The Trail of Tears: Indian Genocide Essay -- Cherokee Indian Removal

â€Å"Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race.† -― Martin Luther King Jr. The Trail of Tears is a historical title given to an event that happened in 1838.In this event, the Cherokee community of Native Americans was forced by the USA government to move from their native home in the Southern part of the contemporary America to what is known as the Indian territories of Oklahoma. While some travelled by water, most of them travelled by land. The Cherokees took 6 months to complete an 800 miles distance to their destination. The Cherokee marched through, biting cold, rains, and snow. Many people died during this trip from starvation, diseases, exposure, and vagaries of unknown terrains. Those who recounted this journey in later years spoke of a trip that was filled with tears borne of immense suffering and deaths during this trip and thus the name Trail of Tears. Modern scholars and champions of human rights have described this event as one of the most notorious genocides during the 19th Century. This paper will therefore attempt to prove that, the Cherokee community suffered human right atrocities from the American government shortly before and during the Trail of Tears. The Cherokee lived in the present day United States of America hundreds of years before its occupation by the Europeans. History proclaims that members of this community migrated from the Great Lakes and settled in the Southern Appalachians. When the Europeans started settling down in America, the Cherokee decided to co-exist peacefully with her foreign neighbors. The Cherokee lands consisted of Alabama, parts of Virginia, Kentucky, North and South Carolina and Georgia. ... ...Tears: removal in the South. New York: InfoBase Publishing, 2007. Burgan, Michael. The Trail of Tears. Minneapolis: Compass Point book, 2001. Byers, Ann. The Trail of Tears: A Primary Source of History of the forced Relocation of the Cherokee Nation. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 2003. Gilbert, Joan. The Trails of Tears across Missouri. Missouri: University of Missouri. Hook, Sue. Trails of Tears. New York: ABDO, 2010. Marsico, Katie. The Trails of Tears. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2009. Rozema, Vicki. Voices from the Trails of Tears. Winston-Salem: John F. Blair, Publisher,2003. Salas, Laura. The Trails of Tears,1838. Mankato: Capstone Press, 2003. Sioux, Tracee. Native American Migration. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 2004. Sturgis, Amy. The Trails of tears and Indian Removal. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group,2007.