Physical Pain

Not only was the Trail of Tears emotionally painful but there were many physical concepts that made the Cherokee Indians walk harder. The US government didn’t take into consideration the Cherokee culture or society. Troops force them to leave their homes and walk to camps in Oklahoma. “By the time the remaining Cherokees reached Oklahoma, nearly 8,000 of their relatives had perished” (Rolo). Mark Rolo tries to explain some of the horrifying news people learned after they got to the camps. Some of the routes they took became longer than expected because they had to walk around cities. While walking many people suffered from starvation and thirst because there was a food and water shortage. Weather also played a role in their pain. In the summer there was extreme heat and extreme rains. Since they didn’t have the proper clothing the weather made an even bigger impact on there lives that caused them to turn really sick. The most common diseases were measles and the whooping cough. The lack of medicine caused many deaths. “Road conditions, illness and the distress of winter, particularly in southern Illinois while detachments waited to cross the ice-choked Mississippi, made death a daily occurrence” (Pike). John Pike sums up the Trail of Tears in these few words. The Trail of Tears was more than a walk, it was a journey filled with pain and suffering.