Lesson Plan

The Cherokee People and the Trail of Tears: Middle School Lesson

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:: Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade
Subject:: Literacy and Language Arts,Social Studies
Lesson Duration:: 90 Minutes
Common Core Standards:: 6-8.RH.1, 6-8.RH.2, 6-8.RH.4, 6-8.RH.7, 6-8.RH.8, 6-8.RH.9, 6-8.RH.10
State Standards:: Georgia: SS8H1 and SS8H4(e)
Additional Standards:: Georgia Reading Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies (RHSS):
L6-8RHSS1, 2, 8, 9, & 10.
Thinking Skills:: Understanding: Understand the main idea of material heard, viewed, or read. Interpret or summarize the ideas in own words. Applying: Apply an abstract idea in a concrete situation to solve a problem or relate it to a prior experience. 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

1. How did the members of the Cherokee Nation both assimilate white culture and resist white expansion?
2. What key events led to the Trail of Tears?

Objective

1. Students will analyze the impact of the Dahlonega Gold Rush, Marshall's Supreme Court decisions, and the Indian Removal Act on the Cherokee Nation.
2. Students will describe the roles Andrew Jackson, John Ross, Major Ridge, and John Marshall played in Cherokee resistance and removal.
3. Students will explore and examine the sites along the Trail of Tears.

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

Watch the 23 minute video Trail of Tears produced by the NPS in collaboration with the Cherokee Nation. This video brings the story alive for the students. It is a great way to give students context for the people and events they will study leading up to the Trail of Tears.

Procedure

Activity 1: Locating the Site

Direct students to Map 1: Cherokee Removal Routes, 1838 - 1839.
Give the students a few minutes to study the map. Instruct them to look at the map key, the physical characterisics of the map's location, and the where the routes took the people.
Discuss the map with students. Below are a few suggested questions. Challenge the students to cite evidence from the map in their answers. ["I think xxx because I see xxx on the map and to me, that means xxx."]

What do the different colors represent?
The routes don't go in a straight line. Why do they follow the paths drawn?
What are some challenges people faced when using this route in the winter?
How may have people traveled by water?
What rivers does the route follow?
What advantages or challenges are present over the land route?
Which route do you think were the most used? Why?
By which route would you prefer to travel?

Display the interactive map of the Trail of Tears on the board. Explore the sites with the class state by state to impress upon the students the distance people traveled on this migration.

Activity 2: Visual Evidence

Direct student to Photo One: The Major Ridge House and Chieftains Museum, 2008.
Give the students a few minutes to study the photo.
Provide the following information to the students: The Major Ridge House was built in the early 1800s and is located in present-day Rome, Georgia. But it was still Cherokee land when Major Ridge and his wife, Susanna, moved into the home around 1819. The family occupied the plantation until they migrated west in 1837. Over those years, the Ridge family expanded the home from a simple log cabin to a large, white clapboard house and added addiitonal rooms and out-buildings. (The single-story wings were added in 1923, almost 100 years later.) The property included Major Ridge's ferry boat that sold passage across the Oothcalloga River, a trading post, and an active plantation where enslaved people lived and worked for the Cherokee leader. The Major Ridge home is open to the public today as the Chieftains Museum/Major Ridge Home. It is dedicated to preserving and teaching Cherokee history and culture.
Instruct the students to partner with the person who sits next to them. Ask the following questions one at a time. Give the students a few minutes to discuss the answers with their partner. Challenge the students to cite evidence from the map in their answers. ["I think xxx because I see xxx in the picture and to me, that means xxx."]

Can you see any features that might indicate that this house was built by a Cherokee? In what ways do you think the design of the house reflects Ridge's attitudes towards accommodation to white society?
Do you think Major Ridge was a man of high or low status in his community? Why might a Cherokee respect him? Why might an American admire him?
Why do you think the Major Ridge House was preserved and turned into a museum?
Major Ridge was a Cherokee who believed the tribe should move west to protect their people. He was viewed as a villain and as a hero by different people for his beliefs. Name another figure in history who was both admired and hated. Where can you go to learn about their history?

Activity 3: Cherokee Voices for Resistance

Have your students number off: 1-4; 1-4; so on.
Assign groups 1 & 2 with Reading: Chief Womankiller Passage, 1829. Assign groups 3 & 4 with Reading: Chief John Ross Letter, 1836.
Instruct students to read the articles independently.
When all students are finished, allow the students to break into their assigned groups.
Instruct students to take turns providing one fact about the passage to their group. [They can use a "speaking stick" to pass around the group if needed.] Walk around the class to support any questions or misunderstandings within the groups.
When finished, instruct the groups to discuss one question within their group. All answers must cite evidence from their text.

Groups 1 & 2: What arguments does Chief Womankiller make in his presentation to the Cherokee Nation and its council? What are his concerns?
Groups 3 & 4: What arguments does Chief John Ross make in his letter? What are his concerns?

When finished, allow group 1 & 3 and groups 2 & 4 to combine and share their information about their respective passages.
Bring the class together as a whole. Engage in a class discussion about the final questions. How are Chief Womankiller and Chief John Ross' concerns similar? different? Why do you think their perspectives are different?

Activity 4: Analyze the Source

Draw a timeline on the board. At the beginning of the timeline, write 1800: Cherokee Nation begins to assimilate the European-American culture into their lifeways. At the end of the timeline, write 1837-1839: The Trail of Tears.
Read the following primary sources with the class one at a time. Discuss the meaning of the document and what it means to the Cherokee Nation. Preludes to the Trail of Tears: The Great Intrusion; Indian Removal Act; Cherokee Nation v. Georgia; Worcester v. Georgia; The New Treaty of Echota; An Extension.
After reading each document, ask a volunteer student to add the event to the timeline on the board.
Instruct students to reflect on the events in the timeline. Provide time for students to write their reflections in their history journal or other writing document.
Optional: Ask for student volunteers to share their reflections. Engage in a respectful dialogue about each of the reflections. [Important: Review rules for respectful discussions before this activity. Be sure you actively reinforce each of the rules throughout the discussion.]

Vocabulary

Despoiled - steal or violently remove valuable possessions
Injunction - an authoritative warning or order
Vexations - the state of being annoyed, frustrated, or worried
Covenant - agree by lease, deed, or other legal contract
Agency - a department or body providing a specific service for a government or similar organization

Assessment Materials

Informal Assessment

Walk around the class during group discussions to support conversations and correct misunderstandings. Use a common rubric to evaluate individual contributions within groupwork.

Enrichment Activities

With a partner, instruct students to read the response to the Indian Removal Act in the Cherokee Phoenix newspaper, May 15, 1830. [via Library of Congress] This is a difficult text, so instruct students to read and discuss one paragraph at a time with their partner.
Notice the Cherokee language in the newspaper? Challenge your students to interpret a few words in the article using the Cherokee syllabary.

Last updated: September 7, 2021

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