The Effect on Cherokee's

The Cherokee nation is one of the most well known Native American tribes. With over 450,000 people being part of the Nation, it is the largest Native American Tribe to date. However, their current reservation of Oklahoma wasn't where they originally settled. Instead, they ended up in that area due to the Trail of Tears. Throughout the 1700s, there were positive relations with England and the Cherokee's were even recognized as a free nation. But, once America was it's own country, the freedom the Cherokee's enjoyed started to dwindle, as the nation encroached on their land more and more. Add that gold was discovered on their land, and by 1835, treaties left the Cherokee's with very little land remaining. While many Cherokees wanted to hold onto the little amount of land left, unfortunately, Andrew Jackson would introduce the Indian Removal Act and the Cherokee's would be forced to move off of their land entirely. It's then that the Cherokee's migrated to the new Oklahoma area, an event called the Trail of Tears.

Throughout the Trail of Tears, over 4,000 of the 15,000 Cherokee's died to multiple causes with diseases being the main one. When the Trail of Tears was over, the Cherokee's quickly rebuilt with the promise of never being touched again. They quickly rebuilt everything showing a strong level of resilience until the civil war period. In the Civil War, the Cherokee's had to pick sides with a majority siding with the Union. However, again their lives would be challenged, and an allotment of land was given to each family. This ruined how the Cherokee lived as they were now U.S citizens, and had to now abide by a new government and school system. Because of this, the Cherokee's would enter poverty for a long while until in the 1960s. It wasn't until the Civil Rights Movement before the Cherokee finally started gaining back more rights. Throughout this process, the Cherokee's were finally able to bring back their government and elect tribal officials thanks to the Principal Chief's Act of 1970. With the first Cherokee Nation elections taking place in 1971 it was the first time tribal officials were elected in over 70 years with a new Constitution in place in 1975? The Cherokee Nation exhibited resilience and determination throughout these conflicts from a move of the tribe, to a conflict internally (from the American Civil War), going through poverty, and then a lack of their own governmental structure. The crazy resilience shown from the Cherokee Nation is utterly awe-inspiring to everyone else. In conclusion, the Trail of Tears and events following, put this tribe through some of the most difficult challenges possible and yet they endured and prevailed.