Trail+of+Tears

1. My topic is the Trail of Tears during the Westward Expansion. 2. **What i already know:**
 * Who? Cherokees during the Trail of Tears
 * What? The journey the Cherokee's took traveling the "Trail of Tears"
 * Where? The Trail of Tears through the West
 * When? From 1837- 1838
 * Why? Settlers wanted to take Cherokee's land to mine for gold and other things
 * How? American soldiers rounded them up and made them march or ride horses if they had them
 * How did this impact the class topic or vice versa? This affected the class topic because many Settlers moved West but this is when NATIVES where forced to move in further West so that Settler's could have their lands.

3. **What I want to know (research questions):**
 * Who? How many people died? Who are some people that are still alive that their relitives were in this and lived?
 * What? What did they eat along the way? What did the Soldiers eat?
 * Where? Where did they sleep? Where did the Soldiers sleep? Where were they buried?
 * When? When did the Cherokee's first see settlers coming into their lands? When did they start fighting back?
 * Why? Why did they not fight back more? Why didn't other Indians help them?
 * How? How where they buried? How'd the Soldiers get more food than the Cherokee's?
 * How did this impact the class topic or vice versa? This affected the class topic because our class topic is about Westward Expansion and part of the people who "expanded" West were the Cherokees when they were forced to migrate on the route called the "Trail of Tears".

4. **My research strategy:**
 * Who? I'll ask Mrs. HOrn and Ms. Brem for help in locating information. I could ask Ms. Brolan or Mr. D. I could ask the public librarian as well.
 * What? Expert websites, databases, ecyclopedias, books, and textbooks.
 * When? During class or outside of class if I need to.
 * Where? The CTMS and public library, on any other computer for online resources.
 * How? I'll use my thesis statement and research questions to figure out what to look for and what to take notes on.
 * Key words for searching: "trail of tears", "cherokees", "Native American Removal Act", "The Cherokees on the Trail of Tears", "cruel movement of Cherokees West", "Andrew Jackson's policy on Native Americans".


 * Draft **The Trail of Tears was a forced Westward Expansion that Native Americans had to endure to make room for American Settlers. "The white men wanted the Cherokees moved far to the West so that they and their sons could farm the fertile valleys of the Cherokee Nation." (Bealer) So the Americans betrayed the Indians by breaking the treaties they had made so many years before and forcing them to go on a horrible journey they will never, in a million years, forget.

In 1785, the Cherokees and the United States signed the Treaty of Hopewell which defined boundaries separating U.S. land from Cherokee land. In 1791, the Treaty of Holston was signed which entitled the U.S. to some Cherokee land in return for money every year for that land. In this treaty the United States and the Cherokee agreed that "the peace and friendship between them would be permanent and perpetual". But the worst part is, is that the Cherokee thought that giving up a small amount of land was not a big price to pay for such assurances of future security and peace. (Byers) Thus, the Trail of Tears began.

There was more than one Trail of Tears. The Choctaws, Creek Nation, and Seminols also were removed by force. The Choctaw tribe was the first tribe to sign the treaty to give up their land and move west. In 1831 thousands left their lands. Hundreds died because of disease, exposure, and exhaustion. And for the ones that stayed behind and decided not to move they got cheated out of their life holding and ended up having to leave as well. And then, the Americans wanted the Creek Nation to leave but the Creeks didn't want to leave peacefully. The American Army captured 10's of thousands of Creeks and moved them to Oklahoma where, along the way, they were cruely treated and died of exposure and disease. And finally the Seminoles, who were tricked into signing the treaty and then fought back when government officials tried to enforce it. The result of that was the Second Seminol War when U.S. authorities tried to remove them from Florida. Soon afterwards they were defeated and forced to march Westward in Chains in 1859.

Though compared to all that the Cherokee's Removal was by far the worst. In May and June of 1838, the Cherokee were dragged from their homes at bayonet point. All weapons were taken from the Cherokees, supposibly to be returned when the removal was complete and the Cherokees were relocated in their new western home. General Scott, who was in charge of the removal, set down rules to ensure no one was hurt and they were respectfully treated by the soldiers. "When the roundup began, however, the general's orders were not always followed." (Byers) Scott could not control the murderous Georgia Guard that led the round-up. "Members of the guard often treated the Cherokee with violence and stole what the Cherokee were forced to leave behind and what little they carried with them. including food that was already in desperately short supply." (Byers) Though the Cherokees had more hardships to come.

The Cherokees journey was very harsh and the conditions were horrible. Thousands of Cherokees had no blankets or shoes. They were all starving. At least 20 Cherokees died a night from pneumonia or the cold. "People were forced to huddle together for warmth also passed their sickness along." (Byers) Many just sat down and waited for death to come take them. Whenever they traveled on boats it was so overcrowded many died. By the end of the journey thousands of unmarked graces lay between where the journey started and where the journey ended. "Death came in the form of starvation, exposure to the elements, and disease." (Byers)

The Trail of Tears did benefit Westward Expansion by bringing Native Americans west and allowing more Settlers to move and migrate, but at a terrible cost. It was one of the most regretted actions in all of American History. What happened to those Indians is unforgivable and we can only hope it will never happen again.

code code Works Cited code Bealer, Alex W. //Only the Names Remain//. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1996. Print. code code Byers, Ann. //The Trail of Tears//. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc., 2004. Print. code code "Trail of Tears." //Encyclopaedia Britannica//. Britannica, 2010. Web. 29 Mar. 2010. code code . code code "Trail of Tears: 1830-1858." //thenagain.info/webchron/usa/TrailofTears.htm//. N.p., 2010. Web. 29 Mar. code code 2010. . code code Williams, Jeanne. //Trails of Tears//. Dallas, Texas: Hendrick-Long Publishing Co., 1930. Print. code Paraphrase || No quotes or paraphrasing used. || Very few quotes or paraphrases included, no parenthetical references. || Some errors in quoting or paraphrasing and/or a few missing parenthetical references. || Several quotes and paraphrased pieces of information in each body paragraph, all with parenthetical references. || 4 ||
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 * Thesis || No thesis. || Thesis is present in introductory paragraph but is not well-written. || Thesis included in introductory paragraph is satisfactory if a bit obvious. || Thesis included in introductory paragraph is well-written and interesting. || 4 ||
 * Flow || Paper is difficult to read and understand. || Paper is full of short, choppy sentences and topic shifts with no transitions. || Some use of transitional words and phrases but the paper is a bit choppy at times. || Use of transitional words and phrases as well as topic sentences makes the paper easy to read from start to finish. || 4 ||
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 * Works Cited || No works cited page included. || Works cited page is included but there are several errors. || Works cited page is included but there are a few formatting errors. || Works cited page is included and is correctly formatted. || 4 ||
 * Conventions || Difficult to understand. || Several errors. || A few errors. || Little to no errors in grammar, spelling or punctuation. || 4 ||