Aniyvwiya or Cherokee people once possessed a territory of 40 thousand acres in the present day states of Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky. Our capital, Itsoti, was destroyed by militia men from NC during the American Revolution. We rebuilt it at New Echota in northern Georgia, this time along Euro-American lines. We decided, quite foolishly, to reorganize our government as well, basing it on that created by the Americans and a man named Cooweescoowee, or John Ross, was elected "Principle Chief" in 1828. At the very same year, Andrew Jackson was elected President of the US.

It was he who instituted the Indian Removal Act that had first been proposed by Jefferson in 1802. But he made it law. The basic idea was that Indians would be "better off" if they were all moved West of the Mississippi. Throughout his administration he worked toward that end.

First the Choctaw were forced to leave Louisianna and Mississippi. They signed the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1832. Thousands died on the way to "Indian Territory", now the state of Oklahoma. There is one story, where hundreds of Choctaw were crowded onto a steamboat that suddenly exploded. The people were scalded or killed by the explosion, cast into the icy river where most of the remainder froze to death. Then the Chickasaw were forced to leave around the same time. Altogether, probably two thousand Choctaw and Chickasaw died. Then there were the Seminole.

The Seminole were not willing to cooperate with their land being stolen. The government fought war after war with them, deporting the majority of them to Oklahoma. However, a small band of about five hundred hold outs refused to move. In 1858 the government gave up and left them there. This is why the Seminole of Florida are known as "the Unconquered". And then came time for the cousins of the Seminole, the Creek to be moved.

In 1835, because of a corrupt Creek by the name of William Mcgilavry, most of his people were forced to move to Oklahoma as well. He was assassinated by some of his own people because of this. They Creek had lost a bloody war with the US back in 1814 so some had already been deported, but this was the mother load of Creeks being cast across the river. Now came time for the Cherokee.

From the beginning of Jackson's administration Cherokees had been repeatedly abused and mistreated by the government and particularly by Georgians. They organized something called the "Pony Club" where they'd ride through the Cherokee Nation at night and burn down houses, steal corn and livestock. Sometimes throw people out of their homes and then start living it in themselves. The Cherokee were not allowed to testify in court against a white man in Georgia. So they took their case to the Supreme Court.

The Chief Justice John Marshall ruled, "The Cherokee Nation is a sovereign and independent nation. Not subject to the authority of the United States nor the state laws of Georgia." According the US constitution, the President absolutely MUST back a decision made by the Supreme Court. But when Jackson heard of this he simply said, "John Marshall has made his decision now let HIM enforce it." In the late summer and early fall of 1838 the Cherokee Nation was invaded.

US soldiers and men from militias of many southern states came in and rounded up all Cherokee people placing them in stockades like animals to await transport to Indian Territory. But a few Cherokees weren't so willing to go. A man Tsali "Charley", was responsible for this.

He was in an altercation with soldiers attempting to arrest him. He accidentally killed both of them in self defense. He and a ragged band of mountain Cherokees held out and hid from the soldiers for a long time. Surviving on roots and berries. Eventually Tsali agreed to surrender, only so long as the government promised to allow the mountain Cherokees to stay where they were. They agreed. He and two accomplishes surrendered. When they arrived they were to be executed. Tsali refused to allow white soldiers to kill him and made them give the guns to other Cherokees. The three men were shot by firing squad and fell backward into the graves that had already been dug for them. It is solely because of the sacrifice of Tsali that a thousand Cherokee remained back East to become the Eastern Band of Cherokees we know today. But the rest were not so fortunate.

Thousands of Cherokees were forced to march nearly a thousand miles from their homes to Indian Territory. So many people died along the way that John Ross asked that he be allowed to take care of the rest of the removal. They agreed, but gave him no time to prepare. So the remainder were forced to move in the dead of winter on December 1st, 1838. Again, sickness abounded and people died of dysentery, cholera, small pox etc. Also, many froze or starved to death. Approximately 16 thousand Cherokees were uprooted and moved from their traditional homeland and along the March about four thousand of that number died. The trail we called "Nunahi Duna Dlo Hilu-i" The Trail Where they Cried, known to history as "the trail of tears."