Christine A. Elmore
All I ask in this creation
Is a pretty little wife and a big plantation
Way up yonder in the Cherokee nation
This refrain from a song that was very popular in Georgia in the 1800s may encapsulate the justification for the passing of the Indian Removal Act in 1830 and its subsequent enforcement, leading to such horrific events as the Cherokee Trail of Tears, one of the most brutal stories in American History. The message sent was clear: when settlers wanted Indian lands, the United States would find a way to remove the Native Americans. This story needs to be told to help children develop compassion for others and to help them see how people often convince themselves to do the wrong thing—to harm others—just because the government and the people in power say it’s okay. Studying about such tragic events can help “stir a sense of humanity” within the students as William H. McNeill, a celebrated historian, so aptly puts it in his article, ‘Why Study History (1985)’. The challenge of an early-elementary education teacher is how to convey this terrible page in our nation’s history to young learners. The purpose of this unit is not just to reconstruct this event but also to have students explore why it occurred and what the conditions and forces were that brought it about. This historical event reflects and may be considered to symbolically represent the majority culture’s attitude toward and treatment of all Native Americans during our country’s westward expansion.
This curriculum unit utilizes carefully chosen children’s books to present core ideas to young learners because the modified text and vivid illustrations effectively convey the ideas and engage their interest.
To record, organize and process the new information they learn, the students will use an interactive history notebook, a project that will be ‘a work in progress’ throughout their participation in this unit. It will allow all activities to be kept together in one place and in logical order. As a place to explore and share ideas, they will inherently be personal, creative notebooks and a record of each student’s growth. Typically this interactive notebook has a left (output) and a right (input) side orientation. On the left side students will review what they have learned and express their feelings and reactions to activities they do in class. Content can include historical journal entries, forms of poetry, maps, and ‘what if’ statements to name a few. On the right side students will ‘post’ handouts, graphic organizers and photos that the teacher distributes to help them to think graphically about the subject matter.
The experience of most who actually made this 800-mile journey west remains untold. However, there are historical documents, eye-witness accounts, Cherokee family stories (taken from the Indian-Pioneer History collection) paintings, poetry, songs, ‘youtube’ videos as well as children’s historical fiction books and informational texts that have been made great use of in this unit in an effort to present an engaging, accurate account of the forced removal of sixteen thousand Cherokee Indians from their homes in Georgia to their new “home” in ‘Indian Territory’ (now Oklahoma) in 1838. The intention is to help young students better ‘connect’ with the people who endured this ‘trial of tears’ as they participate in a variety of hands-on experiences that will bring them closer to what happened during this time.
I am a first-grade teacher at Davis Street Arts & Academics Interdistrict Magnet School. The self-contained class of 26 students to which I will be teaching this curriculum unit are a heterogeneous group with varying abilities within the 6-to-7-year-old age range. Although this unit was designed with them in mind, it could easily be adapted for use by teachers in other primary and intermediate grades as well.
This unit is interdisciplinary in scope, incorporating reading, writing, art, history and social studies. Tapping into a variety of literary sources, it will include familiarization with such genres as myths, nonfiction, historical fiction and poetry. The students will work in small and large group settings on the unit’s activities. The unit lessons will be taught 5 times a week for a period of 40 minutes over a one-month period.
Beginning with a Simulation Activity
To pique student interest in this historical event the teacher will begin with a simulation activity. Shortly after they arrive in class, the teacher will read an announcement to the class telling them to line up immediately because some other students want to take over their classroom. They will not be allowed to take anything with them. The teacher and the students will then take a walk all the way up to the third floor searching for an empty classroom to settle in. Alas, they will soon notice that there are no empty classrooms available. Briefly the teacher will have them all sit in the hallway where he/she will bemoan the fact that there seems to be no place to go. Together they will discuss what they might do. As the minutes pass, this activity will have had its intended effect of creating in their minds a sense of injustice and everyone will then go back to their classroom where they will discuss what just happened. The teacher will ask: What feelings did you have during this forced walk? How did it feel to be told to leave without taking anything with you? What were your thoughts as we walked throughout the school with no place to go?
The teacher will then write the phrase, ‘Trail of Tears’ on the whiteboard and explain that the Cherokee Indians, about 177 years ago, were forced to leave their homes so that other people could have their land to build their own farms on. They were forced to march over 800 miles to a new place that they knew nothing about. It took them between four to six months to get there and they endured many hardships during this involuntary march. The Cherokees called it Nu-No-Du-Na-Tlo-Hi-Lu, ‘The Trail Where We Cried’ or ‘The Trail of Tears’ because it was so hard for them. The teacher will ask: What do you think you would have done if this happened to you?
In an effort to record and compare their experience with the actual historical event that the students will be learning about, the teacher will chart the following ideas:
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Classroom Simulation Activity
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Historical Event
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Students were told to leave their classroom immediately, taking nothing with them.
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The Indian Removal Act of 1830 made it legal that the Indians had to leave their homeland.
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Students walked from floor to floor in the school searching for a new place to settle in.
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Indians walked the Trail of Tears.
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Students ended up having class in the hallway.
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Indians had to resettle in a new place 800 miles away.
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Students felt feelings of fear, worry and sadness over being treated unfairly.
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The Indians suffered in many ways from this ordeal.
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This curriculum unit is divided into 4 main sections:
Section 1: Examine A Myth and Begin To Get To Know A People
Section 2: Two Influential Figures in Cherokee History
Section 3: Three Events Shaping the Destiny of the Cherokee Nation
Section 4: The Trail of Tears: Voices from the Past And Present
