The Trail of Tears

Michael Burgan's look at "The Trail of Tears" for the We the People series begins by bluntly confronting young readers with the cold historic fact that in 1838 the U.S. government forced the Cherokee nation from their homes and marched them 800 miles to the Indian Territory that would eventually become Oklahoma. In their own language the Cherokee who survived the march called their route "the trail where they cried," which is known today as the "Trail of Tears." Before the march the Cherokee lands included Georgia, Tennessee, the Carolinas, and parts of Virginia, Alabama, and Kentucky. Burgan details how the Cherokee nation had developed a level of "civilization" that each the white settlers of the times would have to appreciate before telling the story of how contact between the Cherokee and the European settlers slowly worked against the Native Americans, beginning with the introduction of small pox and ending with Andrew Jackson's insistence that the Indians were "savages" and that moving them would be for their own good.Even if young readers do not appreciate the ways in which such thoughts and actions resonate through history in terms of events such as the Bataan Death March or the Holocaust, I have to believe they will have a clear sense of how the "Trail of Tears" represents a gross injustice. Burgan sets up this dark chapter in American history by putting the Cherokee civilization in a bright light before detailing the circumstances of the march that saw maybe as many as 4,000 Cherokees die before they reached Oklahoma. The back of this slim but informative volume includes a Glossary, interesting Did You Know? information, a timeline of Important Dates, a list of Important People, places to go if you Want to Know More?, and an index. "The Trial of Tears" is illustrated with historic drawings, paintings, etchings, and early photographs, most of which are on point for the information provided on each page. Other volumes in the We the People series will also introduce younger readers to key events in U.S. history from the Jamestown Colony and the Boston Tea Party to the Underground Railroad and the Santa Fe Trail.