Lesson 4
Rebecca Neugin
Lesson Plan for the Trail of Tears
by Dr. Carole Bucy
Era 4: Expansion & Reform
(1801-1861)
Time Period:
Trail of Tears 1838
Survivor of the Trail of Tears in 1838
Born: 1834 in Cherokee territory
Died: 1932 and is buried in Oklahoma
In the Treaty of New Echota 1835, the Cherokee Nation ceded all land east of
the Mississippi River to the United States. By June of 1838, the first contingent of Cherokees
under Federal guard began their journey to land in Indian territory, present day Oklahoma. Many
died on the way from sickness, hunger and exposure. Rebecca Neugin was a young child at the
time of the removal and was interviewed in 1932 about her memory of the "Trail of Tears."
"Trail of
Tears in
1838
Pulaski
Tennessee'
Painting by
Bernice
Davidson
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Lesson 4
Tennessee Curriculum Standards:
4.1spi4 - examine how Native American culture changed as a result of contact with European cultures
(i.e. decreased population, spread of disease, increased conflict, loss of territory, increase of trade
4.5spi1 - identify Native American groups in Tennessee before European explorations
(i.e. Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw).
4.5spi12 - read and interpret a passage about the Trail of Tears.
8.1.spi.2. identify cultures that contributed to the development of the United States
(i.e., Native American, African, British, Scottish, Irish, German).
8.3.spi.3. interpret examples which illustrate how cultures adapt to or change the environment (i.e.,
deforestation, subsistence farming, cash crop, dam and road building).
8.3.spi.6. recognize how topographical features such as mountain and river systems influenced the
settlement and expansion of the United States
(i.e., Cumberland Gap, Wilderness Road, Ohio and Tennessee river systems).
8.3.spi.7. interpret a chart or map of population characteristics of the early United States
(i.e., density, distribution, regional growth).
8.5.spi.5. recognize consequences of the westward expansion of the United States.
8.5.spi.6. classify the characteristics of major historic events into causes and effects
(i.e., exploration, colonization, revolution, expansion, and Civil War).
8.5.spi.8. determine the social, political, and economic factors that contribute to the institution of slavery
in America.
8.5.spi.10. interpret maps, time lines and charts that illustrate key elements of history (i.e., expansion,
economics, politics, society).
8.6.spi.1. identify the impact of individual and group decisions on historical events.
8.6.spi.2. recognize the impact groups have on change at the local, state, national, and world levels.
8.6.spi.3. recognize examples of stereotyping, prejudice, conformity, and altruism in early American
history.
8.6.spi.4. identify the role of institutions in furthering both continuity and change (i.e., governments,
churches, families, schools, communities).
8.6.spi.5. recognize how groups and institutions work together to meet common needs
Reading Standards (Skills – reading a timeline, a map, summarizing, compare-contrast, main idea,
inference, drawing conclusions)
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Lesson 4
Background Information:
When the first European settlers arrived in the area now known as Tennessee, Indians
had been living in settlements along Tennessee's rivers for over 1000 years. The Cherokee,
found in the Appalachian Mountains, was the dominant tribe living in Tennessee. The
Chickasaws lived in northern Mississippi and the Creeks who were frequent rivals of the
Cherokees lived in north Georgia.
As the Europeans began crossing the Appalachian mountains and settling the area that
would become the state of Tennessee, the tribes of native peoples began to trade with the settlers.
The tribal peoples quickly became dependent on the European trade and gradually began to lose
their independence. In an effort to keep peace, the Cherokees tried to compromise with the
settlers and signed several treaties that gave the settlers land. After Tennessee became a state, the
Cherokees had an even more difficult time holding on to their lands.
When the War of 1812 broke out between the United States and Great Britain, the
Cherokees sided with the United States and fought the Creeks with General Jackson at the Battle
of Horseshoe Bend in Alabama. Together they defeated the Creeks. The Creeks and the
Chickasaws living in West Tennessee were forced to give up their lands and move west of the
Mississippi River to Indian territory. The Cherokees were the only Indian people living in
Tennessee. Now they Cherokees only had the land in the southeastern corner of the state and the
northeastern part of the state of Georgia.
The Cherokees had fought with Andrew Jackson at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. Unlike
many of the other Indian tribes, the Cherokees adopted many things from the white culture.
They gave up many things from their tribal culture. Immediately after the war, the tribe
organized a republican form of government with an elected council of men who made decisions
for the tribe.
