More than the Trail of Tears:

U.S. Government Exploitations Against Native Americans

Morgan Rausch

Junior Individual Website

Word Count: 1190

Media Time: N/A

Process Paper Word Count: 499

 In third grade, I read a book called Naya Nuki by Kenneth Thomasma with one line of the
book about an American genocide, the Trail of Tears. I have remembered the topic to this day,
never having the urge to research it. But, when the National History Day project presented itself,
I saw the chance to research a topic I was extremely interested in. Although, I had to figure out
how to relate it to the theme of Frontiers in History. For me, this was the hardest part because I
originally thought the frontier of my project was the land in Oklahoma the Native Americans
were relocated. Roughly halfway through my project process, I realized the frontier was not only
the action of relocation from known, worn land, but it was also the forced assimilation to an
entirely new culture with Americans taunting the ways the Indigenous learned and spoke along
the way.
Starting my NHD project, I used Gale in Context to find many reference articles to locate
relevant primary sources. In social studies class, my classmates and I were required to use note
sheets, putting the title, MLA citation, and text evidence in each document. This helped the
process of both research and building a website because I had information in one location to
easily find and contribute.
Creating my project was simply copying and pasting my student-composed words from
the note sheets I created in Google Docs into my website. First, I went to google Drive and
created a new Google Site. After titling all of the pages of my new website, I then proceeded to
add information gathered beforehand, making it easier to move along the process of creating a
website. When organizing the new site, I chose a timeline-based structure to help the reader
see the events before and after the Trail of Tears, making it easy to follow. Furthermore, the
display of the primary-sourced information took me a long duration of time to make look
pleasing to appeal.
The side I am taking in my project is the side of the Native Americans because I saw it
as a violation of Indigenous people’s rights --- they were here before the European settlers ---
and boundaries. Taking the land out from under them, Andrew Jackson --- and Martin Van
Buren, enforcing Jackson’s removal plans after he went out of office --- felt at the highest rank
and would not consider the Indigenous a known people let alone a society. I chose the side that
was fighting for a voice in American history, the voice that was not and is still not heard by many
to this day due to racial, political, economic, cultural, linguistical, and societal differences. These
Native Americans were fighting for a voice, and I wanted to speak for them through my project
in all of the dreadful boundaries, both based on prejudice and discrimination these people faced.
This is an important historical event because it marked America's cultural transformation from
nature-based people to sophisticated citizens.