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                I try to imagine the paralyzing fear I would feel as someone comes into my family home, shoving me out into the street with the point of their bayonet.  I know that I am going to need my belongings, but I cannot get to them.  As I am being forced forward I work only at grabbing my children to keep them safe; there is no time to grab shoes, clothes, or blankets.  Not long after I am caged in a wagon it begins to transport me away from the only home I have ever known.  I know I will not return.  The bodies begin to fall shortly after the snow; shoeless, homeless, blanket-less, fire-less, hopeless.  4,000 unmarked graves would line the trail; some of those were my friends, family, even my children.  To think these things brings tears to my eyes, accounts of the American tragedy called, “The Trail of Tears” have always filled me with great sadness and an overwhelming sense of disgust at my country.  I have always known that the truth is not that my country is disgusting; America is filled with loving, compassionate, intelligent people.  These readings reaffirmed to me that the atrocities that leave a black mark on this country’s history are rarely the acts of the people, but the acts of a government who from the beginning have used immoral actions to build their way to the top of world power.

                The desire to move the Cherokee tribe from their lands may have begun because of growing rumors that there was gold in Georgia, perhaps it was even a portion of the American population calling for the removal of the Cherokee in order to get their hands on the gold.  It would seem however that it was mainly President Monroe and President Jackson having some egotistical idea that they were better equipped to decide what was in the best interest of the tribes than the tribe leaders were.  Ralph Waldo Emerson’s letter to President Jackson gives a clear view into the societal views toward the natives at the time.  Although, I am sure that Mr. Emerson was a progressive thinker for his day you are still given insight as he describes the Cherokee’s integration into society through their progression in social arts, acceptance of Caucasian culture and advanced education.  He even goes as far as to describe the plight of the Cherokee people as, “we have witnessed with sympathy the painful labours of these red men to redeem their own race from the doom of eternal inferiority.”  It is obvious through these writings that even the most progressive thinkers still saw these people as an inferior race; they did not however condone the actions taken against this tribe.  Emerson accuses the president of trickery in taking the lands of the people; he calls to his duty as a servant of the people claiming that of 18,000 souls 15,668 were in protest against the government attempt to remove them from their land.  Speaking of the populations disbelief as they read of the sham treaty and the intention to relocate the Cherokees, turning to his poetic devices as he described to the president, “that the millions of virtuous citizens, whose agents the government are, have no place to interpose, and must shut their eyes until the last howl and wailing of these tormented villages and tribes shall afflict the ear of the world.”   He also turned to the president’s sense of pride and legacy, informing him that, “You, sir, will bring down that renowned chair in which you sit into infamy if your seal is set to this instrument of perfidy; and the name of this nation, hitherto the sweet omen of religion and liberty, will stink to the world.” I can hear the pain in Emerson’s voice as he pleads with the president to put an end to this evil declaration against a people who not so long ago had been allies to the US government.  The Cherokee were instrumental in helping the soldiers in battle against the Creek tribe.  It is even said that not only was the battle won due to the efforts of the Cherokee but also that the life of President Jackson himself was saved thanks to a Cherokee warrior named Chief Junaluska.  I wish I could have added my voice to the voices shouting for cessation in the terrors being inflicted upon the tribes.  It is with a heavy heart that I inherit the knowledge of the brutalities that the Cherokee people suffered at the hands of my government, it is with a conviction that I must stand against similar outrages currently being enacted by my government, for I ask my government the same thing that Emerson did over 100 years ago, “Will the American Government steal? Will it lie? Will it kill?” I do not doubt that it will do all of that and more for I still see it every day.  Knowing that this is an action that my government would have no problem repeating to another people who stood in their way is part of the crushing sadness that I feel about these events.

