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LITR
5831 World / Multicultural Literature: |
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Liz
Davis
9
July 2016
The Trail of Tears: The American Indians and their Forced Migration
The
American Indians are considered minorities, but they have a unique history of
assimilation to the dominant culture before
the Trail of Tears. Five tribes, Cherokee,
Choctaw, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Creek (Muscogee) are the tribes that were
forced from their land and had to make the journey west to designated Indian
Territory. The Cherokee tribe
specifically adapted to the dominant
culture and developed a government but was still forced to make the arduous
migration known as the Trail of Tears. Since the
American Indians are considered minorities, can they be classified as immigrants
even though they attempted to assimilate to the dominant culture and endured the
great migration of the Trail of Tears?
Around the late 1820s, the American Indians began to assimilate into the
dominant culture. The Choctaw, Seminole, Creek (Muscogee), Chickasaw, Cherokee
became known as the Five Civilized Tribes
because they assimilated into “white
American” ways of life and settled in houses, learned to speak and read English,
dress in Colonial-style clothing and some converted to Christianity. White
resentment of the American Indians was growing, especially when gold
was found
in Indian Territory. In 1830, the
Indian Removal Act was signed by Andrew Jackson,
which would force American Indians to leave their home and migrate to
a designated Indian
Territory roughly 1,000 miles away. In
1835, the Cherokee Nation negotiated the Treaty of Echota, which “traded all the
Cherokee land east of the Mississippi for $5 million, relocation assistance and
compensation for lost property,” by having members sign a petition, but it
was not honored. In 1838, the American
Indians were asked to leave voluntarily but then were forced from their homes at
gunpoint. They were taken to stockades
where they were given spoiled
food and there was no access to medicine.
Eventually, the Cherokee Nation met and
negotiated to manage their removal and
continue to the Indian Territory
on their own. They continued across Tennessee,
Kentucky, Missouri, and Arkansas during the harshest winter into Oklahoma
to start reconstructing their society.
People fear the unknown, and they yearn for sameness. When people see something,
or someone unfamiliar, they either want them to assimilate or they exclude them.
When the Anglo-Saxons, the dominant culture during the 1800s, approached the
“Indian Problem,” they wanted them to conform to their ways. They
wanted the American Indians to become
“civilized” so they started a “civilization campaign.” The goal of the
campaign was to “make the Native
Americans as much like white Americans as possible by encouraging them to
convert to Christianity, learn to speak and read English, and adopt
European-style economic
practices such as the individual
ownership of land and other property” including slaves (History.com Staff). Many
tribes began wearing colonial-style clothing, began to intermarry, and lived in
houses. The dominant culture wanted the American Indians to become civilized but
immediately became intimidated by them and regretted their decision. The
Cherokee assimilated into the dominant culture quite easily and excelled in
literacy. Around 1825, a Cherokee man named Sequoyah created the Cherokee
written language and the tribe adopted it as their official written language.
There was also a bilingual newspaper called the
Cherokee Phoenix that printed in both
English and Cherokee (Nichols 82). Many American Indians converted to
Christianity, leaving their native
religions behind them and adopting a new deity.
Since the Cherokee assimilated quickly into the dominant culture, they were a
threat, and when the gold
was discovered on American Indian land,
greed took effect, and the government had
all the power. When the government tried to take away the rights of the American
Indians, they rose up and signed a petition.
Unfortunately, the petition was
not honored, but the Cherokee nation
tried to stand their ground and unite as a tribe.
The
American Indians walked thousands of miles in the dead of winter to reach the
Indian Territory that would be their new
home. Illness and disease took many lives during the
treacherous journey. The elderly and
infants did not last long during the cold days of winter; only the strong
survived. Around 1 in 4 Cherokee, which is
around 4,000 people, died on the Trail of Tears (PBS). The conditions were
miserable, much like the conditions for immigrants on their journey from the Old
World to Ellis Island in America. The
passengers in the steerage class had to suffer through terrible conditions such
as spoiled food, poor ventilation, unattended vomit, overcrowding, and poor
sanitation. Like the American Indians, the immigrants knew that there was a new
life waiting for them, and the journey
would be worth the misery. “Most immigrants were in a state of shock:
physically, mentally and emotionally. Yet, even
with the shores of a new world looming before their eyes, and even with tears of
relief streaming down their faces, their journey was not at an end” ("Ellis
Island National Monument."). Both immigrants and American Indians share the same
emotional experience of suffering through a horrid
journey in
search of a better life. The American
Indians journey is also similar in ways
to the Puritans Great Migration to America in the 1600s because they chose to
make the trip as a group instead of as
individuals. “Motivated primarily by religious concerns, most Great Migration
colonists traveled to Massachusetts in family groups” ("About
the Great Migration.").
Unlike most immigrants who move to America for economic opportunity, the
Puritans migrated for religious purposes but remained within their groups. Much
like the Puritans who made the voyage across the sea to make a new home in
America, the American Indians traveled
the grueling Trail of Tears in their individual tribes to make a new home West
of the Mississippi.
Regardless of the American Indians willingness to assimilate into the dominant
culture, the American Indians were forced to make a great migration across the
country. Over the course of their journey, they suffered many hardships and
overcame illness and disease because they knew there was a better life on in the
new land waiting for them. Since their migration
experience was similar to the Puritans and somewhat similar to the immigrant
journey to Ellis Island, the American Indian migration experience can be seen as
immigrants. The Trail of Tears can be seen as an immigrant story because, though
the American Indians assimilated into the dominant culture, each tribe still
made the journey to the new land and began to reconstruct their society.
Works
Cited
"A
Brief History of the Trail of Tears." A Brief History of the Trail of Tears.
N.p., n.d. Web. 09 July 2016. <http://www.cherokee.org/AboutTheNation/History/TrailofTears/ABriefHistoryoftheTrailofTears.aspx>
"About the Great Migration." About the Great Migration. N.p., n.d. Web.
09 July 2016. <https://www.greatmigration.org/new_englands_great_migration.html>
"Ellis Island National Monument." The Immigrant Journey. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 July
2016. <http://www.ohranger.com/ellis-island/immigration-journey>
"Historical Sources for Craig White's Literature Courses." Historical Sources
for Craig White's Literature Courses. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 July 2016. <http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/xhist/TrailTears.htm>
History.com Staff. "Trail of Tears." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009.
Web. 09 July 2016. <http://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/trail-of-tears>
Nichols, Roger L. American Indians in U.S. History. 2nd ed. Norman: U of
Oklahoma, 2003. Print.
PBS.
PBS, n.d. Web. 09 July 2016. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2959.html>
