WEBVTT - The Wild West 3: Trail of Tears 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.880 Hey, there, this episode contains material that may be uncomfortable 0:00:03.920 --> 0:00:12.360 to hear. Please take care while listening. Some of them 0:00:12.440 --> 0:00:15.720 lived nomadic lives and followed the seasons and the animals. 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:18.880 Others preferred to stay in one place and work the land, 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:24.040 growing crops like sunflowers, corn, pumpkin, and more. Nomadic or 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:28.320 agricultural indigenous people relied on their hunting skills to provide food. 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:32.000 No part of the animal went unused. As we've always heard, 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:35.840 the meat fed them, and the pelts clothed and sheltered them. 0:00:35.880 --> 0:00:39.360 Even the bones could be used both for weapons and tools. 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:45.120 Although cultures sometimes varied, they shared similar rituals. Some followed 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:48.159 leaders instead of rulers, and above all, a sense of 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:52.840 community was stronger than individualism. The people marked the seasons 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:57.080 and celebrated their triumphs and losses together. In their mind, 0:00:57.160 --> 0:01:00.840 the land and the animals that roamed it sacred and 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:05.199 life giving. Across North America, some eighteen million indigenous people 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:09.800 lived in harmony with nature, earth and sky, water and animals. 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:12.600 The Native Americans believed that they were at one with 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:16.839 all of it. Others, though, felt that they were above it. 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:21.000 To them, nature was something to conquer. In fourteen ninety two, 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:24.319 Christopher Columbus arrived in the Caribbean. A little over a 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:27.720 century later, Europeans landed on the shores of North America 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:32.039 in droves, bringing their own cultures, and they also brought disease. 0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:35.679 You have to remember the native populations had no prior 0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:41.959 exposure to things like smallpox, chicken pox, typhoid, leptospirosis, influenza, 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:46.399 or bubonic plague. Those were European illnesses, not global things, 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:50.080 and the results were devastating. Smallpox had one of the 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:53.800 highest mortality rates of them all, and it spread like wildfire. 0:01:54.320 --> 0:01:58.200 Half of the entire Cherokee population died from smallpox during 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:02.000 an outbreak in seventeen thirty eight. Twenty years later, half 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:06.280 the Cataba tribes succumbed. European settlers traveled across the country, 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:10.040 and everywhere they went they carried the disease. Some historians 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:14.400 estimate that smallpox killed roughly ninety percent of indigenous tribes 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:18.440 across the continent. Folks back then didn't have a clear 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:21.799 view on how disease worked, though, and so settlers took 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:24.760 the death toll as a sign from the heavens. In 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:28.080 their minds, God himself had chosen them to tame and 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:32.040 inherit the land, and he was clearing the way. Plymouth, 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:36.120 Massachusetts settler William Bradford wrote in horrific detail of the 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:39.760 slow and miserable deaths that God had bestowed on the 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:43.639 Native Americans. Disease rendered them unable to care for themselves 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:48.919 or their families. Entire communities starved or became dehydrated. God, 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:52.680 he wrote, was good. He had provided for the English 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:56.760 by killing others. Please tell me that you can see 0:02:56.760 --> 0:03:00.720 the hypocrisy in that. And while these diseases also killed 0:03:00.720 --> 0:03:04.480 plenty of settlers, they mostly had immunity from prior exposure 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:08.120 and didn't take long before Europeans quickly learned that spreading 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:11.959 the disease was an effective weapon against the Native Americans, 0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:15.000 and if they killed off the indigenous people, they could 0:03:15.120 --> 0:03:19.520 take over their land. Correspondence between British Commander and Chief 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:24.440 Sir Jeffrey Amherst and Colonel Henry Bouquet discussed spreading diseases 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:28.000 as a warfare tactic. So when an outbreak of smallpox 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:32.080 hit Fort Pitt in seventeen sixty three, the British gifted 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:36.240 local tribal leaders with blankets from the fort's smallpox ward 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:41.040 in the hopes of infecting them. It all sounds incomprehensible, 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:44.520 and it was. But unfortunately for the indigenous people, the 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:48.160 newcomers had a few more plans. Settlers wanted the land 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:51.120 and all that it offered for their own. Only one 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:54.520 thing stood in their way, the people already living there. 