Lesson Plan

The Cherokee People and the Trail of Tears: High School Lesson Plan

Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park

Black & White painting: Crowd of people on horses, in covered wagons, and on foot move across a dirt path under dark clouds.

Grade Level:: High School: Ninth Grade through Twelfth Grade
Subject:: Literacy and Language Arts,Social Studies
Lesson Duration:: 90 Minutes
Common Core Standards:: 9-10.RI.8, 9-10.RI.9, 11-12.RI.1, 11-12.RI.6, 11-12.RI.7, 11-12.RI.8, 11-12.RI.9, 11-12.SL.1.a, 11-12.SL.1.b, 11-12.WHST.8, 11-12.WHST.9
State Standards:: Georgia U.S. History: SSUSH7(a)
Additional Standards:: Georgia Reading & Writing Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies (RHSS) Grade 11-12: L11-12RHSS #1, 2, 6, 9 and L11-12WHST #8.
Thinking Skills:: Remembering: Recalling or recognizing information ideas, and principles. Understanding: Understand the main idea of material heard, viewed, or read. Interpret or summarize the ideas in own words. Analyzing: Break down a concept or idea into parts and show the relationships among the parts. Evaluating: Make informed judgements about the value of ideas or materials. Use standards and criteria to support opinions and views.

Essential Question

a. How does studying locations and primary documents aid in our research of actual events?
b. What were the reasons behind the support and opposition of the Indian Removal Act of 1830?

Objective

a. Students will analyze a variety of primary and secondary sources to explain the actions of President Jackson and Congress in the establishing the Indian Removal Act of 1830.
b. Students will analyze a variety of primary and secondary sources to explain the positions of the Cherokee regarding removal, as well as those who supported the Cherokee in their resistance to removal.

Background

The Trail of Tears was the result of many decades of struggle for the Cherokee Nation and other American Indian tribes. Since the early 1800s, the Cherokee Nation tried to protect their lands by assimilating into the European-American culture as much as possible. However, when Andrew Jackson became president in 1828, that tactic rapidly changed. The Dahlonega Gold Rush pushed many miners onto Cherokee land in northern Georgia. The miners wanted the land for mining towns and seeking their fortune. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 gave President Jackson the power to negotiate treaties to remove the Cherokees from their land. Despite the Cherokees not signing these treaties, lotteries were held to distribute Cherokee land to European-Americans.

John Ross and his Cherokee Nation resisted through American legal channels by taking their case to the Supreme Court. In the 1831 case Cherokee Nation v Georgia, Chief Justice John Marshall ruled the federal judiciary could not intervene. However, the Cherokee Nation won a victory in 1832 with Worcester v Georgia. Marshall ruled that Georgia could not enforce state laws on the sovereign Cherokee Nation within their lands. Despite this, President Jackson ‘negotiated’ the New Treaty of Echota in 1835.

This treaty was signed by Major Ridge and members of the Cherokee Nation who were not authorized to sign on their behalf.This treaty led to the U.S. government’s forced and coerced removal of 100,000 American Indians from their homelands to distant reservations in 1837. This included members of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole Nations. They traveled many different paths, but they share this story. Today, the Trail of Tears is the cultural and physical landscape that tells that story.

Preparation

Read through the activities to determine which one(s) most appropriately match with your students and teaching goals. Prepare enough materials from each corresponding activity for your students.

This lesson plan is adapted from a lesson plan from the NPS affilitate Teaching with Historic Places. Read through their lesson, Discover the Trail of Tears: A Lightning Lesson from Teaching with Historic Places. Their lesson covers 5th - 12th grade standards, thus provides more choices for expanding your students' knowledge on this topic.

Lesson Hook/Preview

Getting Started Prompt

Explain to the students we will study Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act of 1830. Ask students what historic places we might visit to help us learn about this law and its consequences. After a few minutes, instruct students to work with a partner to explore sample sites along the Trail of Tears. Partners need to discuss how each site may help them study the impacts of the Indian Removal Act. After about 10 minutes, ask for student volunteers to share what they discussed.

Procedure

Activity 1: Review the Events

Instruct students to read independently the article, "You cannot remain where you are now": Cherokee Resistance and Reloction in the 1830s.
Engage in a discussion with students about the events that led to the Trail of Tears. Consider the following questions based on the article. Emphasize students must cite evidence from the article within their responses.

What was the Treaty of New Echota and who did it affect? How were they affected?
Who was Major Ridge? Why was he in favor of the treaty? How was his appeal similar and differrent to that of President Jackson's statement?
What do you think President Jackson assumed about the future, based on his quote from this article?
Why was the Treaty of New Echota criticized? Do you think the U.S government had the right to enforce this treaty?

Activity 2: What Did It Actually Say?

Display the primary source document, Indian Removal Act of 1830. It is four pages with seven sections.
Take each section one at a time. Read the section, define key words, then discuss it (as outlined below). When those three activities are done, start the next section.
Key Words: After reading the section, ask the students for some key words that pop out to them. Write these words on the board. What do these words mean? Ask students to summarize the section using the key words.
Notes: Instruct the students to write in their notes a summary of the section.
Discussion: After defining the key words, ask students what surprises them about the section. Who specifically may be in favor or opposed to the items in the section? Why?
Continue to the next section, repeating #3 - 5 each time.

Activity 3: What's Their Point of View?

Split the class into two groups. Members in the first group will read President Andrew Jackson's message to Congress regarding his approval of the Indian Removal Act. (President Jackson's message in typed format, if the handwriting of the original is difficult for students to read.) Members in the second group will read an article in the Cherokee phoenix and Indian's advocate newspaper regarding their opposition to the Indian Removal Act.
Members of the two groups will further break up into groups of four (or smaller depending on the class size). Groups will discuss the author's point of view in writing the article. Instruct groups to write down at least four reasons the author has that point of view. They must cite evidence from the article to support the reasons.
Instruct members of each group to find a partner from the opposite group. So, everyone should have one partner. (It may be less chaotic to have each group stand on opposite sides of the room and count off. Corresponding numbers become partners.) Partners spend the next 10 minutes sharing their author's point of view and the reasons behind it. Encourage students to ask their partners questions about the information shared.
Walk around the class to answer questions and correct misunderstandings. Bring class back together and ask student volunteers to share what they discussed.

Vocabulary

enacted - to put into practice
bill - a draft of a proposed law presented for discussion
act - a written ordiance by Congress
extinguish - to put an end to; annihilate
benevolent - well meaning and kindly
consummation - the point at which something is complete or finalized
aborigines - a person who has been in a country from the earliest of times
vexations - something that causes annoyance, frustration, or worry
philanthropy - the desire to promote the welfare of others

Assessment Materials

Reflective Reading Assessment

This assessment instructs students to choose 5 quotes or concepts from lessons learned and write their reactions or reflections to each.

High School Reflective Reading Assessment

Download Assessment

Supports for Struggling Learners

Primary documents can be difficult to work through with their seemingly archaic language. In activity 3, the article opposed to the Indian Removal Act is a little easier to read than President's Jackson's article. Plan accordingly. Other ideas are:

Pair stronger readers with reluctant readers;
Provide stronger readers the opportunity to record the reading a few days in advance. (Great for theater students!) Allow students who are struggling to listen to the recording while they read;
Provide student artists the opportunity to sketch pictures of different sections of the readings. Display the sketches while reading.

Enrichment Activities

Encourage students to read more primary documents about the debates which occured in Congress over the Indian Removal Act. What were some of the reasons for and against voting for this bill?

Last updated: September 7, 2021

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