The Cherokee argued their case against mandatory removal before the Supreme Court. Although the Supreme Court ruled that the Cherokee could remain, most were forced by federal troops to make the long, arduous trek to their designated homeland in Oklahoma.
Between 1838 and 1839, about 15,000 Cherokee followed the Trail of Tears westward. Estimates of the death toll ranged as high as 4,000 from a variety of diseases including dysentery, hypothermia, measles, and whooping cough (Norman, 1995, p. 82). Almost one thousand Cherokee escaped the forced evacuation--by hiding out or by special exemption. These Cherokee settled in the Great Smokies and became the Eastern Band of Cherokees.
During the forty year period following the Trail of Tears the Oklahoma Cherokee were able to rebuild their nation and restore national pride. They reinstituted their governmental system. The Cherokee also established their own public school system to replace the missionary schools subsidized by the United States government.
The Cherokee public schools were unsuccessful for a variety of reasons. First, their nationwide school system placed a heavy financial burden on the tribe. Second, instruction in the schools was entirely in English. Since the vast majority of Cherokee spoke their native language only, this presented a significant obstacle. Cherokee of mixed ancestry, however, were more likely to speak English. Mixed-blood Cherokees tended to be wealthier than their full-blooded counterparts, thus the Cherokee public schools took on an elitist character: "In the long run, the Cherokee educational system, commendable as it was in principle, produced disunity; it increased rather than diminished class differences" (McLoughlin, 1993, p. 95). Attempts to establish bilingual education in Cherokee schools did not meet with success.
Cherokee sovereignty was derailed in 1887 by the Dawes Severalty Act. The act provided that commonly hel...