Trail of Tears: The Tragedy of American Indians

Grade 8–10

Marsico uses primary sources to show "conflicting vantage points" to provide an objective, reasoned account that places the Cherokee relocation and the Trail of Tears into the context of American history. She opens with well-written background about the "principal people," as the Cherokee called themselves, and then discusses how the post-American Revolution expansion created conflict between the Cherokee and white settlers, the divisions that assimilation efforts and resistance to relocation caused within the tribe and its leadership, and the disastrous removal to Oklahoma.