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:58.440 And if disease wouldn't kill off the Native Americans, they 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:01.400 would simply come up with even more sinister methods to 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:08.440 do it. I'm Aaron Mankee, and welcome to the wild West. 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:17.320 When colonists wanted more land for farming, they took it, 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:20.320 often by force. And I need to make this clear. 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:24.919 This isn't biased propaganda. This is documented, historical fact. The 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:28.640 story tells itself, and the story is tragic and dark. 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:32.920 Far too many looked upon the Indigenous people as inconsequential. 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:36.440 They saw their religions and beliefs as inferior to their own, 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:40.040 and when tribes fought back or resisted, that made them 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:43.600 the savages. It didn't matter to many of the settlers 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:46.200 if the Native Americans had fought at their sides. During 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:49.440 the French and Indian War in seventeen fifty four, they 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:52.120 still pushed those tribes off their own land and then 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:55.799 forced them farther and farther west. When the war ended 0:04:55.839 --> 0:04:58.880 in seventeen sixty three, King George the Third made a 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:02.960 surprising announcement. Native Americans had a right to keep their 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:06.599 sacred land. No longer could English settlers travel across the 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:10.960 indigenous territory west of the Appalachian Mountains, and no longer 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:14.200 could they steal the indigenous people's land and take it 0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:17.599 for their own. The king acknowledged the tribes who fought 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:21.480 alongside England, and his proclamation sought to end the fraud 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:25.480 and abuse that the indigenous peoples had suffered. Native American 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:28.839 sovereignty was to be protected, he said so. The Crown 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:33.200 actually dedicated troops to protect the border between the colonists 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:37.280 and the Native Americans. Indigenous people gathered by the thousands 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:40.799 in Niagara to celebrate. They vowed to be at peace 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:44.640 with their British neighbors. But the king's declaration angered many 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:47.280 of the colonists. They believed that they had fought for 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:49.960 that land and it was theirs for the taking. As 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:54.560 a result, most settlers simply ignored the proclamation. Once the 0:05:54.560 --> 0:05:57.599 revolutionary war was over, there was a new government to 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:01.280 write new laws designed to take Indigenous place, and yes, 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:03.880 while they did acknowledge that the land belonged to the 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:08.760 Native people, they claimed that such uncivilized and savage peoples 0:06:08.800 --> 0:06:12.279 were incapable of managing it well. They didn't stop and 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:15.600 remember that the tribes had managed perfectly well for thousands 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:18.680 of years before the first Europeans ever set foot in 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:22.719 North America. So the new United States government granted themselves 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:26.960 the right to supervise Native American land in seventeen eighty six. 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:30.800 They offered reservations granting the Indigenous people who chose to 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:33.279 move there and live on them the ability to govern 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:37.280 the land as an independent nation decline, and while there 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:40.599 would be conflict, greed for more and more land pretty 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:44.520 much guaranteed that even the newest treaties wouldn't last. Americans 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:48.240 kept pushing westward, forcing more Native Americans off their land 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:52.800 as they expanded, and although President James Monroe expressed concern 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:56.640 for the plights of Indigenous people, his administration continued to 0:06:56.680 --> 0:07:00.080 remove those living in states north of Ohio, often with 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:05.520 bloody and devastating results. Some pushed back Chief dacumsa of 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:08.440 the Shawnee tribe tried to control the number of settlers 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:12.760 taking over his people's ancestral territory, but military officer William 0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:16.040 Henry Harrison forced them north. When the War of eighteen 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:19.560 twelve broke out, Tacumsa and the Shawnee naturally sided with 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:23.600 the British, and they weren't alone, but the American military 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:26.920 played dirty. They would specifically seek out tribes that were 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:29.200 at war with each other and then become allies with 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:31.720 one of the sides to help them decimate the other. 