Editing Trail of Tears (section)

==Cherokee forced relocation==
{{Main|Cherokee removal}}

[[File:John Ross of the Cherokee.jpg|thumb|upright|Cherokee Principal Chief [[John Ross (Cherokee chief)|John Ross]], photographed before his death in 1866]]

By 1838, about 2,000 Cherokee had voluntarily relocated from Georgia to [[Indian Territory]] (present day Oklahoma). Forcible removals began in May 1838 when General [[Winfield Scott]] received a final order from President [[Martin Van Buren]] to relocate the remaining Cherokees.<ref name="history.com" /> On 17 May 1838, General Scott issued Order No. 25, in the text he stated " Every possible kindness, compatible with the necessity of removal, must, therefore, be shown by the troops, and, if, in the ranks, a despicable individual should be found, capable of inflicting a wanton injury or insult on any Cherokee man, woman or child, it is hereby made the special duty of the nearest good officer or man, instantly to interpose, and to seize and consign the guilty wretch to the severest penalty of the laws. The Major General is fully persuaded that this injunction will not be neglected by the brave men under his command, who cannot be otherwise than jealous of their own honor and that of their country."<ref>{{Cite web |title= Orders No. [25] Head Quarters, Eastern Division Cherokee Agency, Ten. May 17, 1838. |url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.1740400a/?st=text |date=17 May 1838| access-date=16 January 2025 |publisher=n.p.}}</ref> Approximately 4,000 Cherokees died in the ensuing trek to Oklahoma.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Brief History of the Trail of Tears |url=http://www.cherokee.org/About-The-Nation/History/Trail-of-Tears/A-Brief-History-of-the-Trail-of-Tears |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171018070255/http://www.cherokee.org/About-The-Nation/History/Trail-of-Tears/A-Brief-History-of-the-Trail-of-Tears |archive-date=October 18, 2017 |access-date=October 18, 2017 |publisher=www.cherokee.org |df=mdy-all}}</ref> In the [[Cherokee language]], the event is called {{Transliteration|chr|nu na da ul tsun yi}} ({{gloss|the place where they cried}}) or {{Transliteration|chr|nu na hi du na tlo hi lu i}} ({{gloss|the trail where they cried}}).{{citation needed|date=December 2024}} The Cherokee Trail of Tears resulted from the enforcement of the [[Treaty of New Echota]], an agreement signed under the provisions of the [[Indian Removal Act]] of 1830, which exchanged Indian land in the East for lands west of the [[Mississippi River]], but which was never accepted by the elected tribal leadership or a majority of the Cherokee people.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hill |first=Sarah H. |date=2011 |title='To Overawe the Indians and Give Confidence to the Whites': Preparations for the Removal of the Cherokee Nation from Georgia |url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=71619082&site=eds-live&scope=site |url-access=subscription |journal=[[Georgia Historical Quarterly]] |volume=95 |issue=4 |pages=465–497 |access-date=14 February 2018 |df=mdy-all}}</ref>

There were significant changes in gender relations within the Cherokee Nation during the implementation of the [[Indian Removal Act]] during the 1830s. Cherokee historically operated on a [[Matrilineality|matrilineal kinship system]], where children belonged to the clan of their mother and their only relatives were those who could be traced through her. In addition to being matrilineal, Cherokees were also matrilocal.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Miles |first=Tiya |title=Ties that bind: the story of an Afro-Cherokee family in slavery and freedom |date=2015 |isbn=978-0-520-96102-9 |edition=Second |location=Oakland, CA |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |oclc=910160054}}</ref> According to the naturalist William Bartram, "Marriage gives no right to the husband over the property of his wife; and when they part, she keeps the children and property belonging to them."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bartram |first=William |title=Observations on the Creek and Cherokee Indians |date=1909 |publisher=[[American Ethnological Society]] |oclc=520387532}}</ref> In this way, the typical Cherokee family was structured in a way where the wife held possession to the property, house, and children.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=French |first=Laurence |date=June 1976 |title=Social problems among Cherokee females: A study of cultural ambivalence and role identity |journal=[[The American Journal of Psychoanalysis]] |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=163–169 |doi=10.1007/bf01248366 |pmid=1008093 |s2cid=35067453 |issn=0002-9548}}</ref> However, during the 1820s and 1830s, "Cherokees [began adopting] the Anglo-American concept of power—a political system dominated by wealthy, highly acculturated men and supported by an ideology that made women … subordinate".<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Cherokee Women in Crisis: Trail of Tears, Civil War, and Allotment, 1838-1907 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2468-1733_shafr_sim080200084 |access-date=June 10, 2022 |website=The SHAFR Guide Online |doi=10.1163/2468-1733_shafr_sim080200084}}</ref>

