Difficulties in the Cherokee Nation, By Lexie Whitmire

(Watch from 0:00-1:50)

            The Cherokee Indians lived peaceful lives and had a very developed culture until they were forced off of their native land in the 1800s. Andrew Jackson is the man behind the Indian Removal Act (1830) and the Trail of tears. Andrew Jackson established an “Indian Territory” in Oklahoma, which is where he wished to send all of the Indian Tribes that were currently living east of the Mississippi River. Out of the five Indian Tribes that Jackson was trying to force out, the Cherokee were the only ones that chose to stay and defend themselves. Surprisingly the Cherokee did not physically fight they just fought with words and explained there dilemma to the Supreme Court. The court then told the Cherokee that they could stay in their homes and in their native land of Georgia. Jackson did not agree with this ruling so he decided to take matters into his own hands. So in 1838 he sent nearly 7,000 American soldiers to the Cherokee tribe in Georgia and force them to leave and go to Oklahoma. So in the winter of 1838 the Cherokee tribe began there horrific and dangerous journey. Thousands of Cherokees died on the Trail of Tears either from diseases or just pure exhaustion. When the surviving Cherokees arrived in Oklahoma they had to recreate a system of government and restore their culture. This is only one of the many difficulties that the Cherokee Indians were forced to overcome

          Aside from this video clip I watched, I could also relate the Cherokee people and the Wampanoag people. I read an article about the Cherokee that said that they were setting up a 10-year plan to try to revitalize the Cherokee language. This is very similar to the film we watched in class called " We still live here". There were only 460 fluent Cherokee speakers left in the nation and about 72% of them were over the age of 50 and rapidly dying. The Cherokee, not wanting their language to disappear,  decided to make the 10- year program. This idea is extremely similar to what the Wampanoag people were doing in the video we watched. The article I read also said that in the past few years so much has been accomplished and many more Cherokee people can actually speak the language. However the article does talk about some challenges the Cherokee have similar to the Wampanoag. They have trouble finding skilled teachers that are fluent in the language and also finding the necessary tools and programs that will teach Cherokees the language correctly and efficiently. The Wampanoag people and the Cherokee people are similar in many ways and both are very passionate in trying to revitalize their native language and keep their culture alive for generations to come! This is similar to my first posting about the Trail of Tears because the Cherokee people were kicked out of there native land, but somehow still keep there Cherokee language alive. Many Wampanoag people were killed while trying to protect their land and preserve their culture and are also trying to keep their language alive.  

Redish, Laura

1998 Native Languages of the Americas. Electronic document,

http://www.bigorrin.org/cherokee_kids.htm, accessed July 15.

The History Channel

2013 Andrew Jackson’s Controversial Decisions. 3:21 min. History Channel website
 

Trail of Tears Association

The Story. Electronic document

http://www.nationaltota.org/the-story/, accessed July 16

Cherokee Preservation Foundation
2013 Cherokee Language Revitalization. Electronic document
http://www.cherokeepreservationfdn.org/cultural-preservation-connect/major-programs-and-initiatives/cherokee-language-revitalization, accessed July 20