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The Trail of Tears was a series of forced relocations of Native American nations in the United States following the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The relocated peoples suffered from exposure, disease, and starvation while enroute, and more than ten thousand died before reaching their various destinations. The removal included members of the Cherokee, Muscogee, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw nations, from their ancestral homelands in the southeastern U.S. to an area west of the Mississippi River that had been designated as Indian Territory. The phrase "Trail of Tears" originated from a description of the removal of the Choctaw Nation in 1831.〔 〕 Between 1830 and 1850, the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee, Creek, Seminole and Cherokee peoples (including European Americans and African American freedmen and slaves who lived among them) were forcibly removed from their traditional lands in the Southeastern United States, and relocated further west.〔Minges, Patrick. ("Beneath the Underdog: Race, Religion, and the Trail of Tears." ) ''US Data Repository.'' 1998. Retrieved 13 Jan 2013.〕 The Native Americans were forced to march to their designated destinations by state and local militias, in some cases at the express objection of the federal government and the US supreme court.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Indian removal )〕 The Cherokee Nation removal in 1838 (the last forced removal east of the Mississippi) was brought on by the discovery of gold near Dahlonega, Georgia, in 1829, resulting in the Georgia Gold Rush. The Cherokee was divided into thirteen groups, the last of which was led by John Ross, who had negotiated the nation's emigration contract with the Van Buren administration.〔Inskeep, Steve. (2015) Jacksonland: President Andrew Jackson, Cherokee Chief John Ross, and a Great American Land Grab. New York: Penguin Press. pp. 332-333. ISBN 978-1-59420-556-9.〕 Approximately 2,000-6,000 of the 16,543 relocated Cherokee perished along the way.〔Prucha, ''Great Father'', p. 241 note 58; Ehle, ''Trail of Tears'', pp. 390–92; Russel Thornton, "Demography of the Trail of Tears" in Anderson, ''Trail of Tears'', pp. 75–93.〕〔Carter (III), Samuel (1976). ''Cherokee sunset: A Nation Betrayed: A Narrative of Travail and Triumph, Persecution and exile''. New York: Doubleday, p. 232.〕 ==Historical context== In 1830, a group of Native Americans collectively referred to as the Five Civilized Tribes: the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee, and Seminole, were living as autonomous nations in what would be later called the American Deep South. The process of cultural transformation, as proposed by George Washington and Henry Knox, was gaining momentum, especially among the Cherokee and Choctaw. The U.S. federal government had been pressured to remove the Native Americans from the Southeast by many white settlers, some of whom encroached on Indian lands while others wanted more land made available to white settlers. Although the effort was vehemently opposed by many, including U.S. Congressman Davey Crockett of Tennessee, President Andrew Jackson was able to gain Congressional passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which authorized the government to extinguish Native American title to lands in the Southeast. In 1831, the Choctaw became the first Nation to be removed, and their removal served as the model for all future relocations. After two wars, many Seminoles were removed in 1832. The Creek removal followed in 1834, the Chickasaw in 1837, and lastly the Cherokee in 1838.〔(Indian removals 1814 - 1858 ).〕 Many Native Americans remained in their ancestral homelands; some Choctaw are found in Mississippi, Creek in Alabama and Florida, Cherokee in North Carolina, and Seminole in Florida; a small group had moved to the Everglades and were never defeated by the U.S. A limited number of non-native Americans, including African Americans, usually as slaves; some as spouses, also accompanied the Native American nations on the trek westward.〔 By 1837, 46,000 Native Americans from the southeastern states had been removed from their homelands, thereby opening for predominantly white settlement.〔 Prior to 1830, the fixed boundaries of these autonomous tribal nations, comprising large areas of the United States, were subject to continual cession and annexation, in part due to pressure from squatters and the threat of military force in the newly declared U.S. territories—federally administered regions whose boundaries supervened upon the Native treaty claims. As these territories became U.S. states, state governments sought to dissolve the boundaries of the Indian nations within their borders, which were independent of state jurisdiction, and to expropriate the land therein. These pressures were exacerbated by U.S. population growth and the expansion of slavery in the South, with the rapid development of cotton cultivation in the uplands following the invention of the cotton gin. The removal, conducted under President Andrew Jackson, followed the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The act provided the president with powers to exchange land with Native tribes and provide infrastructural improvements on the existing lands. The law also gave the president power to pay for transportation costs to the West, should tribes choose to relocate. The law did not, however, provide the president with power to force tribes West against the will of the tribe and without treaty. In the few years following the Act, the Cherokee brought forth lawsuits. Some of these cases reached the Supreme Court, the most influential being ''Worcester v. Georgia''. Samuel Worcester and other non-Native Americans were convicted by Georgia law for residing in Indian territory in the state of Georgia without a license. Worcester was sentenced to prison for four years, and appealed the ruling, arguing that this sentence violated treaties made between Indian Nations and the United States Federal Government. The Court ruled in Worcester's favor, declaring the Cherokee Nation was its own establishment and was therefore required to adhere only to Cherokee law, not Georgia law. Ultimately, Indian land was free from the law of individual states. Chief Justice Marshall argued, "The Cherokee nation, then, is a distinct community occupying its own territory in which the laws of Georgia can have no force. The whole intercourse between the United States and this nation, is, by our constitution and laws, vested in the government of the United States." Andrew Jackson did not, however, adhere to the Supreme Court mandate, pointing out that because the Court had no means of enforcing their mandate, the President had power to do as he chooses. Even congressmen Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams, who supported Georgia’s initiative to place state laws on Indian Territory, were outraged by Jackson’s apparent disobedience and self-believed superiority over the federal government. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote an account of Cherokee assimilation into the American culture, declaring his support of the ''Worcester'' decision. Jackson chose to continue with Indian removal, granting Georgia power to force Native Americans off Indian land. The Treaty of Echota was signed on May 23, 1836, which granted American Indians two years to move off their land before forced removal. Few Indians left. Keeping with their promises, the U.S. government began moving American Indians west in May 1838. The Cherokee were remanded in camps east of the Mississippi River. In November, the Cherokee were broken into groups of around 1,000 each and began the journey west. They endured heavy rains and snow, and freezing temperatures. On their way westward, the Cherokee were joined by the other Native Nations, including the Creek, the Choctaw, the Muscogee, and the Seminole. When the Cherokee negotiated the Treaty of New Echota, they lost all their land east of the Mississippi and received $5 million from the federal government. Many Cherokee felt betrayed for accepting the money, with over 16,000 of their people signing a petition to prevent the passage of the treaty. By the end of the decade in 1840 tens of thousands of Cherokee and Native Americans were driven off their land east of the Mississippi River. Oklahoma was the new home for the Cherokee which was promised by the federal government to last for an eternity, but that never happened. When Oklahoma became an official state of the United States in the first decade of the 20th century, Indian land there became lost forever and the Cherokee were then again forced to move farther westward. The Cherokee along with a number of other tribes such as the Choctaws and Seminoles lost their land through the Indian Removal act of 1830. One Choctaw leader portrayed the Trail of Tears as "A Trail of Tears and Deaths", the devastation of this event nearly wiped the Native American population of the southeastern United States out of their home land.〔"Trail of Tears." History Channel. Accessed December 15, 2014. http://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/trail-of-tears.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Trail of Tears」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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