NARRATIVE

The Trail of Tears is a historical event found in many social studies

textbooks. While educating students on American history is crucial, the information should not be misleading. The textbooks often brush over the actual treatment of Native Americans on their forced removal from their homelands. The textbooks' account in comparison to the counter-narrative provides students with inaccurate information that does not take into account various perspectives on the event. While textbooks depict the white settler's view of a "voluntary" removal to territory west of the Mississippi, they fail to inform students of the effects of forced removal on the Native American tribes. The master narrative in textbooks overlooks the starvation, sickness, exhaustion, and death that the Cherokee Indians experienced on the forced march.

 

     At the beginning of the 1830s, nearly 125,000 Native Americans lived on millions of acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida–land their ancestors had occupied and cultivated for generations (History.com, 2009). However, to the white settlers, these civilized Native American tribes were solely a barrier between them and their lands that were rich with gold. As greed grew, the government began passing laws to drive Native Americans off of their homelands. President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830 to negotiate with the Native Americans. Jackson promised them unsettled lands west of The Mississippi River in exchange for the Indian's lands. The U.S. government made voluntary removal sound beneficial for the Native Americans with promised benefits for their cooperation.

 

However, Native Americans did not find it fair that they were being

asked to "give up" lands that they had peacefully been living on for ages. Rightfully so, the white settlers did not have the Indian's best interests in mind but falsely lead them to believe so. The federal government struggled to enforce relocation, which lead to the forced removal known as the Trail of Tears. Along the trail, Native Americans died from extreme temperatures, lack of food and water, as well as disease. Many children were often separated from their parents and driven into the stockades with the sky for a blanket and the earth for a pillow (Klein, 2019). These Native American viewpoints of the Trail of Tears are often neglected in social studies textbooks, yet are important to the history of our nation. This journey box tells the story of the Trail of Tears through more authentic perspectives that juxtapose the master narrative found in many elementary textbooks. 

 

     Disregarding the Indian's perspective, social studies textbooks focus on the English settlers and omit the stories of the Native American people. Publishers do not tell of the great suffering that the white settlers inflicted upon the Cherokee Indians. In turn, students may see this event as a time of expansion, growth, and opportunity for the United States, instead of a time where Native Americans had their land and lives taken in order to expand American territory. As educators, it is imperative that we are teaching the truth. I have created this journey box to portray a more accurate depiction of the Trail of Tears that incorporates multiple perspectives. I have included both text and image primary sources along with document-based questions to get students thinking deeper about the harsh realities of this event. The essential inquiry question that I want to guide the study of this journey box is How did the Trail of Tears truly impact the Native Americans?