trail of tears
The topic that I decided to use for my research paper is the trail of tears. I decided to use the trail of tears because of its significance to the native American culture and also how this event has gone down as one of the worst moments in American history. The trail of tears included several different tribes like the Cherokee, Seminole and Muscogee tribes just to name a few. These tribes were treated unfairly and many died from starvation and disease during their journey. It began in 1831 when the Cherokee, Seminole, Choctaw, Muscogee-Creek tribes were resided in what is now the deep South. They lived in civilized tribes and some tribes were beginning to go through cultural transformation which is a theory that a group or race will eventually give up their customs and traditions and become accustom to the dominant race or culture. The tribes that were going through cultural transformation were the Cherokee and the Choctaw. George Washington was one of the first advocators of cultural transformation. Andrew Jackson furthered this process by declaring the Indian removal act of 1830. The Indian removal act of 1830 was an addition to the governments policy called Indian removal. The Indian removal policy was put into law by President Andrew Jaackson. The law was embraced by the south because they were anxious to obtain the land occupied by the Native Americans. Georgia was the most excited about the new law because of a ongoing dispute with the Cherokee nation. This was a very controversial law because the law stated that the Indians were suppose to be on their own but in fact they were put under great pressure as Americans forced Native American leaders to sign treaties. Some of the native American leaders who previously refused to sign the treaties decided to change their decisions after Jackson’s re-election in 1832. The Choctaw tribe were the first to be removed. The Choctaw tribe was located in the states that are now known as Alabama, Mississippi. After