The Treaty of New Echota was largely signed by men. While women were present at the rump council negotiating the treaty, they did not have a seat at the table to participate in the proceedings.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rossi |first=Christopher |date=May 24, 2021 |title=The Blind Eye: Jus Soli, And The "Pretended" Treaty Of New Echota |url=https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/ailj/vol9/iss2/8 |journal=American Indian Law Journal |volume=9 |issue=2 |issn=2474-6975 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240801212016/https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/ailj/vol9/iss2/8/ |archive-date=August 1, 2024}}</ref> Historian Theda Perdue explains that "Cherokee women met in their own councils to discuss their own opinions" despite not being able to participate.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Perdue |first=Theda |date=1989 |title=Cherokee Women and the Trail of Tears |journal=[[Journal of Women's History]] |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=14–30 |doi=10.1353/jowh.2010.0030 |s2cid=143666945 |issn=1527-2036}}</ref> The inability for women to join in on the negotiation and signing of the Treaty of New Echota shows how the role of women changed dramatically within Cherokee Nation following colonial encroachment. For instance, Cherokee women played a significant role in the negotiation of land transactions as late as 1785, where they spoke at a treaty conference held at Hopewell, South Carolina to clarify land cessions to the U.S. forced on the Cherokee due to their alliance with Britain during the [[American Revolutionary War]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=O'Brien |first=Greg |date=February 2001 |title=The Conqueror Meets the Unconquered: Negotiating Cultural Boundaries on the Post-Revolutionary Southern Frontier |journal=The Journal of Southern History |volume=67 |issue=1 |pages=39–72 |doi=10.2307/3070084 |jstor=3070084 |issn=0022-4642 |url=http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/G_O'Brien_Conqueror_2001.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240315121435/http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/G_O'Brien_Conqueror_2001.pdf |archive-date=March 15, 2024}}</ref>

The sparsely inhabited Cherokee lands were highly attractive to Georgian farmers experiencing population pressure, and illegal settlements resulted. Long-simmering tensions between Georgia and the Cherokee Nation were brought to a crisis by the discovery of gold near [[Dahlonega, Georgia]], in 1829, resulting in the [[Georgia Gold Rush]], the second [[gold rush]] in U.S. history. Hopeful gold speculators began trespassing on Cherokee lands, and pressure mounted to fulfill the ''[[Compact of 1802]]'' in which the US Government promised to extinguish Indian land claims in the state of Georgia.

When Georgia moved to extend state laws over Cherokee lands in 1830, the matter went to the [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]]. In ''[[Cherokee Nation v. Georgia]]'' (1831), the [[John Marshall|Marshall court]] ruled that the [[Cherokee Nation (19th century)|Cherokee Nation]] was not a sovereign and independent nation, and therefore refused to hear the case. However, in ''[[Worcester v. Georgia]]'' (1832), the Court ruled that Georgia could not impose laws in Cherokee territory, since only the national government—not state governments—had authority in Indian affairs. ''[[Worcester v Georgia]]'' is associated with Andrew Jackson's famous, though apocryphal, quote "John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it!" In reality, this quote did not appear until 30 years after the incident and was first printed in a textbook authored by Jackson critic [[Horace Greeley]].<ref name="The Journal of Southern History" />

