My family was involved in the Trail of Tears, as unwilling invitees, and the Trail was costly for my family. My grandmother's great grandfather refused to leave his land, he and his sons decided to head to the mountains and not join the march to Oklahoma. He was a minor Cherokee official, when he was captured by Federal troops he refused to join the removal. Because of his status his refusal did not go un-noticed, when 8 of his sons were caught by Federal troops and he was again told to publicly agree to removal, he did refused and his 8 sons were murdered in front of him to send a message to anyone who refused to participate in removal. Additionally our family we lost a number of other family members on the trip west.

What is rarely discussed is the primary reasons behind the Federal backing for relocating the five major Southern tribes to Oklahoma. The most common reason we are taught in school is the relocation was due to the discovery of gold. However the primary purpose was to fulfill promises made to soldiers who fought in the War of 1812 and meet the needs of the growing population of the Northern States (not Southern States), the third and less important goal was to allow non-native exploration for gold.

Land was taken from Southern tribes because the Northern tribes with the largest land holdings were also active in their support of the U.S. Government during the War of 1812, as a result they held some status in this regard, but more importantly as a result they were also well armed and taking land from the Northern tribes, bands and nations could have been bloody. This is a decision of the taking land from the people who had the least ability to object.

Census and other records of the era show the non-natives taking farms and other property formerly owned by natives from the five major tribes involved in the relocation "program" were almost all from Northern states, and they were almost all veterans of the War of 1812, the few that were not veterans of the War of 1812 were new immigrants, almost all arrived in one of the Northern states.

Charles Yow