until 1838. That is why this lesson plan has a built in delay and time for classroom discussion.)
As the discussion winds down, Andrew Jackson or his emissary will return and demand that you leave now. The class will leave immediately, without being allowed to take anything. The class will then walk to a predetermined area. At this predetermined area, the teacher will give students writing paper and pens/pencils.
Class Activity 2
Create A Trail of Tears Journal.
Give students some time to record some of their thoughts by writing in their Journals using this writing prompt:
Writing prompt: " Imagine what it would be like to have your family uprooted, forcibly removed from your southeastern farm, placed in a stockade, and then forced to travel 1,000 miles to Oklahoma Territory. The climate and lands were very different. How would you live there? Create a journal describing your feelings and experiences. "
After students have completed their journal writings, introduce students to the Indian Removal Act of 1830 found at http://www.civics-online.org/library/formatted/texts/indian_act.html
Provide information about the Act and the Cherokees, who were largely affected by it; share some of the reasons behind the relocation and stories of the Trail of Tears and the Cherokee Rose. All people were not for the removal of the Indian Nation. Reverend Samuel Worcester was a missionary to the Cherokee people. He went to the Supreme Court for the Cherokees to stop the removal. This case is called Worcester vs. Georgia. The Supreme Court decided that the Cherokee nation was a sovereign nation and would not allow the removal to take place. The Cherokees won the battle, yet their fight was hollow.
General Winfield Scott led thousands of men to round up and escort the Cherokees into stockades in Tennessee. From the stockades the Cherokees were forced to march from Tennessee to the new Indian Territory. This forced march has come to be known as the Trail of Tears. They had minimal facilities, food, and protection. All the Cherokees suffered and 4,000 Cherokees died along the trail. Some Cherokees tried to escape the forced march, and some even succeeded. Today there are still groups of Cherokee Nations living in Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and South Carolina that are decedents from the Cherokees that escaped.
Class Activity 3
Students will listen as teacher reads aloud the poem The Never-Ending Trail by Abe "Del" Jones.
The Never-Ending Trail
by Abe "Del" Jones
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We whites honor the "Hermitage"
And the man who once lived there -
But, that leader of our Nation
Was cruel, unjust, unfair -
He ordered the removal
Of the Cherokee from their land
And forced them on a trek
That the Devil must have planned -
One thousand miles of misery -
Of pain and suffering -
Because greed of the white man
Could not even wait till spring -
We should bow our heads in shame
Even unto this day
About "The Trail Of Tears"
And those who died along the way.
It was October, eighteen thirty-eight
When seven thousand troops in blue
Began the story of the "Trail"
Which, so sadly, is so true -
Jackson ordered General Scott
To rout the Indian from their home -
The "Center Of The World" they loved -
The only one they'd known -
The Braves working in the fields
Arrested, placed in a stockade -
Women and children dragged from home
In the bluecoats shameful raid -
Some were prodded with bayonets
When, they were deemed to move too slow
To where the Sky was their blanket
And the cold Earth, their pillow -
In one home a Babe had died
Sometime in the night before -
And women mourning, planning burial
Were cruelly herded out the door -
In another, a frail Mother -
Papoose on back and two in tow
Was told she must leave her home
Was told that she must go -
She uttered a quiet prayer -
Told the old family dog good-bye -
Then, her broken heart gave out
And she sank slowly down to die -
Chief Junaluska witnessed this -
Tears streaming down his face -
Said if he could have known this
It would have never taken place -
For, at the battle of Horse Shoe
With five hundred Warriors, his best -
Helped Andrew Jackson win that battle
And lay thirty-three Braves to rest -
And the Chief drove his tomahawk
Through a Creek Warrior's head
Who was about to kill Jackson -
But whose life was saved, instead -
Chief John Ross knew this story
And once sent Junaluska to plead -
Thinking Jackson would listen to
This Chief who did that deed -
But, Jackson was cold, indifferent
To the one he owed his life to
Said, "The Cherokees fate is sealed -
There's nothing, I can do."
