Building a Narrative Project

Although Westward expansion provided new opportunities for settlers, it spelled tragedy
for many American Indians. Eliza Whitmire explains, General (Winfield) Scotts order to
remove the Cherokees were filled with horror and suffering for the unfortunate Cherokees and
their slaves. As the United States added new territories, it also brought many Indians
homelands within its national borders. In 1830, Congress passed the Indian removal act to clear
Indians from and east of the Mississippi River. President Andrew Jackson said that the act placed
A dense and civilized population in large tracts of country now occupied by a few savage
hunters. He praised the act for this. Although most tribes reluctantly went along with removal,
some resisted. The Cherokees attempted a legal defense, claiming they were protected from
removal by earlier treaties. In the end, the tribes that resisted removal were moved by force. The
most famous forced migration was that of the Cherokees in 1838. On the journey to Indian
Territory, about 4,000 of the more than 17,000 Cherokees died from starvation, disease, and
harsh winter weather. This tragic journey is remembered today as the Trail of Tears.
An Act of provide for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing in any of the states
of territories and for their removal west of the Mississippi River. The Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States of America enacted that it shall be lawful for the President
of the United States to cause so much of any territory belonging to the United States, west of the
Mississippi River, to be divided into a suitable number of districts, for the reception of nations of
Indians. Also, it will be further enacted that such lands shall revert to the United States, if the
Indians become extinct, or abandon the same. Also, it shall be lawful for the president to cause
such tribe or nation to be protected, at their new residence, against all interruption or disturbance
from any other tribe or nation of Indians, or from any other person or persons whatever. And be it

further enacted that is shall and may be lawful for the President to have the same
superintendence and care over any tribe or nation in the country to which they may remove, as
contemplated by this act, the he is now authorized to have over them at their present places of
residence. The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States wanted to give the
President all of this power and these rights so that he could force the Indians to move land. Also,
so that they could have the Indians previous territories for themselves.
On December 8, 1829 President Jackson said, Our conduct toward these people is
deeply interesting to our national character. Their present conditionmakes a most powerful
appeal to our sympathies. By persuasion and force they have been made to retire from river to
river and from mountain to mountain, until some of the tribes have become extinct and others
have left but remnants to preserve for awhile their once terrible names. Surrounded by the whites
with their arts of civilization, which by destroying the resources of the savage, doom him to
weakness and decay. President Jackson was the president of the United States of America at
the time. He thought that the Native Americans should have been allowed to live in the lands that
their ancestors lived in for thousands of years. Jackson said that, Humanity and national honor
demand that every effort should be made to avert so great a calamity.
On December 1, 1834 President Jackson at said, I regret the Cherokees east of the
Mississippi have not yet determines as a community to remove. How long the personal causes
which have heretofore retarded that ultimately inevitable measure will continue to operate I am
unable to conjecture. It I certain, however, that delay will bring with it accumulated evils which
will render their condition more and more unpleasant. The experience of every ear adds to the
conviction that emigration, and that alone, can preserve from destruction the remnant of the tries
yet living amongst us.

Eliza Whitmire was enslaves to a Cherokee family when she was five. Her and her family
was forced to leave Georgia. She later described the process of removal. Eliza Whitmire said,
The women and children were driven from their homes, sometimes with blows and close on the
heels of the retreating Indians came greedy whites to pillage the Indians homes, drive off their
cattle, horses, and pigs, and they even rifled the graves for any jewelry, or other ornaments that
might have even buried with the dead. The weeks that followed General Winfield Scotts order
to remove the Cherokees were filled with horror and suffering for the unfortunate Cherokees and
their slaves. The trail of tears was a miserable trip for Native Americans being forced to move to
the other side of the Mississippi River. Thousands of Native Americans died because of the cold
from the harsh winter weather. Those who lived through the journey and had relatives that went
on the trail know it as a bitter memory.
General Winfield Scott said to the Indians, Chiefs, head-men and warriors! Will you
then, by resistance, compel us to resort to arms? Remember that, in pursuit, it may be impossible
to avoid conflicts. The blood of the white man or the blood of the red man may be spilt, and , it
spilt, however accidentally it may be impossible for the discreet and humane among you, or
among us, to prevent a general war and carnage. Think of this, my Cherokee brethren! I am an
old warrior, and have been present at many a scene of slaughter, but spare me, I beseech you, the
horror of witnessing the destruction of the Cherokees.
Elizabeth Watts was a Cherokee woman whose mother was born along the trail of Tears.
Elizabeth Watts said, The soldiers gathered them up, all up, and put them in camps. They hunted
them and ran them down until they got all of them. Even before they were loaded in wagons,
many of them got sick and died. They were all grief stricken they lost all on earth they had.
White men even robbed their deads graves to get their jewelry and other little trinkets. They saw

to stay was impossible and Cherokees told Gen. Scoot they would go without further trouble and
the long journey started. They did not all come at one. First one batch and then another. The sick,
old, and babies rode on the grub and household wagons. The rest rode horse, if they has one.
Most of them walked. Many of them died along the way. The buried them where they dies in
unmarked graves. I was a bitter does and lingered in the mid of Mrs. Watts Grandparents and
parents until death too them. The road they traveled, history calls the Trail of Tears. This trial
was more than tears. It was death, sorrow, hunger, exposure, and humiliation to a civilized people
as were the Cherokees. Generations still remember the terrible suffering that their ancestors went
through.
The Trail of Tears is shown below. It was a trail that lead the Native Americans westward.
It is called the Trail of Tears because thousands of Native Americans suffered and died on that
trail.