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:35.280 It wasn't about finding allies, though, it was about lowering 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:40.200 the overall Native American population to prevent them from resisting colonization, 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:43.720 and all along the United States continued to make treaties 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:47.040 with Native Americans in an effort to appear peaceful, but 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:50.560 conflicts and the ever present threat of violence between Indigenous 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:55.160 people and settlers remained a regular occurrence. Given their dwindling 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:59.480 populations any increasing number of settlers with ample weapons, some 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:02.200 tribes felt that they had no choice but to accept. 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:05.680 If they rejected these offers, they would be attacked. At 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:08.160 least in acceptance, there was a chance they might find 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:12.880 some safety for their people. Unfortunately, those promises weren't worth much. 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:16.720 The US Senate refused to ratify treaties, leaving most tribes 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:20.280 without a voice or recourse to prevent their removal or eradication. 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:23.920 Seeing no viable way to avoid deadly attacks on their people, 0:08:24.360 --> 0:08:29.200 many tribes reluctantly gave in. The Cherokee, however, did not. 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:40.440 The Cherokee language has some similarities to tribes who once 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:44.000 lived in the Great Lakes region. They spoken the Iroquoian 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:46.880 family of languages, indicating that they might have once lived 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:51.480 in northern areas. Harmony and balance with nature were essential 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:54.640 to the Cherokee. To them all, life possessed a great 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:57.880 and intelligent spirit. When they hunted, they asked for the 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:01.400 animal's forgiveness. When they harvested plants, they took only what 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:05.480 they needed, often leaving three of every four plants. They 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:07.800 settled in the hills that make up the modern American 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:12.360 states of North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina, and 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:15.400 when a few Europeans began settling in that same area, 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:19.079 the Cherokee accepted their new neighbors, but the shift in 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:23.680 power between colonists and the British changed that relationship. The 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:26.840 Cherokee started to notice how the white settlers began treating 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:31.280 other tribes. The destruction and genocide they witnessed prompted them 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:34.760 to try a different approach to their survival. By adopting 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:39.319 more European practices and ingratiating themselves with their new neighbors, 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:43.199 The Cherokee hoped to find peace. Their life and their 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:46.920 land depended on striking a balance between their own heritage 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:50.680 and this new European culture. During the War of eighteen twelve, 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:53.800 they even offered their warriors to fight against the British, 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:58.560 and their assistance proved highly beneficial to General Andrew Jackson's success. 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:02.360 Friendship and and bravery, though wouldn't be enough to save 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:06.920 the Cherokee people. Their new allies would soon betray them. 