Along with the Choctaw, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Seminoles, the Cherokee made up what white settlers referred to as the "Five Civilized Tribes."  They were given this title because they had worked to adopt the customs of the white people.  In other words, they assimilated to the white culture.
    As white settlers began moving in on Cherokee land, they brought many things that would change the Cherokee way of life.  Horses and guns are two examples of this change.  Most of the Cherokee chiefs believed that if their people learned to live with the whites then Indian homelands would be honored.
    During the period from 1730, when the first treaty was signed, to 1838, which marked the final removal of the Cherokee from their homeland on the Trail of Tears , the Cherokee continued to assimilate to the white culture.  Most of the Cherokee were seeking to live peacefully along side the whites.  The majority of the men were farmers, the women wove their own fabric in order to make clothes similar to the whites, and log cabins replaced the mud huts of their ancestors.
    Learning English also became important to the Cherokee, so schools were established.  One Cherokee, however, believed it was important to record the Cherokee language, as well.  Sequoyah finally succeeded, in 1821, in completing an alphabet to be used in teaching his people to read and write their own language.

    Finally, trying to protect their homeland, Cherokee leaders set up a government system designed after the United States system.
 

Even with all these changes, whites still did not see Indians as fit to own land and live along side them.  The position of these Americans was supported in 1828 when Andrew Jacksonwas elected president.   President Jackson was a war hero and an Indian fighter who believed that the Indians should be removed from the land.  In 1830, he signed the Indian Removal Act authorizing the movement of Indian tribes to Indian Territory in present day Oklahoma.

    After taking their case all the way to the Supreme Court, the Cherokee finally lost the battle for their homeland.  In May of 1838, soldiers rained down on the Cherokee villages, dragging people from their homes, taking farmers out of the field and children from their beds.  They were then forced to march toward Indian Territory, a 1,000 mile march in which one out of every four Cherokees died.  Because of the heartache and death that the Indians endured on this march, it since and forever will be called the Trail of Tears.  Several accounts of the journey have been recorded by those who survived, including one by a nine year old boy named Samuel.
 
 

    Your assignment as a journalist is to investigate the sites highlighted above.  Think about the feeling and emotions involved for both the Cherokee, as well as President Jackson.  Consider the justification for forcing the Indians from their homes.  Consider other options that the Indians may have had.  Ask yourself "who, what, where, when, why, and how" questions in regard to the removal of the Indians and the Trail of Tears.  Then, take a position on either side and create a story, an obituary, or a letter to the editor to place in the copy of the newspaper.

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