Cherokee Bracelets
Cherokee Bracelets samples
Various Cherokee, symbols such as journey, warrior, and the spiral of life
The Cherokee people have the unfortunate distinction of being the Peoples that walked the Trail of Tears. One of the USA’s most devastating inhuman acts as it tried to extinguish the Native population in the 1800’s.
The forced relocation of most of the Five Civilized Tribes of the Southeastern United States to Indian Territory under the Indian Removal Act of 1830 signed by U.S. president Andrew Jackson clearing former Native American lands for white settlement.
Some say 4,000 died ( from 16,000 to 17,00 that were forced to leave their land ) from hunger, exposure and disease.
The US Government estimated 10,000 dead, ‘ This tragic event is referred to as the Trail of Tears as over 10,000 Indians died during removal’…
…and some count at 840.
The journey became a cultural memory as the “trail where they cried” for the Cherokees and other removed tribes. Today it is widely remembered by the general public as the “Trail of Tears”.
In 1831, the Choctaw became the first Nation to be removed, and their removal served as the model for all future relocations. After two wars, many Seminoles were removed in 1832. The Creek removal followed in 1834, the Chickasaw in 1837, and lastly the Cherokee in 1838.
However, some managed to evade the removals and remained in their ancestral homelands; some Choctaw are living in Mississippi, Creek in Alabama and Florida, Cherokee in North Carolina, and Seminole in Florida. A small group had escaped into the Everglades and were never defeated by the United States government. A small number of non-Native Americans who lived with the tribes, including some of African descent (some as slaves, and others as spouses or freedmen), also accompanied the Indians on the trek westward.[13]
By 1837, 46,000 Indians from the southeastern states had been removed from their homelands, thereby opening 25 million acres (100,000 km2) for predominantly white settlement.