How Did The Long Walk Change Indian's Life

Kailey Potts
USH-Period 1
Lopez
28 August 2014

The Long Walk and Trail of Tears In the 1800’s there were many things that didn’t go right for several Indian groups. Various tribes and Indian families were forced out of their lands and homes because of the United States government. White men did not want these Indians in their states; taking up their land and other useful resources. As time went on, the United States forcefully removed these Indian tribes or groups from the land, and made them relocate in some other place. The two historic events that brought great distraught and changed Indians lives forever was The Tail of Tears and The Long Walk. The Trail of Tears happened in 1838, and about 4,000 of the 16,000 that traveled the trail had died. The Cherokee buried various bodies each stop that they made. The Long Walk was endured by the Navajo Indians between the years of 1836 and 1866. Hundreds of Navajo Indians died from starvations, disease, and exposure to such cruel weather and conditions. Both the Navajo and the Cherokee had a culture based upon hunting and gathering. Both of their main focuses were on trying to survive and finding their own homeland to

The Indian Removal Act was an act that forcibly removed Indians from their land and made them relocate. In result of doing this, the new settlers would have somewhere to live; West of the Mississippi. Not only did the Cherokee have to move to a new Indian territory, but they also had to move their capitol. The sighting of gold in this land made it even worse for the Cherokee; the white men pushed the issue even harder. Some of the Indians left willingly, while others were forced to leave, and didn’t even have time to collect their belongings. They were then forced to walk thousands of miles under harsh conditions, with no shoes covering their feet. This was the Cherokee’s Trail of