Cherokee Relocation

By Donna Hernandez

Using primary sources from the Documenting the American South collection, students will investigate the boundaries of the Cherokee lands set for North Carolina after the Revolutionary War.

Learning outcomes

Students will:

  • learn about early government treaties that forced the Cherokee off their land.
  • illustrate changing boundaries of Cherokee land compared with surrounding states.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

1 day

Materials/resources

Blank maps of the North Carolina and surrounding states including Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina (Cherokee country).

Technology resources

Internet access for Documenting the American South materials, computer lab.

Pre-activities

Have students translate the following geographic terms into their Cherokee names: North Carolina, Cherokee, Atlantic, west, north, ocean, south, mountain, boundary, and land.

Activities

  1. Give students copies of the Treaty of 1817 or the Treaty of 1819.
  2. Have students read their treaty and highlight any mention of land claims.
  3. Next, students should try to locate these locales and label them on their blank maps. Teachers need to provide a map of the original Cherokee land area or have students search for one on the Internet.
  4. Allow students to share their highlighted texts orally with a partner who read a treaty from a different year.
  5. Ask students, along with their partner, to choose one color and shade all of the territory lost due to the Treaty of 1817. Then, using a second color, students should shade additional territory lost due to the Treaty of 1819.
  6. The teacher will have to guide students to share maps and clear up any inconsistencies.

Assessment

Class discussion or written response in which students describe the treaties and their major points. Also, students may write about the language of the treaties and any inequity they uncover.

Supplemental information

Additional Activities

  1. This activity can be done with small pieces of construction paper (punched out with a single hole punch) and then pasted onto a blank map with a single color used for each different state and the ocean. Don’t forget to have students create a key.
  2. Have students conduct more research about how some of the Cherokees responded to these treaties as well as what happens to the tribe over time.

Related websites

Report and Resolution of a Joint Committee of the Legislature of North Carolina

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

Social Studies (2003)

Grade 8

  • Goal 3: The learner will identify key events and evaluate the impact of reform and expansion in North Carolina during the first half of the 19th century.
    • Objective 3.05: Compare and contrast different perspectives among North Carolinians on the national policy of Removal and Resettlement of American Indian populations.