Till what extent did people had to face struggles in the Migration of Trail of Tears?

 

         A quote says, " No one leaves home, unless home is the mouth of the shark." Similarly, people had to leave in this forced migration, of Trail of Tears. Their struggle is seen in the name itself. Leaving your own home is not an easy task, rather the toughest thing to do! 

When people are forced to migrate, they don't have an option, they are pushed out to become a migrant or refugee. But, the only tough thing is not to be get pushed out of your native country, but after and during migration too. There were many struggles, people in this migration from East Mississippi to present day Oklahoma, had to overcome, having no hand, but to face those obstacles. Some of the major obstacles which citizens had to overcome were as follows: 

o   During their forced migration on the Trail of Tears, the Cherokee lost 4,000 and  the Choctaw lost 2,500 Tribe members due to exposure to harsh weather conditions, starvation and disease.  

o   The weather consisted of severe heat waves during the summer months and below freezing temperatures during the winter months. 

o   Food was not readily available as they were removed from their homes and hunting grounds.   

o   The Cherokees caught many diseases which were brought and sometimes intentionally spread by the European settlers including smallpox, typhus, measles, influenza, bubonic plague, cholera, malaria, tuberculosis, mumps, yellow fever, pertussis (whooping cough) and syphilis.

What do you think after knowing the obstacles? There must be so many difficulties and efforts by people, and still no result may have come out. Was this an easy task for them? Not at all! In fact, much more harder than we can express in words!