[[File:stephens.jpg|left|thumb|Elizabeth "Betsy" Brown Stephens (1903), a Cherokee Indian who walked the Trail of Tears in 1838]]

Fearing open warfare between federal troops and the Georgia militia, Jackson decided not to enforce Cherokee claims against the state of Georgia. He was already embroiled in a constitutional crisis with [[South Carolina]] (i.e. the [[nullification crisis]]) and favored Cherokee relocation over civil war.<ref name="The Journal of Southern History" /> With the [[Indian Removal Act]] of 1830, the [[United States Congress|U.S. Congress]] had given Jackson authority to negotiate removal treaties, exchanging Indian land in the East for land west of the Mississippi River. Jackson used the dispute with Georgia to put pressure on the Cherokees to sign a removal treaty.

The final treaty, passed in Congress by a single vote, and signed by [[President of the United States|President]] [[Andrew Jackson]], was imposed by his successor President [[Martin Van Buren]]. Van Buren allowed [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], [[Tennessee]], [[North Carolina]], and [[Alabama]] an armed force of 7,000 militiamen, army regulars, and volunteers under General Winfield Scott to relocate about 13,000 Cherokees to [[Cleveland, Tennessee]]. After the initial roundup, the U.S. military oversaw the emigration to Oklahoma. Former Cherokee lands were immediately opened to settlement. Most of the deaths during the journey were caused by disease, malnutrition, and exposure during an unusually cold winter.{{sfn|Mooney|2020|p=130}}

The U. S. Army, however, did not conduct or escort the Cherokee emigration detachments to Oklahoma, as is commonly misrepresented by references to the Private John G. Burnett Letter, a faked and fabricated artifact and historically damaging, fictitious story.<ref>Duffield, Lathel, Cherokee Emigration: Reconstructing Reality, The Chronicles of Oklahoma Volume LXXX, Number Three, Fall 2002, pp 314-347; 
Higginbotham, William R, Trail of Tears, Death Toll Myths Dispelled, The Oklahoman, Sun, February 28, 1988
Vogt, Larry A, Seeking the Origins of the Trail of Tears, Oct 2020, pp 29-42
</ref> Records show that the Cherokee did not want to be escorted and, consequently, supervised, outfitted, and conducted their own journeys.<ref>Letters of negotiation between Chief Ross and General Winfield Scott. Annual report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, for the years 1826-1839 [1826-1839] pp459-466 https://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/EYQML7XLRVXUT8C or (Note: There are several other versions/bindings of Annual report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1837-1838, 1838-1839, 1838. In the yearly report copies, the relevant pages fall in the range of pp ~20-30.)
Burnett’s militia service details:  Historic Sullivan, A History Sullivan County Tennessee with Brief Biographies of the Makers of History ,by Oliver Taylor pp206-207; Ross’ Landing Payment vouchers, located and transcribed by: Stephen Neal Dennis, Source:  From original documents in Record Group 217 at the National Archives and Records Administration; Captain McClellan service, https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/M000328 , United States Congress, “MCCLELLAN, Abraham,”
</ref>

In the winter of 1838 the Cherokee began the {{convert|1000|mi|km|adj=on|sigfig=2}} march with scant clothing and most on foot without shoes or moccasins. The march began in [[Red Clay State Park|Red Clay, Tennessee]], the location of the last Eastern capital of the Cherokee Nation. Because of the diseases, the Indians were not allowed to go into any towns or villages along the way; many times this meant traveling much farther to go around them.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{Cite conference |title=Report |conference=Illinois General Assembly |volume=HJR0142}}</ref> After crossing Tennessee and Kentucky, they arrived at the [[Ohio River]] across from [[Golconda, Illinois|Golconda in southern Illinois]] about the 3rd of December 1838. Here the starving Indians were charged a dollar a head (equal to ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|1|1838|r=2}}}} today) to cross the river on "Berry's Ferry" which typically charged twelve cents, equal to ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|0.12|1838|r=2}}}} today. They were not allowed passage until the ferry had serviced all others wishing to cross and were forced to take shelter under "Mantle Rock", a shelter bluff on the Kentucky side, until "Berry had nothing better to do". Many died huddled together at Mantle Rock waiting to cross. Several Cherokee were murdered by locals. The Cherokee filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Government through the courthouse in [[Vienna, Illinois|Vienna]], suing the government for $35 a head (equal to ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|35|1838|r=2}}}} today) to bury the murdered Cherokee.<ref name="ReferenceA" />