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:12.080 In eighteen twenty eight, General Andrew Jackson rose to the presidency. Unfortunately, 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:16.680 that same year, settlers discovered gold on Cherokee land in Delanaga, Georgia, 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:19.720 and it would be the Cherokee people's demise. They'd be 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:23.000 wrong if they expected President Jackson to be thankful for 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:26.680 their help. In his rise to the presidency, Jackson and 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:31.360 the administration ignored signed treaties American officials, held lotteries and 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:35.120 gave away ancestral land to white prospectors, all without the 0:10:35.200 --> 0:10:39.319 Cherokee people's consent, and then the State of Georgia stripped 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:43.400 away the Cherokee people's rights. After June first of eighteen thirty, 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:47.440 the government forbade them to conduct tribal business. The Cherokee 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:49.960 could no longer mine on their own land, and the 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:53.040 state deemed any and all laws pertaining to the Cherokee 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:56.480 nation were null and void, even denying them the right 0:10:56.559 --> 0:11:00.840 to testify in American court. John Ross wouldn't let his 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:03.760 people be silenced, nor would he allow the government to 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:07.960 take his people's homeland. Although not fully Cherokee, Ross had 0:11:08.000 --> 0:11:11.360 affluents that most Cherokee did not. His father had provided 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:15.040 his children with excellent schooling, hiring a teacher before sending 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:18.840 them to other schools and academies. He never forgot his roots, though, 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:23.240 while he wore American clothing, Ross celebrated his native heritage 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:26.560 and grew up with traditional Cherokee customs thanks to his 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:30.400 mother and grandmother. His father had been a Scottish trader, 0:11:30.640 --> 0:11:34.040 and Ross had followed in his footsteps. Owning a trading 0:11:34.080 --> 0:11:38.040 post helped Ross become more successful than most men, regardless 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:41.720 of his race. The experience made Ross a good businessman. 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:45.320 He and other Cherokee men who helped the Americans fight 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:47.720 against the British in the War of eighteen twelve had 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:51.319 done so without pay, not out of choice, but because 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:55.800 the military only paid white soldiers. The settlers may have 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:59.760 considered Ross a lesser American, but the Cherokee people welcomed 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:04.440 his mixed heritage. Ross's education, his business experience, and his 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:07.600 familiarity with the tribe earn him a spot as the 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:12.360 tribe's negotiator with the US government. President Jackson's address to 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:15.040 the public in eighteen thirty came as a blow to 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:17.760 the Cherokee. He and his administration made it clear that 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:21.400 they intended to remove Indigenous people from their ancestral land. 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:25.400 Jackson insisted that removing Native Americans was an act of 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:30.120 generosity and kindness because it would prevent further conflicts with settlers. 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:33.720 The president stated that the government would be generous enough 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:36.920 to give the Cherokee people large amounts of territory, not 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:40.360 where they already lived, though, but elsewhere. He also added 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:43.920 that their removal would finally give the Indigenous people happiness 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:47.000 and suggested that perhaps they might also give up their 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:52.040 savage habits and become more Christian. Jefferson even claimed that 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:55.760 he envied the Cherokee that away from white civilization, they'd 0:12:55.800 --> 0:12:59.640 be permitted to purchase land. Ultimately, it didn't matter that 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:02.839 the Chairoerocke already had large amounts of land and were 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:06.240 perfectly happy living there before it was stolen from them. 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:10.600 Of course, Ross had heard enough. He traveled to Washington, 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:13.520 hoping to stop the government from stealing the land his 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:17.680 people rightfully owned. What happened next, though, has left a 0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:28.280 permanent stain on American history. John Ross thought about how 0:13:28.320 --> 0:13:32.080 to handle the situation. What he hadn't considered was opposition 0:13:32.200 --> 0:13:35.839 from a former ally, Major Ridge. Together they had shared 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:38.640 a lot of history, working together to build a stronger 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:42.839 bond between settlers and the Cherokee nation. But now Ridge 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:46.080 had begun urging the Cherokee to pack up and leave. 