South Carolina ETV

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Walking the Trail of Tears (Grades 6-8)

Master Teacher

Debbie Alexander

Time Allotment

Two 45-minute class periods

Overview

The Cherokee Indians lived peacefully with early settlers, but the white man's lust for gold and land was all consuming. Between the years of 1684 and 1835, over 30 treaties chipped away at the Cherokee Indians' original 135,000 square miles of land. In the spring of 1837 and continuing through the fall of 1838, the Cherokee Indians were rounded up and corralled into stockades. This began the Trail of Tears, a 1,200-mile journey to unfamiliar territory.

Through activities and examining Web sites and watching video clips, students will become familiar with the reasons that the settlers wanted the land, the broken treaties, and the Indian Removal Act leading to the Trail of Tears.

Subject Matter

Social Studies

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

state reasons for the Indian Removal Act
list causes and consequences of the conflict that the Cherokee Indians faced
give a sequence of events that led to the Trail of Tears
identify important people whose lives were affected as a result of the Trail of Tears

South Carolina Standards

These Standards can be found online at Office of Curriculum Standards.

Standard 7.1.4: To discuss the significance of the revolutionary periods.

Standard 7.1.6: To analyze the causes and consequences of world conflicts.

Standard 7.3.11: To discuss the impact of human migration on the cultural diffusion, change, and conflict in each world region.

Media Components

Video

The Palmetto Special, Lesson 4: "Carolina Indians." Through site visits, interviews, historic photographs and illustrations, students will learn about these early inhabitants of South Carolina.

Web Site

Trail of Tears. Under Project Examples, click 6-8 Grades. Then under Social Studies-Web Quest, select #17, Trail of Tears. This is an introduction to the Trail of Tears with bookmarked resources to find solutions to questions that the students must answer about the Trail of Tears.

Materials

Per student:

paper and pencil
4 note cards

Per Group

Activity Sheet 1: What Would You Do?

Prep for Teachers

Create heterogeneous groups (four-five students) for assignment.

Preview entire video.

Cue video for lesson.

Bookmark the Web site used in this lesson on all computers that the students will use.

When using media, provide students with a Focus for Media Interaction, a specific task to complete and/or information to identify during or after viewing video segments, Web sites, or other multimedia elements.

Introductory Activity

Step 1: Distribute the activity sheet "What would you do?" to groups of four-five students.

Step 2: Read the directions and the situation to the class. Allow five to ten minutes for students to discuss and respond to the situation.

Step 3: Ask each group to give their response and reasoning for their decision. (Note to Teacher: As students respond, allow other groups to point out the positive or negative aspects of their decisions. Responses to the situation will vary.)

Learning Activity

Step 1: Ask your students to describe what they think of when they hear the words "Native Americans." (Some responses may be Indians, tribes, teepees, etc.)

Step 2: Ask your students if they are familiar with the Trail of Tears. (Most students are not familiar with the Trail of Tears. Some may have heard about it, but are not sure what took place.)

Step 3: Explain to your students that the Trail of Tears was an event that took place in the 1800s. The Cherokee Indians made up a separate nation, most of which was located in the state of Georgia. Most Cherokee Indians were farmers and the Cherokee towns had developed small industries. Shops made and sold farm equipment and clothing. The Cherokee tribe adopted the written alphabet invented by Sequoia and began publishing a daily newspaper called the Cherokee Gazette. The land occupied by the Cherokee Indians was good for growing cotton.

When gold was discovered in the Georgia hills, the Cherokee were in the way. In 1828, Andrew Jackson, an old Indian fighter, was elected President. Laws were passed that were designed to force the Cherokee to move west. The Indian Removal Act was enforced and the removal of the Cherokee Indians began in May 1838. Some Indians rode in wagons, some rode horses, and many walked. None of the tribes were able to make the 1,200-mile trip to their new home in less than four months. During the long journey, the tribe suffered from cold, hunger, and disease. Anyone who became too weak had to be left behind. By the time the last group reached Oklahoma in March of 1839, about 4,000 Cherokee had died.

Step 4: Explain to your students that they will be watching parts of a video that will re-enact the accounts leading up to the Trail of Tears. These segments are of an outdoor drama called "Unto These Hills." Distribute the note cards.

