Trail of Tears

Trail of Tears (ISBN: 9780517146774) was written by Gloria Jahoda in 1995,

Overarching Theses

A major thesis of this book is connecting the decades of conflict between native nations and Americans to the U.S. Civil War. The arc of Creek removal is the best evidence to this.

• Troup rejected treaties signed by the federal government

• Gayle mobilized the Alabama militia to arrest U.S. marshals and U.S. Army officers that enforced federal laws in defense of Creek citizens

  • see https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=111603

• Lumpkin mobilized the Georgian militia to invade Alabama and instigate a war against the Creek nation

There are several major interest groups identified by the author as having contributed to removal policies.

• Militarists
  • Several officers made political careers out of removals

    • Harrison fighting Tecumtha in the battles of Tippecanoe and the Thames.

    • Jackson fighting Red Eagle.

  • Native nations organizing for self-defense created a justification that militarists could sell to the public.
• Tribal leaders seeking personal profit
  • Quitewepea sold what remained of Creek territory.

  • Eleazer Williams sought to establish a Episcopalian theocratic dictatorship in Wisconsin, and sold much of Oneida territory.

  • John Ridge sold the Cherokee nation.

• Lenders and traders

  • Jefferson established a policy of extending too-cheap credit to native nations, with the intent to leverage debt in land purchases. Effectively a public insurance for and subsidization of such lenders, and a stimulus for traders selling to Native Americans.

  • As part of the mass disenfranchisement in Georgia and Alabama, Native Americans were barred from commerce. Effectively the establishment of monopolies over Native Americans.
• Gold rushes led to speculative land values, creating a fiscal incentive to steal land.
  • Georgia ran a lottery over seized lands, which certainly helped several state politicians' careers.
• Railroad expansion created an industrialist incentive to renegotiate/renege on older removal treaties that guaranteed lands in perpetuity

Established religion is characterized as a beneficial interest group.

• Petit and McCoy both portrayed as sympathetic.

• Eleazer Williams' scam was enabled by the lack of accountability measures in the Episcopalian Church.

• Brigham Young and the Mormons make an appearance; their experience is compared to that of the Patowatomi. Implication is that fringe/un-established religions could not be an effective force.

Chapters as References

• Chapter 1 explores the removal of the Shawnee and Creek into a portion of the Arkansas Territory that was split into a new Indian Territory.

• Chapter 2 explores the removal of the Cherokee from Georgia into the Indian Territory.

• Chapter 3 details the removal of the Lenape into the Northwest Territory, then of the Lenape and the Mingo into the Indian Territory. (Ohio was admitted as a state in 1803, and the remainder of the Northwest Territory became the Indiana Territory. This was then subdivided to additionally create the Illinois and Michigan Territories in 1805 and 1809, respectively.)

• Chapter 4 details the removal of the Choctaw from Mississippi into the Indian Territory.

• Chapter 5 explores removals into the Michigan Territory. This is an intertwined story of the Stockbridge-Munsee, the Oneida, and the Menominee.

• Chapter 6 details the removal of the Sauk and Meskwaki from the Illinois and Michigan Territory into the Indian Territory. (Illinois was admitted as a state in 1818, and the remaining territory was added to the Michigan Territory.)

• Chapter 7 explores the removal of remaining Creek from Georgia and Alabama into the Indian Territory.

• Chapter 8 explores the removal of the Chikasaw from Alabama and Mississippi into the Indian Territory.

• Chapter 9 details how disease wiped out the Mandan, the Arikara, and the Assiniboin.

• Chapter 10 explores the removal of the Patowatomi from the Michigan Territory into the Indian Territory.

• Chapter 11 explores the removal of the remainder of the Cherokee, except for the disorganized peoples living in the western mountains of North Carolina, to the Indian Territory.
• Chapters 12 and 13 explore how the Seminole were pushed deeper into Florida, and through decades of wars, were piecemeal removed to the Indian Territory.
• Chapter 14 explores the removal of the Wyandot from Ohio.

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