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:49.400 To him, getting something for the tribe was better than 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:52.600 getting nothing. But it wasn't the path forward that Ross 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:56.880 had envisioned for his people. Other politicians chimed in, of course, 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:02.680 all wanting the same thing, the removal of the chaerity Muskogee, Seminole, Choctaws, 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:06.200 and other tribes from the land that the white settlers wanted, 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:09.640 and in the spring of eighteen thirty, Congress announced that 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:13.640 this theft was necessary and that staying would be detrimental 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:17.440 to their well being. Officials claimed that removal was a 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:20.240 good thing instead of what it really was, a not 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:24.240 so thinly veiled threat. One New York representative even claimed 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:26.920 that he was in full support of the bill, offering 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:30.160 refuge to Native Americans leaving of their own free will. 0:14:30.600 --> 0:14:33.920 The Cherokee and other tribes, of course, had no choice 0:14:34.480 --> 0:14:38.960 or free will. Compatriot David Crockett voiced his opinion that 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:42.480 the removal was unjust and wicked, but when he staunchly 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:45.480 opposed the bill, his colleagues warned him that supporting the 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:50.280 Native Americans would ruin him and his career. Ross also 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:53.320 arrived to speak his own mind. In his Washington speech 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:56.760 to officials, He stated that if all men were created equal, 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:00.640 then his people and other tribes should have an equal voice. 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:04.600 But Congress made their answer to Ross's question of equality 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:08.280 crystal clear when they passed the Indian Removal Act on 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:13.680 May twenty sixth of eighteen thirty in Georgia, white settlers celebrated. 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:18.440 The Cherokee and others, however, were left in tears. Although 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:22.240 the politicians had dismissed his arguments and please, John Ross 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:26.400 continued to advocate for his people. Instead, Congress went back 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:29.600 on their word from previous treaties, and they also refused 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:32.360 to pay the Cherokee Nation for the land they intended 0:15:32.400 --> 0:15:35.640 to take. So Ross took the Cherokee people's plight to 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:40.480 the Supreme Court and at persistence, almost paid off. On 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:43.280 March third of eighteen thirty two, the Court's ruled that 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:46.960 according to the prior treaties, Georgia had no authority regarding 0:15:47.080 --> 0:15:50.320 Cherokee land. As you might expect, the Georgians, who were 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:54.720 looking to take over the valuable territory were outraged. Ross's 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:58.320 former ally, Major Ridge, continued to work behind his back. 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:02.560 He began treating to gushiations with the Jackson administration without 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:05.600 approval from the Cherokee Nation. In fact, when it was 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:08.680 all said and done, not one tribal official had been 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:12.640 allowed to sign Ridge's treaty. Six years later, in eighteen 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:17.360 thirty eight, over fifteen thousand Cherokee petitioned the document by then, 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:20.960 many settlers had begun to sympathize with their Native American neighbors. 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:25.280 Ralph Waldo Emerson appealed to the administration, urging them to 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:30.280 prevent an outrage against the Cherokee people. Many empathetic settlers 0:16:30.440 --> 0:16:33.520 recalled how one of the Cherokee, a man named Junalusca, 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:37.080 had saved Andrew Jackson's life during the War of eighteen twelve. 0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:40.400 They reminded Jackson of how he had declared his friendship 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:43.840 toward that Cherokee for and I quote as long as 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:48.280 the sun shines and the grass grows. Instead, Jackson sent 0:16:48.360 --> 0:16:51.720 General John E. Wool to recruit thousands of volunteers to 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:55.840 forcibly remove the Cherokee, But during Wull's time with the tribe, 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:59.560 he realized the government had misled the American people regarding 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:03.000 the treaty. Wool began to fear the worst. He would 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:04.960 be forced to remove the people that he had come 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:08.639 to care about from their own homes by gunpoints if necessary. 