The Trail Of Tears

This is a fiction journal written story about a Cherokee boy being evicted from his land.

The Trail Of Tears

DAY 1

I can hear the government talking to my father in the room. I did not meant to eavesdrop, but it felt like a reflex; something that was meant for me to do. The government was again, asking my father, the sovereign, to sign yet another treaty. I tried persuading my father to stop making wrong decisions and that these will cause us to abate. It is a sham. Those pioneers would not care about those laws and would still come straight in. I keep telling Father that the Europeans are evil people who wanted to take our land away and are those who killed many of our villagers with an epidemic they called “Small Pox”. Father would just explained to me about considering the land, and how we can stop the pioneers coming in. Father started to be annoyed by me and spurns my suggestion angrily.

DAY 2

Father agreed to the government and had signed the treaty once again. My father was deluded into thinking the Europeans were good, and I felt like I have some responsibility as the eldest son to compel him to think otherwise and cope with these problems. 

DAY 3

When the villagers are doing their daily chores today, the intrepid hunters and the industrious farmers realized that the new treaty was signed, and started to have a discussion on what they should do. Instead of joining them and concurred with what are right and what’s wrong, I tried to settle the argument. Some villagers are stating that father is being capricious, and some others are looking at the same prospective with father. I am not sure if I understand this issue, but I am willing to help. 

FEW MORE DAYS LATER

A proficient agent of the government persuaded twenty of us Cherokees to sign another treaty. This treaty offers five million dollars for us in exchange of us leaving the land, moving to the west. I think this is not impartial, considering that twenty Cherokees have no authority to represent all the others. Luckily, it was brushed aside as irrelevant. I was feeling zestful by the fact that it was useless and also happy to see the villagers to be happy and not infuriated. I just hoped that this will be the end of these treaties, and we Cherokees just settle here for the rest of our lives. 

PRECISELY TWO YEARS LATER

These days, every Cherokee who had been evicted out of the land was agitated. We were forced to trek to the west. An estimated amount of Cherokees had died in either a casualty or by walking too long and tired. In these past few years, many had died either in the disease “Small Pox” or from this journey that we had been forced to take. The Europeans caused all this and I would not forgive them for what they have done. One day, I will stand up and face this Europeans once more and be a staunch man and face these problems.