Since the beginning of European colonization, white people have taken land from Native Americans in order to expand their own colonies. Over the years, there were many conflicts and uprisings because the Indians refused to cede or sell their land. With a growing white population, Native American communities were disintegrated, killed in conflicts, or forced to settle in Indian territories. The year 1828 would once again demonstrate how white settlers obtained Native American lands through the removal of the Cherokee Indians. Known as the Trail of Tears, the Cherokees were beginning their tragic journey to Indian Territory during which thousands of Indians would die along the way and soon after their arrival from disease or violent encounters. The removal of the Cherokee Indians was not only cruel but also unjust, the Cherokees should not have given up their land because prior to the removal they had attempted to be "civilized" by the Americans abandoning their cultural and religious beliefs and the federal government , by treaty, was to protect them. Indians free from all state oppression. After the American Revolution, the new federal government gave the Cherokees the opportunity to abandon their wild life to pursue that of an ordinary American. President Thomas Jefferson encouraged the Indians to increase their numbers by giving up hunting deer and buffalo and instead focusing on cultivating their own land and living a stable, sedentary lifestyle. Jefferson said: Take up the cultivation of the land and raise domestic animals; you see how from a small family you can become a great nation by adopting the path which, from the small beginning you describe, has made us a great nation. With this came the founding of farms and towns in which Christian missionaries...... middle of article ......ite source, Discovering the American Past, (Cengage Learning, 2007), p. 191-193. Wheeler, Becker, and Glover, eds., “Address of the Committee and Council of the Cherokee Nation…to the People of the United States, July 24, 1830.”, Cherokee Source, Discovering the American Past, (Cengage Learning, 2007), p. 199-201. Wheeler, Becker and Glover, eds., “Land, Growth, and Justice: Removal of the Cherokees,” Discovering the American Past, (Cengage Learning, 2007), p.183.Ibid, p.185.Wheeler, Becker and Glover , eds., "Excerpt from William Penn (pseudonym of Jeremiah Evarts of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions), "A Brief View of the Present Relations Between the Government and People of the United States and the Indians Within Our National Limits, November 1829”, source White, Discovering the American Past, (Cengage Learning, 2007), p..191-193.