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:12.480 When he expressed his concerns for the Cherokee people, Wool 0:17:12.880 --> 0:17:16.840 was promptly relieved of his post. The annihilation of the 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:21.320 Cherokee people came in eighteen thirty eight. US troops stormed 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:24.960 into homes during the evening meal, shoving bayonets at anyone 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:28.159 who defied them. Troops took anything of value they could carry, 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:32.760 and those who resisted were beaten. Soldiers herded the Cherokee people, 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:35.520 children at play and adults at work in the fields, 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:38.879 and forced them like cattle into holding camps. If anyone 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:43.240 tried to flee, the troops shot and killed them. Civilians 0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:46.560 followed the example of the soldiers, too, ransacking homes and 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:49.439 taking whatever the soldiers might have missed. They stole their 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:53.120 horses in livestock and then went into the fields with shovels, 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:56.760 digging up Native American graves to rob the dead of valuables, 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:02.080 and those holding camps were filthy. Dysentery spread among the prisoners. 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:07.600 Soldiers assaulted the women, starving, malnourished, and severely dehydrated. Those 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:10.520 who survived in tournament were forced to march westward in 0:18:10.600 --> 0:18:13.840 June of eighteen thirty eight. Those who were transported by 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:17.560 trains fared no better either, as they were overcrowded, allowing 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:22.159 disease to spread quickly. The summer heat quickly became unbearable, 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:24.920 and the Cherokee people begged the troops to wait until 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:28.720 fall to continue the trek westward. The soldiers granted the request, 0:18:29.000 --> 0:18:32.040 although they continued to keep them in squalid conditions and 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:36.159 interment camps. That fall, they walked through torrential rains and 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:39.280 mud for nearly four months. There would be no stopping 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:42.000 this time, and when winter came, the young and old 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:45.040 alike were forced to continue on foot, despite the bitter 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:49.600 cold and harsh blizzards. Every time they stopped there were burials. 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:53.760 Clean water and food were in short supply. One Cherokee 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:56.560 man lost a member of his family every day for 0:18:56.640 --> 0:19:00.880 five days straight, first his mother, then his father, finally 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:05.240 his brothers and sisters. The Cherokee had once stood proud, 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:08.520 Now along the trail to Oklahoma, they walked in a 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:12.560 silence that was only broken by the whales of suffering women, children, 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:16.080 and men. The government cared so little about the welfare 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:19.159 of the indigenous people they were displacing that they didn't 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:23.400 even count how many had died. Sadly, mortality was highest 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:26.919 among the elderly and the children. According to one missionary 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:30.000 doctor who traveled with them, twenty percent of those who 0:19:30.040 --> 0:19:34.040 set out that previous June never made it to Oklahoma. 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:43.240 Although they had been forcibly relocated over one thousand miles 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:46.600 from their home, those who survived were determined to rebuild. 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:50.359 In August of eighteen thirty nine, the Cherokee elected Ross 0:19:50.400 --> 0:19:53.800 as their principal chief. He served his people faithfully for 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:58.080 another twenty seven years. Life moved forward as best it could. 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:01.760 The Cherokee people constructed new new schools, new homes, and 0:20:01.840 --> 0:20:05.160 even built a courthouse. But despite their new life, they 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:08.400 never forgot the land of their ancestors. And as hard 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:10.720 as it is to hear, the Cherokee weren't the only 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:13.639 people group to suffer on the Trail of Tears. In 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:17.040 eighteen forty, the government forced tens of thousands of other 0:20:17.160 --> 0:20:20.600 Native Americans off of their ancestral lands and move them 0:20:20.600 --> 0:20:23.560 out to Oklahoma. This time, of course, they promised to 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:26.919 honor their treaty. This time, they said, all the tribes 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:31.280 living there would do so forever undisturbed. But just as before, 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:34.600 the indigenous people had no choice in the matter. They 0:20:34.640 --> 0:20:38.040 could fight and suffer greatly, or give in and suffer 0:20:38.320 --> 0:20:43.160 just slightly less. John Ross never stopped petitioning Washington, DC 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:46.120 to pay the Cherokee for the land the government had stolen. 