While driving home from work the other day, listening to CBC Radio, I heard a heartbreaking story about the “Trail of Tears”

The “Trail of Tears” refers to the forced removal of the independent Cherokee Nation from their established homeland in Northern Georgia.  Despite being known as one of the 5 Civilized Tribes, the Cherokee were cheated out of their lands and forced to relocate a thousand miles to the west beyond the Mississippi.  This forced exodus of the Cherokee, during the winter of 1838, had a deadly toll, with as many as 4,000 deaths.

What really struck me was that even though the Cherokee had tried to assimilate into the new culture – they lived in frame houses in the city, produced a bilingual newspaper, farmed, and wore European finery – they were still not considered to be sovereign citizens under the Indian Removal Act of 1930 by the government of President Andrew Jackson.

The link to the CBC story is here: Trail of Tears