As they crossed southern Illinois, on December 26, Martin Davis, commissary agent for Moses Daniel's detachment, wrote:

<blockquote>There is the coldest weather in Illinois I ever experienced anywhere. The streams are all frozen over something like {{Convert|8|or|12|in|cm|0|disp=sqbr}} thick. We are compelled to cut through the ice to get water for ourselves and animals. It snows here every two or three days at the fartherest. We are now camped in Mississippi [River] swamp {{Convert|4|mi|km|0}} from the river, and there is no possible chance of crossing the river for the {{sic|nume|rous quantity|hide=y}} of ice that comes floating down the river every day. We have only traveled {{Convert|65|mi|km|round=5}} on the last month, including the time spent at this place, which has been about three weeks. It is unknown when we shall cross the river....<ref name="FamilyTree">{{Cite book |last=Adams |first=Mattie Lorraine |title=Family Tree of Daniel and Rachel Davis |publisher=Claxton Printing Company |year=1973 |location=Duluth, Georgia}}</ref></blockquote>

A volunteer soldier from Georgia who participated in the removal recounted:

<blockquote>I fought through the civil war and have seen men shot to pieces and slaughtered by thousands, but the Cherokee removal was the cruelest work I ever knew.<ref name="Historical Sketch of the Cherokee">{{Cite book |last=Mooney |first=James |title=Historical Sketch of the Cherokee |publisher=Aldine Transaction |year=2005 |isbn=0202308170 |page=124}}</ref></blockquote>

[[File:Southern Illinois Trail of Tears map.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|A Trail of Tears map of Southern Illinois from the USDA – U.S. Forest Service]]

It eventually took almost three months to cross the {{convert|60|mi|km|abbr=off}} on land between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Trail of Tears in Southern Illinois |url=http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5156722.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924022830/http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5156722.pdf |archive-date=September 24, 2015 |access-date=April 7, 2015 |publisher=[[US Forest Service]] |df=mdy-all}}</ref> The trek through southern Illinois is where the Cherokee suffered most of their deaths. However a few years before forced removal, some Cherokee who opted to leave their homes voluntarily chose a water-based route through the Tennessee, Ohio and Mississippi rivers. It took only 21 days, but the Cherokee who were forcibly relocated were wary of water travel.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rush |first=Linda |date=November 10, 2011 |title=The Cherokee Nation in Southern Illinois |url=http://thesouthern.com/progress/section3/the-cherokee-nation-in-southern-illinois/article_e3c092a6-f40a-11e0-8279-001cc4c03286.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151210184616/http://thesouthern.com/progress/section3/the-cherokee-nation-in-southern-illinois/article_e3c092a6-f40a-11e0-8279-001cc4c03286.html |archive-date=December 10, 2015 |access-date=April 7, 2015 |newspaper=The Southern Illinoisan |df=mdy-all}}</ref>

