Perspectives on the Trail of Tears

Historical perspective on an event can vary dramatically depending on whether or not the person describing the event was involved in the event itself and if involved, how so; the amount of time between the event and the history; the existence of bias in sources used in studying the event; and the degree to which the experience is part of the author's cultural heritage. As an historical event the Trail of Tears, the story of the Cherokee removal from the southeastern U.S. to Oklahoma, is no exception. In the activity below your job as a student of the history of this event is to reflect on who is telling the story and how their telling may be colored by their own experiences, beliefs, and sources.

Points along the Trail of Tears are marked on the map below. Each point represents the year in which a particular depiction of the Cherokee removal was created. Some are by participants - some by relatives of participants. Some were created at the time of the event - some over a century later. Some were created by Cherokee - some not. And some are personal accounts - some public. All these factors will affect your judgement of the quality of each account and how readily you accept the stories presented as fact. In the end your understanding, or your history, of the Trail of Tears will be a synthesis of the sources you find most credible.

Print a copy of the Analyzing Documents worksheet for each of the dates you have been assigned. Use the worksheet to guide your reading of the documents and your evaluation of their quality as a credible source of information.

base map from National Park Service, Cherokee Removal Map, part of Kathleen A. Hunter, The Trail of Tears and the Forced Relocation of the Cherokee Nation, Teaching with Historic Places

Last modified in July, 2008 by Rick Thomas