Step 5: Insert the video, The Palmetto Special, Lesson 4: "Carolina Indians," into the VCR. Provide your students with a Focus for Media Interaction by asking them to write on one note card about the event in the segment that took place leading up to the Trail of Tears. START the tape where the man is standing holding a flag and the words, "A Cherokee Village 1540" is on the screen. The sound will be of the narrator saying, "The first European contact in the Carolinas was. . . . " STOP the video when the narrator says, "the Indians were beginning to have more and more contact with the European settlers." The picture on the screen will be of a man marching off with a sword held high. While students are writing responses, CUE the video for the next part.

Check for Comprehension: Ask volunteers for responses. (Desoto tells the Cherokee Indians that they must leave their land, because of the gold that was discovered.)

Step 6: Provide your students with a Focus for Media Interaction, asking them to write on another note card about the event that takes place in this segment. START the tape where the narrator says, "The discovery of gold in Northern Georgia. . . . " and the picture shows two men sitting at a table in a bar with one man standing. PAUSE the video when the man in the bar says, "That's about the best thing that's ever happened to the Cherokees." The video shows a man pointing.

Check for Comprehension: Ask volunteers for responses. (Two men from Washington came on government business to make a deal with the Indians. They were sent to buy the land and move the Indians out West.)

Step 7: Provide your students with a Focus for Media Interaction, asking them to write on a third note card about the event in this segment. PLAY the tape from the previous pause point. PAUSE the tape when you hear the Indian say, "Tell the white General we will not come back." The video shows little Indian boy standing with his older brother.

Check for Comprehension: Ask volunteers for responses. (Cherokee Indians were discovered hiding in the mountains after they had been told to leave. Tsali, along with his wife and sons were some of the ones who remained. Tsali's wife was murdered, and he got revenge by killing the soldier. Tsali and his three sons fled into the mountains to hide out. The soldiers told other Cherokees they could remain in the mountains if they would bring Tsali back to be punished for his crime.)

Step 8: Provide your students with a Focus for Media Interaction, ask them to write on the fourth note card about the final event that led to the Trail of Tears.

PLAY the tape from the previous point. STOP the tape when you hear, "What was known as the Trail of Tears," and the video shows an Indian walking off with a bowl of fire.

Check for Comprehension: Ask volunteers for responses. (Tsali was not given a fair trial. The soldiers spared only his youngest son. Tsali and his two oldest sons were shot and killed. The soldiers lied and did not keep up with their end of the bargain.)

Step 9: Ask your students about their reaction to the events leading up to the Trail of Tears. (Student responses will be based on individual opinions.)

Culminating Activity

Step 1: Ask your students to go to the Trail of Tears Web site on the computers. (Note to Teachers: This site should already be available for the students to access.)

Step 2: Provide your students with a Focus for Media Interaction, asking them to complete the ten questions listed on the Trail of Tears Web site under the heading, "The Task." Students will use the bookmarked resources on the page to help them answer the questions. The questions should be answered on notebook paper. Allow students time to complete the questions, and then check for comprehension. This can also be used as an assessment for this lesson. The answers are listed below.

Check for Comprehension:

1. Policy that was passed by Congress providing money to carry out President Andrew Jackson's policy of Indian removal.

2. Andrew Jackson

3. Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole

4. Southeast

5. The Treaty of New Echota, $5 million and new homelands in Indian Territory, yes, more than 15,000 Cherokees protested.

6. Gold was discovered and land was fertile for white settlers to farm.

7. More than 15,000

8. A nine-year-old boy on the Trail of Tears. Fear, sickness, death of his father

9. The Cherokee had to totally rebuild their lives.

10. Because so many Cherokee Indians lost their lives.

Cross-Curricular Extensions

Language Arts: Students can write a protest letter to President Jackson explaining why they consider his policy of Indian removal to be unjust.

Mathematics: Students can use the scale on a map to determine approximately how many miles each tribe traveled. This information can be compiled to make a graph.

Geography: Students can use a map of the Trail of Tears to understand the routes that the Indians had to follow.

Community Connections

Invite a Native American to speak to your students about some of the problems Native American people still face in today's society.

Activity Sheets:

Activity Sheet 1:What Would You Do?