Environmental researchers David Gaines and Jere Krakow outline the "context of the tragic Cherokee relocation" as one predicated on the difference between "Indian regard for the land, and its contrast with the Euro-Americans view of land as property".<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Gaines |first1=David M. |last2=Krakow |first2=Jere L. |date=1996-11-01 |title=The trail of tears national historic trail |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169204696003386 |journal=Landscape and Urban Planning |language=en |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=159–169 |doi=10.1016/S0169-2046(96)00338-6 |bibcode=1996LUrbP..36..159G |issn=0169-2046 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220610172624/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0169204696003386 |archive-date=June 10, 2022}}</ref> This divergence in perspective on land, according to sociologists Gregory Hooks and Chad L. Smith, led to the homes of American Indian people "being donated and sold off" by the United States government to "promote the settlement and development of the West," with railroad developers, white settlers, land developers, and mining companies assuming ownership.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hooks |first1=Gregory |last2=Smith |first2=Chad L. |date=2004 |title=The Treadmill of Destruction: National Sacrifice Areas and Native Americans |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3593065 |journal=American Sociological Review |volume=69 |issue=4 |pages=558–575 |doi=10.1177/000312240406900405 |jstor=3593065 |s2cid=145428620 |issn=0003-1224}}</ref> In American Indian society, according to Colville scholar [[Dina Gilio-Whitaker]], it caused "the loss of ancient connections to homelands and sacred sites," "the deaths of upward of 25 percent of those on the trail" and "the loss of life-sustaining livestock and crops."<ref name="Gilio-Whitaker">{{Cite book |last=Gilio-Whitaker |first=Dina |title=As long as grass grows: the indigenous fight for environmental justice, from colonization to Standing Rock |date=2 April 2019 |publisher=[[Beacon Press]] |isbn=978-0-8070-7378-0 |oclc=1267430090}}</ref>

Dina Gilio-Whitaker draws on research by Choctaw and Chippewa historian [[Clara Sue Kidwell]] to show the relationship between the Trail of Tears and a negative impact on the environment. In tracking the environmental changes of the southeastern tribes who relocated to new lands across the Trail of Tears, Kidwell finds that "prior to removal the tribes had already begun adapting to a cash-based, private property economic system with their adoption of many European customs (including the practice of slave owning), after their move west they had become more deeply entrenched into the American economic system with the discovery of coal deposits and the western expansion of the railroads on and through their lands. So while they adapted to their new environments, their relationship to land would change to fit the needs of an imposed capitalist system".<ref name="Gilio-Whitaker" /> Cherokee ethnobotanist [[Clint Carroll]] illustrates how this imposed capitalist system altered Cherokee efforts to protect traditional medicinal plants during relocation, saying that "these changes have resulted in contrasting land management paradigms, rooted in the language of 'resource-based' versus 'relationship-based' approaches, a binary imposed on tribal governments by the Bureau of Indian Affairs through their historically paternalistic relationship".<ref name="Gilio-Whitaker" /> This shift in land management as a function of removal had negative environmental ramifications such as solidifying "a deeply entrenched bureaucratic structure that still drives much of the federal-tribal relationship and determines how tribal governments use their lands, sometimes in ways that contribute to climate change and, in extreme cases, ways that lead to human rights abuses".<ref name="Gilio-Whitaker" />

In addition to a physical relocation, American Indian removal and the Trail of Tears had social and cultural effects as American Indians were forced "to contemplate abandonment of their native land. To the Cherokees life was a part of the land. Every rock, every tree, every place had a spirit. And the spirit was central to the tribal lifeway. To many, the thought of loss of place was a thought of loss of self, loss of Cherokeeness, and a loss of life- way".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Strickland |first=William M. |date=1982-09-01 |title=The rhetoric of removal and the trail of tears: Cherokee speaking against Jackson's Indian removal policy, 1828–1832 |journal=Southern Speech Communication Journal |volume=47 |issue=3 |pages=292–309 |doi=10.1080/10417948209372535 |issn=0361-8269}}</ref> This cultural shift is characterized by Gilio-Whitaker as "environmental deprivation," a concept that "relates to historical processes of land and resource dispossession calculated to bring about the destruction of Indigenous Americans' lives and cultures. Environmental deprivation in this sense refers to actions by settlers and settler governments that are designed to block Native peoples' access to life-giving and culture-affirming resources".<ref name="Gilio-Whitaker" /> The separation of American Indian people from their land lead to the loss of cultural knowledge and practices, as described by scholar Rachel Robison-Greene, who finds the "legacy of fifteenth-century European colonial domination" led to "Indigenous knowledge and perspectives" being "ignored and denigrated by the vast majority of social, physical, biological and agricultural scientists, and governments using colonial powers to exploit Indigenous resources".<ref>{{cite web |last=Robison-Greene |first=Rachel |date=November 27, 2020 |title=Revisiting the Trail of Tears: Tribal Control and Environmental Justice |url=https://www.prindlepost.org/2020/11/revisiting-the-trail-of-tears-tribal-control-and-environmental-justice/ |access-date=June 10, 2022 |website=The Prindle Post |language=en-US |archive-date=January 25, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125043528/https://www.prindlepost.org/2020/11/revisiting-the-trail-of-tears-tribal-control-and-environmental-justice/ |url-status=dead}}</ref> Indigenous cultural and intellectual contribution to "environmental issues" in the form of a "rich history, cultural customs, and practical wisdom regarding sustainable environmental practices" can be lost because of Indigenous removal and the Trail of Tears, according to Greene.

