Between 1790 and 1830, the population of Georgia increased six-fold.  The western push of the settlers created a problem.  Georgians continued to take Native American lands and force them into the frontier.  By 1825, the Lower Creek had been completely removed from the state under provisions of the Treaty of Indian Springs.  By 1827 the Creek were gone.

Foundation Questions:

  1.  What was the Trail of Tears?
  2.  Why did people feel that the Trail of Tears was necessary?
  3.  Who was involved in the decision-making process?
  4.  Who made the final decision for the relocation of the Native Americans?
  5.  Where did the Trail of Tears take place?
  6.  When did the Cherokee relocation happen?
  7.  How many people died on this trail?
  8.  Which Cherokees did not get relocated and why?
  9.  What were the conditions like on the trail?
  10.  What were the effects of the Trail of Tears?
    11.

Was using the Trail of Tears for relocating Native Americans a good decision by the United States government?  Justify your answer.

After reading "Jackson and the Indians" in Cobblestone, October 1991 answer the following questions.

1. How many men, women & children were forced to march from Georgia to present-day Oklahoma?

2. How many were estimated to die along the way?

3. Why did Andrew Jackson want to remove the Indians from Georgia?

4. After reading page 29, what do you think of Andrew Jackson’s treatment of not only the Cherokees, but also the Creek Indians?  Please support your answer with examples from your reading.

5. What do you think Andrew Jackson meant when he said, "I have long viewed treaties with the Indians and absurdity not to be reconciled to the principles of our Government"?

6. Describe the land Jackson intended for the Indians.

7. How many Indian removal treaties did President Jackson sign?

Using the following site write a mini-biography on President Andrew Jackson (1829 – 1837).  Be sure to include a portrait of him.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/kids/presidents/andrewjackson.html

After visiting Andrew Jackson residence, "The Hermitage," in Nashville, Tennessee, color the picture included. http://postcards.daisyfield.com/lores/TNNashvilleTheHermitagec1911.jpg

http://www.hermitage.com/Images/hermitage.jpg

Read the information and color the picture of Andrew Jackson’s wife that is included in the packet.

After printing out a map of the United States that you have found on the Internet, visit the following sites and draw and label the routes that the Cherokees followed during the years of the Trail of Tears.

http://www.rosecity.net/tears/trail/map.html http://www.twinterritories.com/images/trail_of_tears_map.jpg

Read "Sequoyah and the Talking Leaves" beginning on page 46 in Only the Names Remain by Alex W. Bealer and answer the following questions. The following web site will also help in answering the questions.

http://www.rosecity.net/cherokee/sequoyah_pitter.html

1. Write about Sequoyah’s family life.
 

2. What was Sequoyah's lesser known name?
 

3. Due to a childhood sickness, Sequoyah could not hunt or play games with the Cherokee youths and thus learned to become what?  Explain.
 

4. What are "talking leaves"?
 

5. How many characters did Sequoyah have in the Cherokee language?
 

6. How did Sequoyah give proof to the Cherokee National Council that his language would work?
 

7. How did the Cherokee Newspaper, "Cherokee Phoenix" get its name?
 

Using the book, Cherokee Words With Pictures, by Mary Ulmer Chiltoskey, find the spelling and pronunciation in the Cherokee language for "Trail of Tears" and write it below.  Find four other words or phases and write them down in English and in Cherokee language in the table below. (Check with Mr. Wright for this book.)

English

Cherokee

Trail of Tears

  
   
   
   
   

Perform the skit "The Trail of Tears: Nunna-Da-Ul-Tsun-Yi, the Place Where We Cried", from 10 American History Plays For The Classroom, by Sarah J. Glasscock

 

Read

The Trail on Which They Wept, "The Story of a Cherokee Girl" by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler & Carey-Greenberg Associates.

From the Dear America Book, The Journal of Jesse Smoke a Cherokee Boy "The Trail of Tears, 1838" by Joseph Bruchac.

The Trail of Tears by Michael Burgan.

Cobblestone, October ’91 "Jackson and the Indians" pages 28 & 29.

 

Through the above activity, students are working on Information Technology GE 5-6 1, GE 5-6 2, GE 5-6 3, GE 5-6 4, GE 5-6 5.

Information Technology Tasks Index Page

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