 "A Masterpiece - A Must-Read" | 2007-09-04 |
| - Reviewed By gordodarr2 |
I am a descendant of some Southeastern Native American tribe: Creek, Choctaw, or Cherokee. The record is cloudy, and my exact lineage is hard to pinpoint.
So it is that I commenced learning about the Trail of Tears, and this is the first book that I picked up in that endeavor, (as I was driving through Oklahoma and made a stop at the Cherokee Trading Post).
The story effects me, not as horribly and directly as it did my ancestors - but it's effect on me was as personal and offensive. The Trail of Tears stole my ancestry from me.
The book was hard for me to read for many reasons. It clutches at our assumptions about American history. It gets us into the human side of that ugly chapter in our past, almost as though CNN were there covering it. It fomented within me terrible emotions regarding one of my American heroes: Andrew Jackson. I cannot think of another man I admire, Zachary Taylor, in quite the same way anymore!
Gloria Jahoda's The Trail of Tears started me down my own path, and helped me answer some of my most poignant questions: I think that my ancestors were most likely Creeks, for instance, and this helps. But I also now know how they were living in the early 19th Century - that they were likely settled farmers or craftspeople living at peace with their neighbors. I know that they were likely Christians, practicing the faith in ways the Europeans could only imagine. I know that somewhere there was a Scotch-Irish frontiersman who became my paternal ancestor.
The genealogist seeking answers about Native American roots will not be able to go back very many generations, before running into brick walls. This is sad and frustrating.
The answer is to be found in excellent histories like this.
But I have not said anything yet about the quality of writing, depth of research, and the way she ties many different plots together into one relentless narrative.
And so - I urge all readers to read this book. And even moreso, students of American Indian Policy, and genealogists like myself that are seeking answers about our Native American ancestry.
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 "An Important Chapter in American History" | 2007-06-25 |
| - Reviewed By jmjellinek |
| Trail of tears works well as a companion to Dee Brown's more famous book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. It tells much the same story about the eradication of Native American culture, except it deals with an earlier period and with the removal of tribes from the eastern part of the United States. It is a fascinating and disturbing chapter of American history, covered in an accessible style that makes this chapter in history available to all. My only complaint is that the book tends to paint a very black and white picture of a very complex period in history. All white American were not evil and all Native Americans were not noble. However, the overall telling of history is fascinating and not commonly known. It is well worth reading, especially if the reader is aware of the prejudices expounded in the text. |
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| "A MUST READ!!" | 2007-02-13 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2D4D4DY1TPYI |
If there are only 2 books that you buy that relate to Native American history, they should be Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and THIS account of the Trail of Tears.
Two summers ago I decided to enter a t-shirt design for the Trail of Tears Commemorative Motorcycle Ride (which I won and I rode in). Before I could create a design for something so important, I decided that I should learn much more than I already knew about this HORRIBLE scar in our countries history.
As I talked to people, this book kept coming up, so I bought it. As soon as I opened it, I was pulled into the story- I couldn't put it down.
The title, while fitting, is a little misleading because the author doesn't just cover the journeys of the 5 nations that became known as the Trail of Tears - And that is definitely a great thing. The book begins well before the removal and covers many of the events that led up to it, thereby giving the reader a much better understanding of the how's and why's. It also covers the Cherokee political struggle in the US capital, trying to stop the removal from happening.
It's a sad story and has no happy ending, but it is something that everyone should read.
BTW- I'm not sure what "Eagles Soar" was reviewing...it didn't sound like it was this book though.
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| "Trail of Tears Review" | 2007-01-13 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1KOVZID4ENOS8 |
| A great book. I wish everyone knew how the government treated the Cherokee. |
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| "Sad times in U.S. history" | 2006-11-01 |
| - Reviewed By User: ALDRY40BPNY09 |
"Father--you know it's hard to be hungry, and if you do not know it we poor Indians know it... We did not think the Big Man would tell us things that was not true." --The Delaware Chiefs to the Indian Department
Horrific--sad times in U.S. history. Eloquent writing style, with beautiful observations of nature and the Indians exotic rituals. Powerful, moving, disheartening, and wretched tale of the American Indian extrication from the east to the west, with the insertion of eye witness reports. Extensive references and bibliography.
Gloria brings in some history of the early settlers. The Red Eagle incident was the catalyst, bringing in the gradual manipulation and removal of the native tribes. Because the Indians weren't united, the removal and relocation was made easier. The exile to their new lands were wrought with strife and death with little morose by the military. The white man's fire water reeked tremendous havoc. The false promises--deception; the warring among tribes contributed to the extermination.
The story of the Black Hawk war in Wisconsin is particularly interesting and heart wrenching. When I now hear the Indian names of Wisconsin it will be with somber reflection.