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:49.399 Even when his health began to fail in eighteen sixty six, 0:20:49.640 --> 0:20:52.800 he continued to advocate for his people. He passed away 0:20:52.840 --> 0:20:58.480 on August first of that year, unsuccessful. Naturally, America continued 0:20:58.480 --> 0:21:01.959 to push westward. Eighteen oh seven that land in Oklahoma, 0:21:02.240 --> 0:21:04.679 the land that had been promised to the Native Americans 0:21:04.720 --> 0:21:08.480 as theirs forever undisturbed, was reduced to make room for 0:21:08.520 --> 0:21:12.320 more settlers. Some Cherokee did manage to stay behind on 0:21:12.400 --> 0:21:15.520 their original land, though those living in small areas in 0:21:15.600 --> 0:21:19.359 North Carolina, for example, There the mountains and hills weren't 0:21:19.440 --> 0:21:22.800 useful to cotton farmers and were overlooked or written off 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:26.600 Further south. A few Seminole tribes also managed to evade 0:21:26.600 --> 0:21:30.080 the removal efforts, and some smaller groups within the Chickasaw 0:21:30.119 --> 0:21:34.200 and Choctaw nations stayed behind, but overall those that remained 0:21:34.400 --> 0:21:38.080 were definitely in the minority. All told, its estimated that 0:21:38.119 --> 0:21:42.119 approximately one hundred thousand Native Americans were forced from their 0:21:42.200 --> 0:21:46.080 land and relocated to Oklahoma, opening up a land grab 0:21:46.200 --> 0:21:49.520 for white settlers. In the winter of eighteen thirty one, 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:52.959 the US Army threatened the Choctaw tribes with force if 0:21:52.960 --> 0:21:56.480 they weren't willing to surrender their homeland. When they resisted, 0:21:56.800 --> 0:22:00.679 soldiers swept in and removed them at gunpoint and in chains. 0:22:00.920 --> 0:22:03.199 The Choctaw people were made to walk the Trail of 0:22:03.200 --> 0:22:06.720 Tears all the way to Oklahoma, and just like the 0:22:06.800 --> 0:22:10.840 Cherokee and others, they too receive barbaric treatment. The US 0:22:10.920 --> 0:22:14.680 government provided for their soldiers, of course, but not the Choctaw. 0:22:15.000 --> 0:22:17.520 They had to get food and water wherever they could 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:21.520 along the way, and five years later, in eighteen thirty six, 0:22:22.000 --> 0:22:25.160 three thousand, five hundred of the fifteen thousand Creek people 0:22:25.160 --> 0:22:27.920 who were driven from their lands did not survive the 0:22:28.000 --> 0:22:31.880 journey to Oklahoma. The government also removed several tribes along 0:22:31.920 --> 0:22:34.840 the East Coast as a result. The historic Trail of 0:22:34.880 --> 0:22:39.359 Tiers covers over five thousand miles and spans several routes 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:42.560 and nine states, and is now overseen by the National 0:22:42.600 --> 0:22:47.320 Park Service. Today, there are three bands of Cherokee tribes nationwide, 0:22:47.400 --> 0:22:50.920 the Eastern Band located in western North Carolina, the United 0:22:51.000 --> 0:22:55.600 Kitawa Band in Oklahoma, and the Cherokee Nation and Telequah, Oklahoma. 0:22:56.040 --> 0:22:58.520 For the most part, though the lives of Native Americans 0:22:58.560 --> 0:23:01.720 and the trail of tears have largely been forgotten, which 0:23:01.760 --> 0:23:05.240 is tragic because the situation is just as dire today, 0:23:05.680 --> 0:23:09.919 from education and employment to other basic human needs. Native 0:23:09.960 --> 0:23:13.679 peoples exist in what is called an asterisk nation, an 0:23:13.680 --> 0:23:23.280 abandoned population of human lives deemed to be invisible. The 0:23:23.320 --> 0:23:25.320 story of those who are forced to walk the trail 0:23:25.359 --> 0:23:28.119 of tears is a difficult one to hear, and I 0:23:28.160 --> 0:23:30.480 want to thank you for taking the time to revisit 0:23:30.520 --> 0:23:33.240 it with me today. A lot of history has the 0:23:33.280 --> 0:23:36.800 power to make us feel uncomfortable, but the solution is 0:23:36.840 --> 0:23:40.280 never to cover it up or avoid it. Shadows might 0:23:40.320 --> 0:23:44.840 be a guarantee given human nature's tendency toward evil, but shadows, 0:23:44.920 --> 0:23:47.600 as we all know, don't do so well when dragged 0:23:47.640 --> 0:23:50.800 out into the light. Sadly, there are plenty more shadows 0:23:50.800 --> 0:23:53.240 where that one came from, and we've pulled together one 0:23:53.320 --> 0:23:56.800 last story to demonstrate that stick around through this brief 0:23:56.800 --> 0:24:00.119 sponsored break, and my teammate Ali Stead will tell tell 0:24:00.160 --> 0:24:01.280 you all about it. 0:24:07.440 --> 0:24:11.080 Hardship was far from over for Native Americans. It was 0:24:11.119 --> 0:24:15.280 a perfect sunny day in late September eighteen seventy one. 0:24:15.920 --> 0:24:18.720 In fact, William Cody and a group of affluent New 0:24:18.800 --> 0:24:21.560 Yorkers standing on top of a grassy mound, rifles at 0:24:21.600 --> 0:24:25.240 the ready, thought the day was perfect for a hunt. 0:24:26.240 --> 0:24:30.000 Cody's reputation as an expert marksman and hunter preceded him. 0:24:30.400 --> 0:24:32.880 Their vantage point on the top of the hill gave 0:24:32.920 --> 0:24:36.879 them an advantage over the grazing bison, which they considered 0:24:37.320 --> 0:24:42.400 no more threatening than furry, lumbering cows. In the distance, 0:24:42.840 --> 0:24:46.320 six bison came into view. Cody knew the wind behind 0:24:46.359 --> 0:24:49.000 them would alert the beasts, but the fact did little 0:24:49.000 --> 0:24:52.199 to worry him. The men had the quickest horses around, 0:24:52.240 --> 0:24:55.480 not to mention the best guns. All were supplied by 0:24:55.520 --> 0:24:58.720 the US Army. While it might seem odd that the 0:24:58.840 --> 0:25:01.479 US Army would front horn, horses and weapons for what 0:25:01.520 --> 0:25:04.800 were essentially rich city slickers looking to shoot bison on 0:25:04.840 --> 0:25:09.080 a trophy hunting expedition, it really wasn't, you see. It 0:25:09.200 --> 0:25:11.720 wasn't about the bison at all. It was about the 0:25:11.800 --> 0:25:16.959 Native Americans whose very lives depended on these animals. Troops 0:25:16.960 --> 0:25:21.440 were told to kill the bison, every last one of them, 0:25:22.080 --> 0:25:27.399 because dead bison were dead Native Americans. At one time, 0:25:27.640 --> 0:25:30.879 tens of millions of the great beasts roamed the land. 0:25:31.320 --> 0:25:34.080