United States History Student Edition

F Native American Accounts of the Trail of Tears The two excerpts below are Native American accounts of the Trail of Tears. Ooloocha, the teller of the first excerpt, survived the Trail of Tears. Her story was recorded when she filed a claim in 1842 for the abandoned property that she had been forced to leave behind when she was rounded up for relocation. Mary Hill, a Muskogee born in 1890, was interviewed in 1937. In the second excerpt below, she recounts the story her grandmother often told about her forced removal from Alabama. PRIMARY SOURCE: LEGAL TESTIMONY “ The soldiers came and took us from our home. They first surrounded our house and they took the mare while we were at work in the fields and they drove us out of doors and did not permit us to take anything with us not even a second change of clothes, only the clothes we had on, and they shut the doors after they turned us out. They would not permit any of us to enter the house to get any clothing but drove us off to a fort that was built at New Echota. ” — Ooloocha, widow of Sweet Water, from Theda Perdue and Michael Green, The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears PRIMARY SOURCE: INTERVIEW “ Many fell by the wayside, too faint with hunger or too weak to keep up with the rest. The aged, feeble, and sick were left to perish by the wayside. A crude bed was quickly prepared for these sick and weary people. Only a bowl of water was left within reach, thus they were left to suffer and die alone. The little children piteously cried day after day from weariness, hunger, and illness. Many of the men, women, and even the children were forced to walk. They were once happy children – left without mother and father – crying could not bring consolation to those children. The sick and the births required attention, yet there was no time or no one was prepared. Death stalked at all hours, but there was no time for proper [burial] ceremonies. My grandfather died on this trip. A hastily cut piece of [cottonwood] contained his body. The open ends were closed up and this was placed along a creek. This was not the only time this manner of burying was held nor the only way. ” — Interview with Mary Hill, from Family Stories From the Trail of Tears EXAMINE THE SOURCES 1. Comparing and Contrasting How are the events that the two Native American women describe similar to and different from each other? 2. Drawing Conclusions Do you think the stories these women tell justify calling the Cherokee relocation the Trail of Tears? Explain your answer.

Political and Geographic Changes 321 (1)Ooloocha. Claim for Lost Property in Georgia, March 5, 1842. In Hill, Sarah H. Cherokee Removal from Georgia: Final Report. National Park Service and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources/Historic Preservation District, 2005; (2)Byrd, Billie. Interview with Mary Hill, 1937. In Family Stories from the Trail of Tears. Little Rock: American Native Press Archives and Sequoyah Research Center, University of Arkansas, n.d.