Question answered by Sarah Houston, Managing Director of Student Programs at PTPI.
3. In the book, the acquisition of land and territory is a central theme. The Moravians explained it best in the book when they said, “Land, the prime need of the white man. It always starts with land…” Why do you think land is the source of such great conflict and intense emotion?
For the white settlers, land meant instant wealth (especially after the discovery of gold) and they were determined to acquire as much of it as they could from the Cherokees. The white settlers and the government gradually and eventually pushed the Cherokees from their homes and land, forcing them to move west. I think they felt that even though countless of generations of Cherokees were born and raised on the land, that because they were “uncivilized”, they had no right to it.
President Andrew Jackson even said in a letter outlining a treaty for removal of the Cherokees, “You cannot remain where you now are. Circumstances that cannot be controlled and which are beyond the reach of human laws, render it impossible that you can flourish in the midst of a civilized community. You have but one remedy within your reach. And that is, to remove to the West and join your countrymen…”
Land is a source of great conflict and emotion because it represents home, culture, identity, and, as I mention above, prosperity. When this is threatened as it was in Trail of Tears– to exploit natural resources or build and develop the land –people do anything they can to protect it and to safeguard their homeland. The Trail of Tears is tragic because the Cherokees lost everything in their forced march away from their homes, including thousands of lives.
The opinions expressed by PTPI staff and other book club members are entirely their own and are not necessarily the views of People to People International or that of PTPI’s Officers, Board of Directors and Board of Trustees.
