Treaties with Indians are nothing; nothing but force will prevail!

-Governer Edward Cornwallis

The Trail of Tears was the removal and running away of the Native American people from Deep South of America. Following the Indian Removal Act of 1830, many natives were forced to relocate to Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma. Five tribes were removed. European Americans, both Christians and Jews, and freed African American men and slaves also participated in the forced relocations.

• The Choctaw were removed from their home. There were the first to call this removal the "Trail of Tears and Death" in 1831. Nearly 17,000 made the move. About 5,000 to 6,000 remained in Mississippi, and were subjected to legal conflict, harassment, and intimidation.
• The Seminole had agreed to move if the land was found suitable. Chiefs inspected the land for several months, found it suitable, and returned. However, many chiefs had renounced the statement, claiming they had not signed to the deal or were forced to sign to it. On December 28, 1835 a group of Seminoles and blacks ambushed a portion of the U.S. Army. Out of 110 army troops, three had survived. This was known as the Dade Massacre. As the realization that the Seminoles would resist sank in, Florida began preparing for war. Indian war parties raided farms and settlements. A war party captured a Florida militia supply train, killing eight of its guards and wounding six others. Most of the goods taken were recovered a few days later. Plantations along the Atlantic coast were destroyed, with many of the slaves on the plantations joining the Seminoles to fight back. The war ended in 1842. The U.S. government is estimated to have spent about $20,000,000 on the war, equal to $488,758,621 today. Many Indians were forcibly exiled to Creek lands west of the Mississippi; others retreated into the Everglades. In the end, the government gave up trying to fight the Seminole in the Everglades and left fewer than 100 Seminoles in peace. However, other scholars state that at least several hundred Seminoles remained in the Everglades.
• The Creek had ceded their land away, and were sent to relocate. After the War of 1812, some leaders such signed treaties that ceded more land to Georgia. The 1814 signing of the Treaty of Fort Jackson signaled the end for the Creek Nation and for all Indians in the South. The Creek Confederacy enacted a law that made further land cessions a capital offense. Nevertheless, on February 12, 1825, chiefs signed the Treaty of Indian Springs, which gave up most of the remaining Creek lands. The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty. The Creek National Council protested to the United States that the Treaty of Indian Springs was fraudulent. The President eventually the treaty was nullified in a new agreement, the Treaty of Washington. Although many of the Creeks had been forced from Georgia, there were still about 20,000 living in Alabama. The state moved to abolish tribal governments and extend state laws over the Creeks. Creeks could either sell their allotments and received funds to remove to the west, or stay in Alabama and submit to state laws. Land speculators and squatters began to defraud Creeks out of their allotments, and violence broke out. The violence was ended by forcibly removing the Creeks to the Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River.
• The Chickasaw received financial compensation from the United States for their lands east of the Mississippi River. In 1836, the Chickasaws had reached an agreement to purchase land from the previously removed Choctaws after a bitter five-year debate. They paid the Choctaws $530,000, equal to $11,382,152 today, for the westernmost part of the Choctaw land. Once across the Mississippi River, they followed routes previously established by the other tribes. The Chickasaws merged with the Choctaw nation.
• The Cherokee were forcibly removed from their lands, which resulted in the deaths of approximately 4,000 Cherokees. With the Indian Removal Act, the U.S. Congress had given the President authority to negotiate removal treaties. The President used the dispute with Georgia to put pressure on the Cherokees to sign a removal treaty. The treaty, passed by Congress by a single vote, and signed into law, allowed Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Alabama an armed force of 7,000 made up of militia, regular army, and volunteers to round up about 13,000 Cherokees into concentration camps before being sent to the West. Most of the deaths occurred from disease, starvation and cold in these camps. Their homes were burned and their property destroyed. Farms belonging to the Cherokees for generations were won by settlers in a lottery. In the winter of 1838 the Cherokee began the thousand-mile march with scant clothing and most on foot without shoes or moccasins. Due to diseases, the Native Americans were not allowed to go into any towns or villages along the way. Perhaps 100 Cherokees evaded the soldiers and lived off the land in Georgia and other states. Those Cherokees who lived on private, individually owned lands were not subject to removal. In North Carolina, about 400 Cherokees lived on land in the Great Smoky Mountains owned by a white man were not subject to removal. Added to this were some 200 Cherokee allowed to stay after assisting the U.S. Army in hunting down and capturing the family of the old prophet.

Then the New World of Technology and Hunger came along. The hearts of government officials turned greedy. Disease as ridden the Americans, as has abrasive forces trying to rid their nationality entirely. There are attempts to blot them out. War machines have been created and used against them, and many have been tortured into signing more agreements that submit them into lives of slavery. Powerful government workers are hunting them down, depleting their resources and power. Genocide has come and left more than once. Tears have fallen more and more as the death continues to reign over not only Native Americans, but those who have agreed with them. This isn't the world you know it is now.

Now it is the turn of a small ban of what's left. The people have hungered for representation for generations. Now it has come. A rebel force of Native Americans are preparing to fight back at all costs. They plan to use not only force, but also wit, cunning, and their own rules and treaties. The band, now small and minor, led by themselves, will soon take action. Native Americans from the five banished tribes have welcomed all nationalities into their group. African Americans, Immigrants, even Europeans with a sense of reason are allowed to join. Some work as warriors, preparing to fight on the front lines and lead the overthrow of force. Some build up technology, improving the odds they may have. Others work silently in disguise as diplomats to steal information from their oppressors.

What part will you play?