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The Remember the Removal Bike Ride was started for Cherokee youth to retrace the Trail of Tears and get a glimpse of the hardships their ancestors faced. All rights reserved. Newsletters Employment Contact Us. Search Search all Cherokee. Election Commission. Cherokee Heritage Center. Find Your Way Gadugi Portal. Learn Cherokee. Health Services. Through a series of treaties the Cherokee land holdings were reduced until the s, when the major body of the tribe approximately sixteen thousand was concentrated primarily in Georgia and Tennessee.
They were "removed" after a series of congressional and court battles and were driven by the U. Before the removal the Cherokee resolved to keep their government in operation throughout the exile and upon arrival in the Indian Territory.
Here they joined six thousand Western or Old Settler Cherokees who had voluntarily migrated beginning as early as , settling in Arkansas then the Indian Territory that became Oklahoma.
The Cherokee joined their two governments under the Act of Union Since then this government has continuously operated as the Cherokee Nation. To the present the survival of this one united Cherokee government is celebrated each year on September 6 at the National Holiday in Tahlequah. Since removal to the Indian Territory the Cherokee Nation has remained committed to its sovereign nationhood, despite loss of one-fourth of its population on the Trail of Tears, federal seizure and allotment of tribal lands, forced merger into a state, and prohibition of the electoral franchise in selection of their own chief.
Governing its people in the Indian Territory since , the Cherokee Nation passed through six eras. The first marked the reestablishment of a united Cherokee Nation — After their Supreme Court victory in the case of Worcester v. Georgia and the subsequent refusal of Pres. Andrew Jackson to follow the court, the Cherokee Nation split into factions.
One, known as the Ridge Party, signed the Treaty of New Echota and provided the alleged basis for tribal removal; the other, known as the Ross Party, resisted voluntary removal and presided over the ultimate process of migration on the Trail of Tears. Once they were in the Indian Territory, civil war erupted between the factions, resulting in the deaths of the leaders of the Treaty Party.
A smoldering peace came to the Cherokee Nation after the U. Even then, bitter partisans nursed hatreds that started again when the Cherokees were drawn into the American Civil War. Economic, cultural, and social institutions such as the Cherokee Male and Female Seminary symbolized this renaissance. During this time the Cherokees revived a tribal newspaper, the Cherokee Advocate , and published books, pamphlets, and broadsides in Sequoyah's Cherokee syllabary.
The tribe established college-level education and public schools. In addition to the planter and merchant class, traditional Indians prospered. The average Cherokee enjoyed a standard of living as high as, if not higher than, their neighbors in Arkansas, Kansas, and Missouri. This prosperity ended during the American Civil War and Reconstruction eras — In the Cherokees once again became pawns in a white struggle.
Cherokee loyalty was divided. Many Cherokee were slaveholders and sympathetic to the Confederate cause. At first the tribe sought to maintain neutrality. Geography and politics made neutrality impossible. Soon the Treaty Party was drawn to the Southern cause and their leader Stand Watie became a brigadier general in the Confederate army. The Cherokee Nation became a site of guerrilla warfare, massive destruction, burnt-over land, and widespread starvation.
In excess of seven thousand Cherokee died, leaving as much as 25 percent of the Indian children as orphans. Despite the fact that Chief John Ross had gone north and that more than twenty-two hundred Cherokee soldiers had served the Union, the United States adopted a hostile attitude toward the entire tribe.
The terms of the Treaty of Fort Smith were vindictive and harsh. The Cherokee Nation was required to surrender land, open their territory to railroads, and begin the process that would ultimately produce statehood. The costs of this war were as devastating as removal itself. After the Civil War the Cherokee struggled to defeat allotment and tribal dissolution — The railroads came to Cherokee country during this era and brought intruders who pressed for the opening of Indian lands to white settlements.
The cost of the campaign to hold back this tide drained the Cherokee treasury. In spite of these external pressures the Cherokee Nation came alive with several generations of farmers, herders, and merchants practicing their trades. All this should have created a lasting peace and prosperity, but the Cherokees were subject to the constant harassment from intruders.
By the time of the Oklahoma Land Run of the federal government determined to extinguish the Cherokee Outlet, from which the lease income supported the Cherokee Nation. On September 19, , Pres.
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