Washington, D.C. had decreed
They must be moved Westward -
And all their pleas and protests
To this day still go unheard.
On November, the seventeenth
Old Man Winter reared his head -
And freezing cold, sleet and snow
Littered that trail with the dead
On one night, at least twenty-two
Were released from their torment
To join that Great Spirit in the Sky
Where all good souls are sent -
Many humane, heroic stories
Were written 'long the way -
A monument, for one of them -
Still stands until this day -
It seems one noble woman
It was Chief Ross' wife -
Gave her blanket to a sick child
And in so doing, also gave her life -
She is buried in an unmarked grave -
Dug shallow near the "Trail" -
Just one more tragic ending
In this tragic, shameful tale -
Mother Nature showed no mercy
Till they reached the end of the line
When that fateful journey ended
On March twenty-sixth, eighteen thirty-nine.
Each mile of this infamous "Trail"
Marks the graves of four who died -
Four thousand poor souls in all
Marks the shame we try to hide -
You still can hear them crying
Along "The Trail Of Tears"
If you listen with your heart
And not with just your ears.
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Class Activity 4
After sharing information about the plight of the Cherokees, give students another opportunity to reflect in their journals about their removal experience and about what they have learned. Students should make the connection between the class's forced relocation and the Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears. Students will discuss in class and write in their journals about why they believe the Cherokees were removed.
Teachers will provide primary documents and pictures.
Sources of Information
Class Activity 5
To conclude, students should write letters to Andrew Jackson about their experience; in their letters they should address:
1. What is shocking about the history of the Trail of Tears?
2. How they would feel if people who did not speak your language, or know where they were going forced them out of their home?
3. What they would have done if they were a Cherokee at this time in history?
4. What they would have done if they were in the military and had to escort the Cherokee people off of their lands?
5. What else would they tell President Andrew Jackson?
POST ACTIVITY
Prepare Indian Frybread, a staple of Powwows and symbol of intertribal Indian unity.
FRYBREAD (Zahsakokwahn)
Makes 8-10 small ones or 5 big flat ones for Indian tacos.
2 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk
Deep hot fat in frying pan or fryer
Procedure
- Sift dry ingredients.
- Lightly stir in milk.
- Add more flour as necessary to make a dough you can handle.
- Knead and work the dough on a floured board with floured hands until smooth.
- Pinch off fist-sized limps and shape into a disk – every frybread has its own characteristic shape.
(Shape does affect the taste because of how it fries).
For Indian tacos, the disk must be rather flat, with a depression (almost a hole) in the center of both sides. Make it that way if the fry bread is going to have some sauce over it. Smaller, round ones are made to put on a plate.
Fry in hot fat (about 375°) until golden and done on both sides, about 5 minutes.
Drain on absorbent paper towels or towel-covered newspaper.
NATIONAL STANDARDS
Social Studies
- Goal 2: The learner will examine the importance of the role of ethnic groups and examine the multiple roles they have played in the development of the United States
- Objective 2.01: Locate and describe American Indians in United States, past and present.
English/ Language Arts
- Goal 3: The learner will make connections with text through the use of oral language, written language, and media and technology.
- Objective 3.01: Respond to fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama using interpretive, critical, and evaluative processes by:
- analyzing the impact of authors' word choice and context.
- examining the reasons for characters' actions.
- identifying and examining characters' motives.
- considering a situation or problem from different characters' points of view.
- analyzing differences among genres.
- making inferences and drawing conclusions about characters, events and themes.
- Objective 3.03: Consider the ways language and visuals bring characters to life, enhance plot development, and produce a response.
History
I. U.S. History, E. Growth and Westward Expansion, 1801 - 1861. The student will demonstrate knowledge of western expansion, conflict, and reform in America
IV. Historical Skills, A. Concepts of Time. The student will acquire skills of chronological thinking.
VII. Government and Citizenship, A. Civic Values, Skills, Rights and Responsibilities. The student will recognize the importance of individual action and character in shaping civic life.
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