"They [white man] valued possessions and used people; Indians value people and used possessions." --Seminoles
Wish you well
Scott |
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| "Lest We Ever Forget (or not know) The Real Story" | 2006-10-07 |
| - Reviewed By rachel_elaine |
"The Trail of Tears: The Story of The American Indian Removals, 1813-1855" is a painfully honest, detailed and unbiased reporting of events mostly omitted from school history textbooks and other mainstream sources.
Author, Gloria Jahoda combines inexhaustible research, bringing prominent figures in history to life, with beautiful and sometimes poetic writing to an important and educational book that reads like a fast-paced, succulent novel.
Unless one has extensive prior knowledge in this sordid chapter of American history already, it is guaranteed to provoke outrage. This holocaust is shocking, horrifying and sad in the re-telling and the fact that it is still seemingly swept under the rug by too many, even today.
"The Trail of Tears" is but hardly a beginning in the woes that actually besieged the true Natives of America, but Gloria Jahoda had done wonders in condensing 42 years of brutality, revolting attitudes and devious measures in swindling land and then "removing" the then eastern tribes of Native American Indians (Senecas, Delawares, Shawnees, Choctaws, Sacs, Creeks, Foxes, Cherokee, Chickasaws, Mandans, Potawatomis, Seminoles and Chippewas among others) to what was then considered an uninhabitable, foreign and barren desert land of the west by a government intent on merchandising and stripping ancestral homes, sacred grounds and lands, along with human rights while claiming justification in their systematic plans, blinded by greed.
There is mention of the notable ones with a conscious, not caught up in the misguided, ungodly and unjustly actions ("...the treaty is indeed a thing as illegal as possible...It seems to me that if the government has not decided to be completely unjust, they [the Indians] will be listened to....") but their numbers were too few and attempts to stop the evils remained futile.
The trail of tears, may now be covered up by the hardened roadways of America's forefathers, but it is rendered open and bared within the pages of "The Trail of Tears."
The ending paragraph of the book reads, "In the East, America had stolen the lands of her original discoverers and shipped those discoverers out like so many cattle. In the West, she permitted the extermination of their food in the new land. In the decade from 1840 to 1850 the country acquired approximately 20,000,000 acres from the Indians at a cost close to $3,000,000, roughly fifteen cents an acre. In exchange, the Indians had gotten 4,000,000 acres of land that was considered unfit for human life unless that life belonged to people with red skins. Every treaty left the Indian tribes of the nation poorer, while the nation itself grew richer as it moved inexorably toward the Civil War which would rend but not destroy it. The Trail of Tears had had its start where the sun rose. Finally, in the West of vast skies, thrusting grasses, painted sunsets, and dwindling buffalo, that trail became the road to Wounded Knee."
I consider this a "must read" type of book. Recommended for a continued education of our native people's plight: "How The West Was Lost" video series and the book, "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History of The American West" by Dee Alexander Brown. Also, "A Sorrow In Our Heart: The Life of Tecumseh" by Allan W. Eckert.
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| "A very human book" | 2003-03-10 |
| - Reviewed By bluezephyr66 |
| This is an amazing book. Tireless research and the author's gift of vision and words produces a magnificently readable narrative of the American Indian Removals. Very balanced with no point of view overlooked. Many surprising appearances. And plenty of twists which will make you laugh outloud and break your heart. A very human book. An absolute must-read for anyone who wants to learn history as through the eyes and ears (and hearts) of those experiencing it. You won't be able to put it down. |
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| "A Sad Part of American History" | 2002-05-22 |
| - Reviewed By rboffp |
| I read this book right after Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee. Together they tell the sad tale of how the original inhabitants of the US were moved from their original lands to make way for the US movement west. I enjoyed this book a little more than Bury My Heart, I felt like I got to know some of the characters a little better in this one. But both are worth reading for anyone interested in this sad chapter of US history. |
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| "Still instructive" | 2001-11-02 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| Jahoda's "Trail of Tears" is a good companion to Dee Brown's "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" - in fact, Brown basically picks up where Jahoda leaves off both chronologically and geographically. Although hardly comprehensive (such an account of the Indian removals east of the Mississipi would require many volumes), Jahoda nonetheless provides a rather exhaustive review of the removal of the "five civilized tribes" as well as a number of midwestern peoples. Jahoda notes the particular senselessness of 'removing' the eastern tribes, as many had already been integrated into the lifestyle of the American settlers (some even became major plantation owners, complete with slaves) and/or became devout Christians. What comes out here is that it was not a matter of dealing with 'savages' but racism, plain and simple. Needless to say, "Trail of Tears" is not only an illuminating history but also a rather instructive text. |
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| "Excellent description of "Trail of Tears" events." | 1999-09-04 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| Raises your awareness of what happened to many Native Americans in the last century, and why and how it happened. |
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