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Cherokee Removal and the Trail of Tears
A photograph of a spinning wheel inside a historic home in New Echota, Georgia.

A photograph of a spinning wheel inside a historic home in New Echota, Georgia.

This 1978 photograph was taken by an unknown photographer inside an historic home at New Echota, the site established as the capital of the Cherokee Nation in 1825. The photograph depicts a variety of implements that would have been commonly used by Cherokee women to process textiles and make clothing for their families. The great wheel or walking wheel next to the window would have been used to spin wool into thread that could then be stretched out and measured on one of the implements standing against the wall, commonly called a weasel. When enough thread was spun, it was dyed and woven into cloth or rugs like the one on the floor. New Echota was an attempt by the Cherokee to establish a U.S.-style government center to avoid continued pressure to relinquish tribal lands to white encroachment. The town was established in 1825 in north Georgia at the headwaters of the Oostanaula River. During its short history, New Echota was the site of the publication of the first Indian language newspaper, The Cherokee Phoenix, and a point of assembly during the removal of the Cherokee to lands west on the infamous Trail of Tears. Twelve original and reconstructed buildings remain on the site, operated by Georgia State Parks and Historic Sites.

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Citation Information
“New Echota home, spinning wheel and weasel,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/525b770eb683de910ec00a427978f635.
Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.
Courtesy of Western Carolina University via North Carolina Digital Heritage Center.

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Item 5 of 14 in the Primary Source Set Cherokee Removal and the Trail of Tears

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An 1884 map of the land surrendered by the Cherokee Nation to colonial governments and the United States government from 1721 to 1835.
Tennessee Governor John Sevier’s 1803 letter to Cherokee warriors asking for permission to build a road through Cherokee territory.
An 1818 talk by Tennessee Governor Joseph McMinn to the Cherokee Council on the Treaty of the Cherokee Agency and plans for Indian removal.
An 1818 letter from Cherokee chiefs to Tennessee Governor Joseph McMinn criticizing the Treaty of the Cherokee Agency.
A photograph of a spinning wheel inside a historic home in New Echota, Georgia.
A compilation of population and personal-property statistics for the Cherokee Nation as printed in The Cherokee Phoenix, June 18, 1828.
Excerpt of an 1833 letter from John Ridge to Georgia Governor Wilson Lumpkin, urging Wilson to force John Ross into a treaty.
A letter from President Andrew Jackson to the Cherokee Nation about the benefits of voluntary removal, March 16, 1835.
An excerpt from the Treaty of New Echota, December 1835, which led to the removal of Cherokee to reservations west of the Mississippi River.
An 1897 letter from Henry B. Henegar, a wagon master employed by John Ross during the Trail of Tears, describing removal of the Ross Party.
A photograph of John Ross, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1828 to his death in 1866.
An excerpt from “Memorial and Protest of the Cherokee Nation,” written by John Ross and sent to the U.S. Congress on June 21, 1836.
An 1837 message from Brigadier General John E. Wool to the Cherokee Nation warning them of the consequences of resisting removal.
A map of Texas and Indian Territory, 1879.

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