10. Provide more material on the “five civilized tribes,” particularly the Cherokees, and discuss their fate during and after the “Trail of Tears.”

The “five civilized tribes” is referring to the five Native American tribes, the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole. These tribes were considered “civilized” because they had adopted many customs of the white society and had good relations with their neighbors. These tribes were relocated from their homes east of the Mississippi River to the Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. This removal was part of the Trail of Tears of 1838.

Creek, which came from the shortening of “Ocheese Creek” Indians, were originally named Muskogee. They lived in villages in river valleys throughout what are today the states of Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. After the War of 1812, some Creek leaders signed numbers of treaties that ceded more lands to Georgia. The Creek established a law that made land cessions a capital offense. However, on February 12, 1825, William McIntosh and other chiefs signed the Treaty of Indian Springs, which gave up most of the remaining Creek lands in Georgia. Some believed he was bribed to sell out his people; others thought that he realized that the Creeks were going to lose their lands eventually, and he got the best possible deal for them. After the ratification of the treaty by the U.S. Senate, Creeks led by Menawa assassinated McIntosh. The Creeks had been forced from Georgia, however, there were still about 20,000 Upper Creeks living in Alabama. A treaty was signed in 1832 that opened a large portion of their land to white settlement, but guaranteed the Creeks protected ownership of the remaining portion of the land that was divided among the leading families. The government did not protect them from speculators, who cheated them out of their lands. Violence broke out, leading to the “Creek War of 1836.” The war was ended by forcibly removing the Creeks to the Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River.

The Chickasaws are originally from present-day Mississippi, now mostly living in Oklahoma. They are related to the Choctaws, who speak a similar language, forming the Western Group of the Muskogean languages. After the Indian Removal Act in 1830, the Chickasaw ceded their land east of the Mississippi in 1832 and agreed to remove to the Indian Territory. They signed a treaty, which stated that the federal government would provide them until they moved. However, it backed down on its promise. They were forced to pay the Choctaws for the right to live on part of their western allotment. They migrated in the winter of 1837-1838.

The Choctaws were organically from the southeast United States, such as Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana of the Muskogean linguistic group, like the Chickasaws. They were the first to sign a removal treaty, in 1830. Some chose to stay in Mississippi under the terms of the Removal Act. However, land-hungry whites squatted on Choctaw territory and cheated them out of their holdings. Soon, most of the remaining Choctaws, fed up of mistreatment, sold their land and moved west. They were organized as the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. In 1831, tens of thousands of Choctaw walked 800km to Oklahoma and many died.

The Seminoles are originally from Florida. A small group of Seminoles was forced into signing a removal treaty in 1833, but the majority of the tribe declared the treaty to be illegitimate and refused to leave. The result was the Seminole War, lasting from 1835 to 1842. Thousands of lives were lost in the war, which cost the Jackson administration 40 to 60 millions of dollars, ten times the amount it had allotted for Indian removal. In the end, most of the Seminoles moved to the new territory in Oklahoma. For those who remained, they defended themselves in the Third Seminole War in 1855-1858, when the U.S. military tried to drive them out. At last, the United States paid the remaining Seminoles to move west.

The Cherokees originated from Southeastern United States. They were tricked with an illegitimate treaty. A small fraction agreed to sign a removal agreement, the Treaty of New Echota. The leaders of the group were not the recognized leaders of the Cherokee nation, and over 15,000 Cherokees signed a petition in protest. Their demands were ignored by the Supreme Court and ratified the treaty in 1836. The Cherokee were given two years to migrate voluntarily. By 1838, only 2,000 had migrated and 16,000 remained on their land. The U.S. government sent 7,000 troops, who forced the Cherokees into stockades. They were not allowed time to gather belongings, and as they left, whites looted their homes. This began the Cherokees’ march known as the Trail of Tears, in which 4,000 Cherokees died of cold, hunger, and disease on their way to the western lands.

www.ngeorgia.com/history/creek.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2959.html

http://www.tolatsga.org/Cherokee1.html

http://www.dickshovel.com/Cherokee1.html

www.wikipedia.org