                Despite the poetic words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the disbelief and discontent about the subject by the American people, and the refusal of the Cherokee people to leave their homes; President Jackson could not be dissuaded.  He continued with his plan to evict the entire Cherokee tribe from their lands in the state of Georgia.  Disapproval from Senators Daniel Webster and Henry Clay nor the pleas from Reverend Samuel Worcester, a missionary who had worked closely with the Cherokee, still had no effect.  In fact, not even a Supreme Court decision that the US government had no right to demand the lands from the Cherokee could halt the president in his determination to expel the Cherokee to the west of the Mississippi.  Thus, the military was sent out to round up the Cherokee people and force them to their home.  In Major General Scott’s Ultimatum I found myself questioning if the things that he claimed were true.  I have known many military personal in my day and have seen their compassion to be real in most situations.  When Scott was informing the Cherokee people that the soldiers would be there and not to wait, I do truly believe that he wanted to help them.  For one knows after a time of being around soldiers that once they arrive their brains will be in war mode, Scott knew atrocities were an inevitability.  He told them to remember that, “Soldiers are as kind-hearted as brave, and the desire of every one of us is to execute our painful duty in mercy.” I believe this to be a true statement, it seems that many of these men knew the Cherokee personally; they were their neighbors and sometimes even their friends.  It is also true that soldiers are a means to an end, taught to follow instruction without counselling their minds or hearts.  It is because of this that Scott warned them not to wait for the soldiers to get there.  He informed them that if they were to go of their own volition and head to Ross’s Landing or Gunter’s Landing there would be adequate supplies and food for them there.  I wanted to know more about this, I want so badly to see the good in people when such terrible things happen that I just needed to know if there really were supplies waiting for the Cherokee there.  I am sure that it does not excuse them for stealing the Cherokee land, tricking them into a treaty, nor their overall treatment of the tribe.  It is something though, something to say that the people as individuals were not out to be cruel, nor to inflict pain and suffering on people that had once been their neighbors.  I want to believe that Scott was warning them that this was their last chance before the indignities of the American Government showed up on the doorstep of the Cherokee nation.  For without this little bit of hope in the goodness I am left instead with the crimes of the American government, some pretty words of opposition from Emerson, and an American population who although they were against the course of action chose instead to, “shut their eyes until the last howl and wailing of these tormented villages and tribes shall afflict the ear of the world”.  I cannot bear the pain that comes with knowing that my people; good, kind, compassionate, American people would close their eyes and their window shutter as 18,000 of their neighbors froze to death on their road to isolation.

                It would seem by the recollection of the events, told by John Burnett in his birthday story; Scott was right about the way that the soldiers in general felt about the whole debacle.  Burnett recounts his childhood spent hunting alongside the Cherokee, he spoke their language, enjoyed their meals, slept next to them, even saved one Cherokee’s life.  He considered them friends and brothers, and unlike the president it would seem, he saw them as humans no different than himself.  This is the story that most caught my attention, for I know that the love that he had for these people was real.  I know that he felt the pain they were experiencing first hand as he watched them fall one by one into the frozen ground.  His account of the wife of Chief Ross sacrificing her blanket and ultimately her life so that a small Cherokee child with pneumonia could recover was heart breaking.  As Chief it was obvious to me that Ross was very invested in the safety, growth, and prosperity of his people and I can only imagine how devastating it would be to watch as your people starved to death, froze to death, and fought illness all the way up until death.  That pain could only be multiplied as he watched his own loving wife join the dead in an unmarked grave far from the graves of her ancestors.  Hearing the tales of the old man being prodded by the gun so that he would move faster was sorrowing, I found it hard to find the rationale one would use as justification for treating another human being so barbarically. Thank goodness for Burnett’s hunting skills and tremendous aim, that maliciousness deserved a good whack to the head.  It was endearing to hear that Burnett was willing to risk a switch to the face in order to stand up for what he believed in.  He gave me great faith toward humanity, for after all even those on the trail with him remembered him as the one who was nice to them.  I do have to agree with his statement that, “Murder is murder, and somebody must answer. Somebody must explain the streams of blood that flowed in the Indian country in the summer of 1838.”  Who can make a government pay for its mistakes?  After all this happened over 100 years ago.   John was a perceptive man to understand that someday the actions you witness will have to be dissected by future generation, he reminded his descendants that we all must, “Let the historian of a future day tell the sad story with its sighs, its tears and dying groans.”  I hope that I can share that truth with my current government and the people who witness atrocities done by those in power. 

                I cannot deny that there were many tears shed in my readings.  My natural empathy engulfed me in a flood of emotions ranging from anger, sadness, regret and actually sickness.  These intense feelings fuel my already ignited passion for a more accepting human race.  I encourage everyone who reads this paper, or researches any of the soul tugging events that shroud our past in darkness, to learn from history.  Let the pain and sadness flow through your blood and permeate you bones.  Join me in taking these feelings and fuelling the fight against injustice.  Do not close your eyes and wait for the screams of your neighbor to pass.  This is our country and we are her future.