The Trail of Tears for Many Indian Tribes

The Trail of Tears was a hard and tragic time for many indian tribes. They went through illnesses, snow storms, and much worse. There were 5 tribes that went on this 1,000 mile journey. There were around 4,000 deaths, caused from illnesses, malnutrition, and exposure(warpaths2peacepipes.com). The Cherokees called this the Nunna daul Isunyi' which means, The Trail Where They Cried (warpaths2peacepipes.com). These indian tribes went through horrific times while being pushed into what was known as indian territory. The Indian Removal Act was signed in 1830. This act forced 5 tribes off their homelands. The Choctaw were removed in 1831, the Seminole were removed in 1832, the Creek were removed in 1834, the Chickasaw were removed in 1837, and the Cherokee were removed in 1838 (warpaths2peacepipes.com). These tribes went multiple different ways to get to the same place, which was known as indian territory. However, some routes were longer than the other based on where they originally were. The Trail of Tears was a long journey the Cherokee people had 600 wagons and carts, 5,000 horses, and just over 100 oxen (warpaths2peacepipes.com). They had little clothing, some had moccasins, and they only had light blankets. When they left it was late November so they had to face the winter weather. The wealthy members of the tribes travelled ahead of the large groups. They were lucky and had warm weather on their journey and they got to ride in covered wagons (warpaths2peacepipes.com). The majority lacked provisions and comfort. However, not everyone had to walk the whole Trail of Tears route. The tribes were taken as close to the indian territory by steamboat. Large numbers of Choctaw and Creek Indians were taken as close as they could by barges and flatboats. Some were provided with wagons but couldn't fit everyone in them so many had to walk. Also, many horses died on the journey so that left more people to walk. The Trail of Tears was an awful and long journey for these indians. In the winter the Trail of Tears was too cold to hunt so they had very little to eat yet alone drink. Many starved to death because they didn't have the proper body weight to survive. Sometimes they couldn't even find fresh water to drink, that caused even more deaths (trailoftearsgroup.weebly.com). Hypothermia was also a big part of the death toll. They had multiple diseases and infections. Some of these diseases were caused by contaminated water and when one person had it spread to more members of the tribe. Some of these diseases were smallpox, malaria, measles, cholera, whooping cough, influenza, and pneumonia (warpaths2peacepipes.com). There was no cure for these diseases, no doctors, and no medicine on the Trail of Tears. The young, weak, sick, and elderly were the first to die. This caused grieving families, and there were multiple unmarked graves far away from their homeland. These graves were spread along the Trail of Tears. There were around 4000 deaths on the Trail of Tears. The Trail of Tears was a long horrid journey for these Indian tribes. They had faced multiple diseases, cold weather, and a lack of resources. The Trail of Tears was full of difficult things for these tribes to overcome. There were scattered graves along this trail far away from their homelands. Sadly, these tribes lost many some almost all. The Trail of Tears was the worst and most atrocious thing that happened to these tribes.

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