Cherokee Removal Research Paper

Cherokee Removal For this assignment, our group got the opportunity to choose the topic of the Native Americans. The first thing that came to mind was to do my topic on the Cherokee Removal. The Cherokee Removal, part of the trail of tears, occurred in 1838. The U.S. military and various state militias forced some 15,000 Cherokees from their homes in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee and moved them west to Indian Territory. The removal of the Cherokee Nation fulfilled federal and state policies that developed in response to the rapid expansion of white settlers and cotton farming and that were fueled by racism. The Cherokees lost approximately one-fourth of their people to disease, malnourishment, and hardship during the exodus to Indian Territory(wikipedia). The few that survived moved west and made a new life, and the few that decided to agree to become North Carolina citizens, remained in the western North Carolina mountains. Initially, under President George Washington, the federal government encouraged Indians to embrace mainstream white American customs, such …show more content…
Unexplored and deemed unsuitable for white settlement, these lands seemed perfectly suited for ridding the new nation of its Indian problem. Two such treaties were eventually negotiated and approximately one-third of the Cherokee population made the migration west by 1820. However, during the administrations of James Monroe and John Quincy Adams, the federal government adopted a more sympathetic policy towards the native tribes of the southeast, encouraging missionary efforts to "civilize" them, and recognizing more extensive rights of Indians over tribal lands.(Indian