The Choctaw Removal: A Trail of Tears having already cancelled its order for such boats, and Death the Choctaws had to wait while new boats were By: Len Green/Bishinik, November, 1978 rounded up. While the boats were gathered, the Choctaws had to wait in camps outside Memphis After signing the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit and Vicksburg. They soon consumed all of the Creek, the U.S. government determined that the best available rations and since their departure was method of handling the Choctaw removal was to delayed they soon began to run out of food. move the tribe in three separate groups. The first There were approximately 2000 Choctaws at removal of about one-third of the Choctaw nation Memphis. Sometime in mid-November they were began on November 1,1831. crammed aboard two steamboats and dispatched up The Choctaws were allowed the first two to the Arkansas River and toward their new weeks of October to gather their crops, assemble homeland. their personal property and sell their houses and But, at the Arkansas Post, the U.S. army chattels, so that they would be ready to move by halted the steamboats and unloaded all the November 1. Choctaws. The boats were needed to transport a Because of the urging of the State of new detachment of soldiers to Fort Smith, Arkansas. Mississippi, the Choctaws were ordered to leave all The Choctaws would have to wait. of their livestock in Mississippi and promised that Following the floods, a blizzard was setting they would be furnished new livestock when they in with strong, cold, northerly winds, snow and sleet reached the “Choctaw Nation in the West.” dancing across the landscape. Most of the In the meantime, the newly created Bureau Choctaws were scantily clad, with some of the of Indian Affairs (BIA), not to be left out of the act, children naked. All the U.S. government provided came up with a new wrinkle. The BIA said that it were 60 small army tents to shelter the more than would offer special incentives to any Choctaw 2000 Choctaws from the freezing storm. willing to walk to the new land. By the time help arrived, both the Choctaw Approximately 300 of the Choctaws decided and soldiers were receiving a ration of one handful that the BIA plan was the way to go. There was of boiled corn, one turnip, and two cups of heated “one fly in the ointment”, though. The “guide” water per day. whose name is (probably fortunately) lost to history, To make matters worse, the temperature was not the expert on the west he represented remained below the freezing mark for six days. himself to be. After eight days, 40 government wagons were sent Beginning in mid-October, the U.S. to Arkansas Post from Little Rock to begin relaying government began sending army wagons to gather the Choctaws on to Fort Smith, but many had up the Indian families who would travel west in the already frozen to death or died of pneumonia. first year of the migration. In summary, the U.S. government hired lazy Thus, during the final week of October, and corrupt removal agents who made very few encampments of Choctaws began to spring up all preparations to care for the Choctaws. They did not around the outskirts of Memphis and Vicksburg, purchase enough rations, and there were only a with the population of the camps growing daily. limited number of wagons available to carry the And, along with the Choctaws came Choctaws to their new territory. This meant that something else…rain! These heavy rains came and only the tiniest children and the most elderly, ill or stayed, flooding the Mississippi, Arkansas and physically disabled could ride in the wagons. Any Ouachita Rivers, turning the river valleys into Choctaw who was able to stand and place one foot swamps. in front of the other was forced to walk. A quick conference between the removal To make matters even worse, the white agents revealed that the floods would make the man’s diseases, particularly dysentery and typhoid roads impassable so that there was no way the raged among the Choctaws as they dragged Choctaws could be taken west from the Mississippi themselves slowly westward toward their promised by wagon as originally planned. land. This left only one alternative –to make the Progress was extremely slow as halts to bury removal by steamboats. With the government their dead or tend their illness came often. The leaders of the escort party did not know the routes they were to follow and constantly held up the party 5. Describe some of the conditions that the as they studied maps or consulted residents of the Choctaw faced in the holding camps and forts: area. As a result of the sickness, deaths and pauses caused by the escort, it took almost three months for the Choctaws to drag themselves the 150 miles. 6. How long did it take the first group of Choctaws Thus, by April 1, 1832, all of the Choctaws to move to Indian Territory? who had remained alive through the first removal were located in their new homeland .Of the 6,000 who began this march, only about 4,000 survived the journey. 2,000 Choctaws had died on the way. And this was only the first of three stages of the Choctaw removal. There were two more years of 7. MATH QUESTION! removal to go… What percentage of Choctaws died in the first When the first wagons reached Little Rock, passage? a famous term that would eventually burn itself into history was born. In an interview with a Kansas Gazette reporter, one of the Choctaw Chiefs was quoted as saying that the removal to that point had been a “trail of tears and death”.

8. What did you read that indicates that more Question for Cosideration Choctaws will probably die after this group? 1. What is the name of the treaty that removed the Choctaws?

2. Why might the government offer special bonuses to those who were willing to walk? 9. “…the policy of the government toward the red man is not only liberal, but generous. He is unwilling to submit to the laws of the States and mingle with their population. To save him from this alternative, or perhaps utter annihilation, the 3. What was wrong with the guide hired by the government kindly offers him a new home, and government? proposes to pay the whole expense of his removal and settlement.”-President Andrew Jackson.

Did the U.S. government live up to this promise by the President? Why or why not? What examples can you give from this reading?

4. Why did most Choctaws end up walking anyway?