Trail of Tears

Trail of Tears. The Aquohee District Courthouse. In 1838, the United States government deported more than 16,000 Cherokee Indian people from their homelands in Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, and Georgi, and sent them to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). Thousands of Cherokees perished during the forced relocation, which has become known as the Trail of Tears. This tragic episode of our history was a result of the 1830 Indian Removal Act, an official government policy to purge native nations from the eastern United States., The Aquohee District Courthouse, which stood 500 feet to the northwest, was a center for Cherokee political resistance against the Indian Removal policy. The courthouse was the judicial hub for most Cherokee communities in southwestern North Carolina and was the de facto "capital" of the district. It also served as the "Town House" or council house for Hiwassee Town. In 1837 British traveler George Featherstonhaugh described the courthouse as "the Cherokee Council-house of the district, a regular open octagon, built of logs, with a small portal. In this building the Indians of the district held their courts , performed their dances, and other ceremonies.", In september 1835, U.S. commissioners Benjamin Currey and John Schermerhorn attempted to convene a removal treaty conference at the courthouse. One of the delegation noted:, September 26..Cherokees wanted to meet the Commission at their Council House 2 miles below the Missionary House, but did not attend..., October 2..Visited the Town House or the 27th, few or no Indians attend. next day attend at the Town House but five Indians, next day we met at the Mission School House..., Thwarted at Aquohee by the Cherokee failure to attend the meetings, Currey and Schermerhorn assembled a small contingent of pro-removal Cherokees at New Echota in December 1835 and concluded the infamous treaty that led to the explosion of the Cherokees from their homelands and the Trail of Tears exodus in 1838., captions) , The giant white oak trees, which recently stood on the site of the Aquohee District Courthouse were living witnesses to the events of the 1820s and 1830s. The largest of these trees measured 18 feet in diameter., Artist's conceptualization of the Aquohee District Courthouse/Hiawasee Town House. Every town has a house, or particular spot of ground, appropriated to dancing, holding councils and (of late) courts. This public house, (generally called Town House), is built in a circular form, with perpendicular walls six to eight feet high, from thence it ends at a point, giving th proof a conical form, which is supported in the interior by posts. From the floor to the highest point of the roof is from fifteen to twenty feet. Puncheons are laid around the inside to serve as seats. The house is covered with the bark of forest trees, confined on with the bark of hickory shrubs, the hickories themselves , or white oak shreds. A doorway is left in building the house; , on the inside , opposite the doorway, , an angular wall is constructed for th purpose of preventing the wind from sweeping through the centre of the house, and on the outside a small shed or portico is made, and in front of this is a level yard laid off in a square, and made smooth for dancing. , J.P. Evans, ca. 1835.