The Trail of Tears is the name given to the forced relocation of Native American nations following the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The removal included many members of tribes who did not wish to assimilate. Many Native Americans suffered from disease and exposure, and somewhere between 2,000-6,000 Cherokee died on the trail. The Trail of Tears Diary includes interviews that reveals the extraordinary resilience of the Native American nations during the trail.
Pair “Excerpt from Trail of Tears Diary” with “The Land Was Not To Be Owned by Mankind” to give students additional context about the Indian Removal Act. How were Mary and Jobe’s families affected by their families’ forced removal from their land according to “Excerpt from Trail of Tears Diary”? What other laws and actions by the United States government pushed Indigenous Americans from their lands according to “The Land Was Not To Be Owned by Mankind”? How do these two texts help readers understand the impact of U.S. policies on Indigenous Americans? How do the first-person accounts in “Excerpt from Trail of Tears Diary” add to your understanding of the information in “The Land Was Not To Be Owned by Mankind”?