In 1827, the Cherokees wrote and voted to adopt a constitution. They used the
Constitution of the United States as the model. The Cherokees hoped that
they could be admitted to the Union as a state. They established New Echota
in northern Georgia as the capital of the Cherokee republic.
Cherokee men became farmers and raised corn, tobacco, cotton, and
other crops. They began to accept private ownership of the land. Cherokee
families lived on farms and raised their children like the white settlers of
Tennessee. Their children attended school. They even began to dress in the
fashion of the white settlers.
In 1828, the total Cherokee population as near 15,000. They owned
over one thousand slaves and worked as farmers. The also operated sawmills,
blacksmith shops, and cotton gins.
Many of the Cherokees learned the English language. After Sequoyah
invented his alphabet, the Cherokee government organized a newspaper, the
Cherokee Phoenix. The Cherokee Phoenix published articles in both the English language and
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Lesson 4
the Cherokee language. The articles covered a wide variety of issues that were of interest to the
Cherokees.
The articles showed that the Cherokees wanted to keep their land.
Sequoyah
When white missionaries came into the Cherokee area, many of the Cherokees became
Christians and abandoned their tribal religion. The missionaries helped the Cherokees translate
the Bible into the Cherokee language. They learned to read the Bible and built church buildings.
The Cherokees did not want to move west with the other tribes of Tennessee and the
other southeastern states. They wanted to keep stay on the land that had been their home for
centuries. They hoped that cooperation with the governments of Tennessee and Georgia would
help them to keep their land.
Indian Removal
Many Americans and Tennesseans wanted to get all of the Indians out of Tennessee.
When Andrew Jackson became President, he asked Congress to pass a law to make all eastern
Indians move to land west of the Mississippi River. This law was called the Indian Removal Act.
This was a popular idea in Tennessee. Gold had been recently discovered on Cherokee
land. Tennesseans and Georgians were eager to take the Cherokee lands. In 1830, Congress
passed the Indian Removal Act. The only member of Congress from Tennessee to oppose this
bill was Representative David Crockett.
The Cherokees did not want to leave the land where they had lived
for several
hundred years. They did not want to move to an Indian territory west of the Mississippi River.
The Cherokees decided to try to settle their problems by legal means. The filed a lawsuit against
the state of Georgia in the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court decided in favor of
the Indians.
President Jackson, however, refused to enforce the law. Jackson
believed that the Indians would be better off in the West where they would
not have to defend their land from settlers. By now, the Cherokees were
divided about what they should do. Chief John Ross believed that they
should stay on their land in Tennessee. Another Chief, Major John Ridge
supported the move.
Representatives of the United States came to New Echota in 1835
with a treaty for the Cherokees to sign. John Ridge signed the treaty, but
John Ross refused. The treaty stated that the Cherokees would give up all
of their territory east of the Mississippi River and move to the West within
two years. The Cherokee would be paid five million dollars for their land.
Chief John Ross
John Ross immediately left for Washington to try to work on a
better agreement. President Jackson’s staff refused to see him. In 1836,
the Senate approved the treaty by one vote. Many of the Cherokees accepted what had happened
and began to move west, but Chief John Ross and a few Cherokees refused to leave their homes.
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Lesson 4
The Trail of Tears
By 1838, there were only a small number of Cherokees left in
Tennessee and Georgia. Chief John Ross did not believe that the federal
government would really force the Cherokees to leave. He was wrong.
In the Spring of that year, the United States army went to the area to move
the Indians out by force. General Winfield Scott and 7000 American
soldiers moved the Cherokees to " collection camps".
General Winfield Scott
Throughout the summer, John Ross tried to work out an agreement with General Scott.
By 1838, there were only a small number of Cherokees left in Tennessee and Georgia. Chief
John Ross did not believe that the federal government would really force the Cherokees to leave.
He was wrong.
In the Spring of that year, the United States army went to the area to move the Indians out
by force. General Winfield Scott and 7000 American soldiers moved the Cherokees to
“collection camps.” Throughout the summer, John Ross tried to work out an agreement with
General Scott.
Finally, in August, they began to leave, traveling by land in groups of around one
thousand Cherokees. The route that they walked as they left Tennessee became known as the
Trail of Tears, or “Nunna-da-ul-tsun-yi,” in the Cherokee language. In the Cherokee language
this means “the place where they cried.”
Before some of the Cherokees were able to arrive in Indian Territory, the weather became
very cold. Many did not have enough warm clothing and food to protect them. Soldiers escorted
them. Along the way, many died. Of the original 14,000 Cherokees who were marched on the
Trail of Tears, some historians believe that over 4,000 died. [A few of the Cherokees escaped
removal and hid in the Great Smoky Mountains. They later became known as the Eastern band
of the Cherokees. Some of their descendants live in the area of Cherokee, North Carolina, and
Unicoi County, Tennessee.]