Removed Cherokees initially settled near [[Tahlequah, Oklahoma]]. When signing the [[Treaty of New Echota]] in 1835 Major Ridge said "I have signed my death warrant." The resulting political turmoil led to the killings of [[Major Ridge]], [[John Ridge]], and [[Elias Boudinot (Cherokee)|Elias Boudinot]]; of the leaders of the Treaty Party, only [[Stand Watie]] escaped death.<ref>{{cite book |last=Corlew |first=Robert Ewing |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9McNQm27VmUC&q=Tennessee:+A+Short+History |title=Tennessee: A Short History |publisher=[[University of Tennessee Press]] |year=1990 |isbn=0-87049-647-6 |page=153}}<br />{{cite web |last=Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians |title=Cherokee Heritage Trails |url=http://www.cherokeeheritagetrails.org/calhoun_places.html |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101101074638/http://cherokeeheritagetrails.org/calhoun_places.html |archive-date=November 1, 2010 |access-date=August 16, 2010 |publisher=Museum of the Cherokee Indian |df=mdy-all}}<br />{{cite web |last=Hooper |first=Ed |title=Chief John Ross |url=http://www.tennesseehistory.com/class/JohnRoss.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100522063039/http://www.tennesseehistory.com/class/JohnRoss.htm |archive-date=May 22, 2010 |access-date=August 16, 2010 |website=Tennessee History Magazine |df=mdy-all}}</ref> The population of the Cherokee Nation eventually rebounded, and today the Cherokees are the largest American Indian group in the United States.<ref>{{cite web |date=August 1995 |title=Top 25 American Indian Tribes for the United States: 1990 and 1980 |url=https://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/race/indian/ailang1.txt |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111126203120/http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/race/indian/ailang1.txt |archive-date=November 26, 2011 |publisher=[[U.S. Bureau of the Census]]}}</ref>

There were some exceptions to removal. Approximately 100 Cherokees evaded the U.S. soldiers and lived off the land in Georgia and other states. Those Cherokees who lived on private, individually owned lands (rather than communally owned tribal land) were not subject to removal. In North Carolina, about 400 Cherokees, sometimes referred to as the Oconaluftee Cherokee due to their settlement near to the [[Oconaluftee River|river of the same name]], lived on land in the [[Great Smoky Mountains]] owned by a white man named [[William Holland Thomas]] (who had been adopted by Cherokees as a boy), and were thus not subject to removal. Added to this were some 200 Cherokee from the Nantahala area allowed to stay in the [[Qualla Boundary]] after assisting the U.S. Army in hunting down and capturing the family of the old prophet, [[Tsali]], who was executed by a firing squad as were most of his family. These North Carolina Cherokees became the [[Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians|Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation]].

