The detachments which left in June of 1838 found themselves making the journey in the hottest part of the year during a drought. Sickness and death plagued the exodus, most of it caused by a combination of bad water, bad diet and physical exhaustion, particularly among the children. Some of the Indians left almost naked and without shoes and refused government clothing because they felt it would be taken as an acceptance of being removed from their homes. Some refused government food; others were given foodstuffs that were not normally part of their diet, such as wheat flour, which they did not know how to use. One military estimate of the death toll in one of the parties was put at 17.7%, with half of the dead being children.
Because of the heavy death toll, Chief Ross and the National Council asked General Scott to allow the rest of the Cherokee to wait until Fall to move, and to supervise their own removal. General Scott approved the plan, provided that all must be on the road by October 20. The remaining detachments which left in the Fall--most of the exodus--met different hardships. Unseasonably heavy rains turned the primitive roads to mud. Wagons became mired axle or beddeep in the muck, and the Cherokee were repeatedly forced to manually drag the wagons free.
Those who were forced to halt beside the frozen Mississippi River still remembered a half-century later the hundreds of sick and dying in wagons or lying on the frozen ground with only the single blanket provided by the government to each Indian for shelter from the January wind.
Besides the cold, there was starvation and malnutrition. Sometimes the funds for food were embezzled by those hired to provide it along the route. The later detachments often found that all of the wild game had been depleted by hunters from the first detachments which passed through. Weakened by the hunger and exertions of the trip, the Cherokee became easy victims of disease, particularly cholera and smallpox, but even measles, whooping cough, pleurisy and dysentery. Stragglers were sometimes preyed upon by wild animals. A few of the travelers were waylaid by frontier rogues and beaten or murdered after they were robbed.
Stand Watie, leader of the Southern Cherokees, was a Treaty Party leader and signer of the Treaty of New Echota. Named Ta-ker-taw-ker, "to stand firm", at birth and formally Degadoga, "he stands on two feet", he was baptized as Isaac. He later combined the English version of his name with his father's name, Oo-wa-tie, resulting in Stand Watie. His brother was Buck Oowatie who took the name Elias Boudinot in honor of a wealthy benefactor. He was the nephew of Major Ridge. Of the four main leaders of the Treaty Party (the others being Major Ridge, John Ridge, and Elias Boudinot), he was the only one to escape assasination in 1839. Siding with the Confederacy in the American Civil War, he rose to the rank of Brigider General -- the only Native American general in the Civil War. His predominately mixed-blood troops participated in the battles of Wilson's Creek MO and Pea Ridge AR and battles in the Cherokee Nation at Cabin Creek and Honey Springs. After Chief John Ross's "capture", he was elected principal chief in August of 1862. He holds the distinction of being the last Confederate general to surrender -- June 23, 1865 -- two months after Lee's surrender in Virginia.
A traveler who witnessed a passing mother holding her dying child wrote,
"She could only carry her dying child in her arms a few miles farther, and then, she must stop in a stranger-land and consign her much loved babe to the cold ground, and that without pomp or ceremony, and pass on with the multitude."
He continued,
"When I past the last detachment of those suffering exiles and thought that my native countrymen had thus expelled them from their native soil and their much loved homes, and that too in this inclement season of the year in all their suffering, I turned from the sight with feelings which language cannot express and wept like childhood then."
Trail of Tears
Timeline
1838-1839
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| February | 15,665 people of the Cherokee Nation memorialize congress protesting the Treaty of New Echola. |
| March | Outraged American citizens throughout the country memorialize congress on behalf of the Cherokee. |
| April | Congress tables memorials protesting Cherokee removal. Federal troops ordered to prepare for roundup. |
| May | Cherokee roundup begins May 23, 1838. Southeast suffers worst drought in recorded history. Tsali escapes roundup and returns to North Carolina. |
| June | First group of Cherokees driven west under Federal guard. Further removal aborted because of drought and "sickly season." |
| July | Over 13,000 Cherokees imprisoned in military stockades awaiting break in drought. Approximately 1500 die in confinement. |
| August | In Aquohee stockade Cherokee chiefs meet in council, reaffirming the sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation. John Ross becomes superintendent of the removal. |
| September | Drought breaks: Cherokee prepare to embark on forced exodus to Indian Territory in Oklahoma. Ross wins additional funds for food and clothing. |
| October | For most Cherokee, the "Trail of Tears" begins. |
| November | Thirteen contingents of Cherokees cross Tennessee, Kentucky and Illinois. First groups reach the Mississippi River, where there crossing is held up by river ice flows. |
| December | Contingent led by Chief Jesse Bushyhead camps near present day Trail of Tears Park. John Ross leaves Cherokee homeland with last group: carrying the records and laws of the Cherokee Nation. 5000 Cherokees trapped east of the Mississippi by harsh winter; many die. |
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| January | First overland contingents arrives at Fort Gibson. Ross party of sick and infirm travel from Kentucky by riverboat. |
| February | Chief Ross's wife, Quati, dies near Little Rock, Arkansas on February 1, 1839. |
| March | Last group headed by Ross, reaches Oklahoma. More than 3000 Cherokee die on Trail of Tears, 1600 in stockades and about the same number en route. 800 more die in 1839 in Oklahoma. |
| April | Cherokees build houses, clear land, plant and begin to rebuild their nation. |
| May | Western Cherokee invite new arrivals to meet to establish a united Cherokee government. |
| June | Old Treaty Part leaders attempt to foil reunification negotiations between Ross and Sequoyah. Treaty Party leaders John Ridge, Major Ridge and Elias Boudinot assassinated. |
| July | Cherokee Act of Union brings together the eastern and western Cherokee Nations on July 12, 1839. |
| August | Stand Watie, Brother of Boudinot, pledges revenge for deaths of party leaders. |
| September | Cherokee constitution adopted on September 6, 1839. Tahlequah established as capital of the Cherokee Nation. |
Additional Sources:
rosecity.net
www.army.mil
lawweb.usc.edu
www.soulbooks.org
www.guthriestudios.com
www.americaslibrary.gov
www.nps.gov
www.cviog.uga.edu
cherokeehistory.com
www.maxdstandley.com