When the decision was then made that the Cherokees would be removed to land west of
the Mississippi River because the settlers in Northern Georgia, Western North Carolina, and
Southeastern Tennessee needed more land, the women, a primary group that had opposed land
cession to the whites, could no longer be heard. Certainly, the silencing of the women and their
exclusion from political life did not produce the removal crisis, but the women were unable to
speak against it. In 1838, most Cherokees had no intention of moving west, and in the Spring of
that year, they planted their crops. After the crops were planted soldiers arrived and rounded up
the Cherokees, they were imprisoned in stockades in preparation for the deportation to the West.
Some stories survive. The Cherokees were not allowed to pack their belongings and then had to
march miles over rugged Tennessee mountain terrain to the stockades. Cherokees from North
Carolina were marched to the central depot in Tennessee. Conditions in the stockades were
horrifying.
The actual removal to the West did not get underway until October and those Cherokees
who had been in the stockades since the Spring had suffered greatly. Shortly before the
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Lesson 4
removal, the Cherokees obtained permission to manage their own removal and they divided their
people into thirteen detachments of approximately one thousand each. Most walked the entire
way. Women gave birth along side of the trail. They were not dressed appropriately for the
winter weather and many died. By the time they arrived in Oklahoma, there was much tension
and stress which some historians believe accounts for what has been described as "post-removal
domestic violence" of which women were usually the victims. Men who had been helpless to
prevent the seizure of their property and the assaults on
themselves and their families, vented their frustrations by
beating wives and children.
The Cherokees had adopted the Anglo-American
concept of power, with men dominant. "The tragedy of
the Trail of Tears lies not only in the suffering and death
which the Cherokees experiences but also in the failure of
many Cherokees to look critically at the political system
which they had adopted - a political system dominated by
wealthy, highly acculturated men and supported by an
ideology that made women (as well as others defined as
'weak' or 'inferior') subordinate. In the removal crisis of
the 1830's, men learned an important lesson about power;
it was a lesson women had learned well before the 'Trail
of Tears'."
Rebecca Ketcher Neugin
Rebecca Ketcher Neugin was a young child at the
time of the Trail of Tears. Her family was among those
who left the Cherokee homeland in East Tennessee and
Northern Georgia and moved to Indian Territory.
She
traveled along the Trail of Tears with her parents and her
five brothers and sisters. Her family was only able to
carry the possessions that they could load into a wagon.
Mural by Bernice Davidson
After they arrived in the Indian Territory, her father cut trees and built his family a log cabin
similar to the home in which they had lived earlier. Her father made a loom for her mother so
that she could weave cloth for the family. They raised hogs, cows and even cotton. Her mother
died in the Indian Territory when Rebecca was a teenager.
Rebecca married Bark Neugin, another Cherokee shortly before the Civil War. Her
husband served as a captain in the Union Army during the war. She and her husband had seven
children. Her husband died in 1880. She and her children continued to live in the one-room log
cabin. Although she did not learn to read and write, she insisted that her children be educated.
Her children were educated in the mission schools that were established in the Indian Territory
by church groups
Rebecca Neugin died on July 15, 1932 in the state of Oklahoma. She was estimated to be
around 115 years old at the time of her death and was considered to be the oldest survivor of the
Trail of Tears.
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Lesson 4
Guide me Jehovah (Cherokee)
Skwah thih ni:se:sti; yiho:wa Guide me, Jehovah
e:lato ka? jh sv':i as I travel here below;
Tsiwanaka hli:yu ayv I am very weak
Tsa hli nikiti nihi You are strong
nikohi:lv nikohi:lv All the Time, All the Time
skih ste:lih ske:sti yo? ko Always continue helping me The Trail on Which We Cried by Candace Corrigan based on sources cited below
I live in Oklahoma, I am Cherokee
In our language we would say, "I am Tsalagi"
Many years ago it was and far, far away
I was a child and my memory fades
The soldiers came into our house
My father wanted to fight
My mother said, "No they'll kill us all",
So we went without a fight
My brother drove the wagon, and my parents walked beside
that I can remember from the trail on which we cried
My mother begged the soldiers at the stockade
To go back for some blankets and food she had made
Some widows came with us as we rode along
One of them sang me a lullaby song
The people grew weary of salt pork every day
My father he hunted for food along the way
Much is forgotten over the years
The road was so muddy, muddy with tears
There was a lot of sickness, so many children died
That's all I can remember on the trail on which we cried
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Lesson 4
The Legend of the Cherokee Rose
I will tell you a story not every one knows
How God gave the People the Cherokee Rose
When the bodies of the children by the roadside were laid
Give us a sign for the mothers they prayed
And up grew a rose at the roadsides were found
White like the tears that fell to the ground
With a center of gold for the gold that was stolen
from the Cherokee land
And seven green leaves for the seven great clans
A legend is a legend, few people know
The legend I heard of the Cherokee rose
Special thanks to The Eastern band of Cherokee Tribal Council, Robert Bushyhead, Lynn Harlan,
Jean Bushyhead, Dan Webber, State of Tennessee Parks System, Jim Apple of the Bull Run Singers
and Lou White Eagle. Many thanks to Rich Jegen at Filmhouse, Nashville, Tennessee for his editing
skills and to the Oklahoma Cherokee archives.
