Forced against our wills, forced to leave our land, forced to leave to go somewhere unknown to our minds, all thanks to Andrew Jackson. My father had spoken of him in cruel words. He had told me that Jackson had signed an "Indian removal act" that disrespected our rights. On our journey we only are allowed to have a limited amount of items with us, 600 wagons and carts, 5,000 horses, and 100 oxens. Our land was taken from us for $5.6 million, "The Treaty of New Echota". My father called it as an outrage. The white settlers had called us, "Savages", but I do not understand. My family, our tribe, are being separated. I over heard the soldiers saying that we are being organized into groups of 1000. We do not know if we are able to be with each other on our journey. Our journey starts tonight, when the sun sets. .
Sunset came, and all of us were being shoved by the American soldiers to move to out wagons. It all happened so fast The soldiers separated me from my family and my mother screamed for me. I cried out as they pulled me away from my beloved family. "Momma!" I sobbed. The soldiers threw me up into another family's wagon. I scraped my arm against the uneven wood. Immediately, I looked at my bloody arm and started crying more. Baleale, my mother's childhood friend helped me up and sat me in her lap. I sniffled as she wrapped my arm in a dry cloth. She looked at me and pushed the hairs out of my face. "It will be alright, Ale Quah. We will find them soon." She murmured calming me down. Her family was all huddled up as we continued to ride on the uneven dirt.
It was cold. Freezing. I was shivering a lot. I cuddled up into Baleale's side and hugged her for warmth. Since her family farms instead of hunting, they did not have blankets. They only had clothing they had bought from other tribe members. We had gone only a few miles into our journey and I already am hating it.
