Resettlement From Home Or 'Trail Of Tears'

For millennia, Native Americans throughout North America and primarily in what would become the United States survived on their own with little interaction on the global scale, being self sufficient and forming tribes amongst their vast homelands. With the introduction of European colonialism in the region, many Indians became marginalized, especially after some centuries with the emergence of the United States along the barrier of the Native lands. Such was especially the case under the presidency of Andrew Jackson, wherein his views of white superiority boosted his growing desire and eventual decision to obtain the lands held by the Indians which were seen as beneficial to the growth of the nation. Although the lands would prove to be a favorable addition to the U.S., the removal of the Native Americans from their homelands proved detrimental as it deeply harmed their culture and led to the unjust death of thousands of Indian people, decimating the way of life they once held.

The utter devastation of the Indian culture caused from removal was heavily felt within the tribes. Native Americans relied heavily on their lands for both spiritual and survival purposes, growing close relations to their established lands which proved far more important to them than being merely space on which they lived. As seen by the modern-day descendants of the Muscogee tribe who make pilgrimages to the sacred lands of their ancestors, the lands were much more valuable to their way of life than what could ever be said of their invaders. Being ripped from the lands which they held such a strong connection to undoubtedly caused cultural issues within the tribes, exemplified further by their strong reliance on their knowledge of the land to survive efficiently. As they were forcibly thrust into unknown territory, it became apparent that the vast amounts of knowledge they held on how to effectively live off their land were drastically less useful. This left what remained of the Indians with little more than the scraps of supplies they managed to bring with them and without the luxury of knowing how to survive efficiently in their new home.

What may be by far the most impactful result of the Indians’ removal is that of the thousands of deaths suffered by the Natives at the hands of the treacherous journey they faced on their way to relocation. Dubbed the ‘Trail of Tears’, the Natives underwent the long journey ill-prepared as they trekked thousands of miles through harsh winters and terrain that proved to be a massive struggle. Thousands were left dead on their route of removal which had major repercussions amongst the tribes, destroying families and harming social order that led to an unprecedented amount of hardship. Losing land precious to the Indian lifestyle had already caused enough harm on its own, but the lives lost along the Trail of Tears crippled the Native Americans who hoped to continue surviving after their forced relocation. These unjustifiable amounts of deaths also resulted in major cultural issues as families lost relatives close to them and figures of importance in the tribes died off alongside the rest of their tribal members. Ultimately, the fateful journey the Indians underwent was seen to be a major complication with an immense consequence which furthered the certainty that the forced removal of Indians was a decision that left long-lasting damaging effects.

It can be said that the lands owned by the Natives would go on to be used to a fuller and more serviceable extent by the Americans in both an economical and societal sense, but this should not undermine the travesty which was caused by Indian removal that left ever-lasting negative effects on their being as a whole. The forced relocation of the Native Americans was destructive to their culture in many ways and resulted in deaths within the communities on a large scale with many consequences, of which the Indians never fully managed to recover from. Truly, the removal of the Indians destroyed the lifestyle they had once enjoyed for thousands of years, that being one which they can never attain again as attributed to the byproduct of their relocation.