Song Sources:
Journal of Cherokee Studies volume lll number 3 "Memories of the Trail" interview
with Grant Foreman in 1932,
Legend of the Cherokee Rose on the web at http://www.ngeorgia.com, "
Guide me Jehovah" translated by Robert Bushyhead
Credits for Track #5 Disk #1:Rebecca Neugin
Scholars: Dr. Barbara Duncan, Museum of the Cherokee, Cherokee, North Carolina
Dan Webber, curator of historical exhibits, Tennessee State Park system
Actors: Voice of General Winfield Scott: Syd Lovelace
Voice of Rebecca Neugin: Candace Corrigan
Voice of William Coody: Roy Hurd
Musicians: Vocals and drums: Bull Run Singers, Nashville, Tennessee
Vocals: Candace Corrigan, Janne Henshaw and Carol Levack
Guitar: Pat Flynn
Bass: Chris Enghauser
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Lesson 4
Secondary Sources:
Foreman, Grant. Indian Removal: The Emigration of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indians.
Norman, Oklahoma, University of Oklahoma Press, 1974.
King, Thomas. Truth and Bright Water. Groe Press, 2001. (a novel)
Nardo, Don. The Relocation of the North American Indian. San Diego, KidHaven Press, 2002.
Philip, Neil. The Great Circle: A History of the First Nations. Clarion Books, 2006. (ages
9-12)
Sturgis, Amy H. The Trail of Tears and Indian Removal. Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood
Press, 2006.
Wallace, Anthony F. C. The Long, Bitter Trail: Andrew Jackson and the Indians. New York: Hill
and Wang, 1993.
Williams, Jeanne. Trails of Tears: American Indians Driven from Their Lands. Dallas, Tex.:
Hendrick-Long Pub. Co., 1992.
Primary Sources:
Foreman, Grant “Memories of the Trail by Rebecca Neugin,” Journal of Cherokee Studies, vol.
3, no. 3.
Objectives: What do you want your students to learn?
1. Students will understand the route of the Cherokees on the Trail of Tears.
2. Students will understand the reasons that many Americans believed that Indian Removal was
a good idea.
3. Students will understand the effects of this decision on the Cherokees.
Guided Practice – Group activities:
1. Study a map of the routes of the Trail of Tears. Describe the changes in the geography that
the Cherokees would have seen as they traveled.
2. Imagine that you are a member of Rebecca Ketcher’s family. Knowing that you can only take
one wagon of possessions to your new home in the Indian Territory, what will you pack. What
will you leave behind?
3. Discuss the different points of view about Indian Removal. What was President Jackson’s
point of view? What was David Crockett’s point of view? What was the point of view of
Chief John Ross?
4. Do research on the Cherokee nation today. Where do Cherokees live today?
5. Study the contributions of Sequoyah and discuss his alphabet.
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Lesson 4
Independent Practice: Activities that develop mastery of the skill taught
1. There were two points of view about the Indian removal policy of the United States. Some
believed that removal to the Indian territory was the only way to insure the survival of the tribe,
while others believed that it was wrong to take land away from the Cherokees. Write a
persuasive essay defending removal. Write a persuasive essay arguing that removal is wrong.
2. Imagine that you are a soldier who has just joined the United States army and has been
assigned to accompany the Cherokees from the area in the Appalachian Mountains to the Indian
Territory. Write a letter to your family describing the Ketcher family.
Assessment:
Describe the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Describe the Trail of Tears.
Draw the route of the Cherokees on a map of the United States.
Routes of the " Trail of Tears",
Removal of the Cherokee to the Western Territories.
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