Cherokee called it, The Trail Where We Cried. This devastating march west not only forced them to give up what they had known as home, but it forced them to make the journey under very extreme conditions. It took more than six months for them to travel the great distance. In order for them to accomplish this, they had to move at a relentless pace. They were left alone, out in the woods, to give birth, and they were expected to catch the group after the birth. No one was allowed to stay with them or go back to look for them. Some of the victims never returned- victims it was believed of wild animals (Alexandria 107). Insufficient rest and lack of nourishment led to many diseases like measles and the whooping cough, none of which they were prepared to deal with. The weather was not in their favor either. Winter struck and wind covered the people in snow and sleet. They walked on the frozen ground with heavy loads on their backs and no covering on their feet. Miseries of that halt beside the frozen river, with hundreds of sick and dyeing penned up in wagons stretched upon the ground, with only a blanket overhead to keep them out of the January blast (Alexandria 108). The cold was so intense, they sent people ahead every morning to light fires along the road, at short intervals, to warm the way (Alexandria 108). This journey, quite possibly the most brutal of any in the history of the United States, turned out to be devastating to the Cherokee population. Approximately one fourth of the Cherokee nation died during this trek west. That is, one out of every fourth person that started the journey was laid to rest. Race and discrimination was now very real to the Cherokee. John G. Burnett, a United States Army private, described in his own words his experience of the removal of the Cherokee. I was sent as an interpreter into the Smokey Mountain Country [where I] witnessed the execution o...