A local newspaper, the ''Highland Messenger'', said July 24, 1840, "that between nine hundred and a thousand of these deluded beings … are still hovering about the homes of their fathers, in the counties of [[Macon County, North Carolina|Macon]] and [[Cherokee County, North Carolina|Cherokee]]" and "that they are a great annoyance to the citizens" who wanted to buy land there believing the Cherokee were gone; the newspaper reported that President Martin Van Buren said "they … are, in his opinion, free to go or stay.'<ref>{{cite news |first=Rob |last=Neufeld |date=July 21, 2019 |title=Visiting Our Past: In frontier days, Asheville forged a high culture enclave |work=[[Asheville Citizen-Times]] |url=https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2019/07/21/visiting-our-past-ashevilles-frontier-days-high-culture-enclave/1769048001/ |access-date=July 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240827184708/https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2019/07/21/visiting-our-past-ashevilles-frontier-days-high-culture-enclave/1769048001/ |archive-date=August 27, 2024}}</ref>

Several Cherokee speakers throughout history offered first-hand accounts of the events of the Trail of Tears as well as provided insight into its lasting effects. [[Elias Boudinot (Cherokee)|Elias Budinot]], [[Major Ridge]], [[Speckled Snake]], [[John Ross (Cherokee chief)|John Ross]], and Richard Taylor were all notable Cherokee orators during the 19th century who used the speech as a form of resistance against the U.S. government. John Ross, the Cherokee Chief from 1828 to 1866, and Major Ridge embarked on a speaking tour within the Cherokee Nation itself in hopes of strengthening a sense of unity amongst the tribal members.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Strickland |first=William M. |date=1982-09-01 |title=The rhetoric of removal and the trail of tears: Cherokee speaking against Jackson's Indian removal policy, 1828–1832 |journal=Southern Speech Communication Journal |volume=47 |issue=3 |pages=292–309 |doi=10.1080/10417948209372535 |issn=0361-8269}}</ref> Tribal unity was a central tenet to Cherokee resistance, with Ross stating in his council address: "'Much…depends on our unity of sentiment and firmness of action, in maintaining those sacred rights which we have ever enjoyed'".<ref name=":1" /> Cherokee speeches like this were made even more important because the state of Georgia made it illegal for members of American Indian tribes to both speak to an all-white court and convince other Indian tribal members not to move.<ref name=":1" />

Another influential Cherokee figure was Cherokee writer John Ridge, son of Major Ridge, who wrote four articles using the pseudonym "Socrates". His works were published in the Cherokee Phoenix, the nation's newspaper. The choice of pseudonym, according to literary scholar Kelly Wisecup, "...facilitated a rhetorical structure that created not only a public persona recognizable to the Phoenix's multiple readerships but also a public character who argued forcefully that white readers should respect Cherokee rights and claims".<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Wisecup |first=Kelly |date=2017 |title=Practicing Sovereignty: Colonial Temporalities, Cherokee Justice, and the "Socrates" Writings of John Ridge |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/natiindistudj.4.1.0030 |journal=Native American and Indigenous Studies |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=30–60 |doi=10.5749/natiindistudj.4.1.0030 |jstor=10.5749/natiindistudj.4.1.0030 |s2cid=149269064 |issn=2332-1261}}</ref> The main focal points of Ridge's articles critiqued the perceived hypocrisy of the U.S. government, colonial history, and the events leading up to the Trail of Tears, using excerpts from American and European history and literature.<ref name=":2" />

=== Eastern Cherokee Restitution ===
The [[United States Court of Claims]] ruled in favor of the Eastern Cherokee Nation's claim against the U.S. on May 18, 1905. This resulted in the appropriation of $1 million (equal to $27,438,023.04 today) to the Nation's eligible individuals and families. Interior Department employee Guion Miller created a list using several rolls and applications to verify tribal enrollment for the distribution of funds, known as the [[Guion Miller Roll]]. The applications received documented over 125,000 individuals; the court approved more than 30,000 individuals to share in the funds.<ref>{{cite book |last=Miller |first=Guion |title=The Guion Miller Roll: Index to the Applications submitted for the Cherokee Roll |date=March 2017 |publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform |isbn=978-1544972503}}</ref>{{page needed|date=December 2017}}