Choctaw Indians and the Trail of Tears

*All worksheets, lined paper, and pencils that you will need during this Webquest are placed in the center of your table.

1. Begin by putting your earphones in and watching the Trail of Tears Documentary below. Only watch the video until 2 minutes and 35 seconds in.

2. After everyone in your group has finished watching this video, work together to begin completing the Trail of Tears Video Worksheets. You may go back and re-watch parts of the video if necessary.

3. Then put your earphones back in and watch the Trail of Tears Map video.

4. After everyone in your group has finished watching the video, work together to finish up the Trail of Tears Video Worksheets. You may go back and re-watch parts of the video if necessary.

5. Click on the link for the Indian Removal Map and observe it with your group and complete the Indian Removal Map Worksheet together.

6. Click the Indian Removal Act and Trail of Tears webpage link and then scroll down to the Choctaw section and read the information.

7. Then work with your groups to complete the Choctaw Webpage Worksheet.

8. Grab the lined paper. Use all that you have learned about the Choctaw Indians and their Trail of Tears experience to write a letter pretending to be a Choctaw Indian walking the Trail of Tears. Be sure to introduce yourself and explain what the Trail of Tears is and where you are traveling to. Be sure to use descriptive vocabulary and talk about how you would really feel if you were a Choctaw Indian that was suffering. Be sure to use facts that you have learned. You may use the worksheets you have completed to help you do this. You will be completing this portion of the Webquest alone and can follow the rubric under the Evaluation tab so that you know what is expected of you. Be sure to include at least two well-developed paragraphs that are 4-6 sentences long. You should have atleast 3 facts in each paragraph, as well as 3 descriptive adjectives.

9. When you have completed your letters, bring them to me and I am going to read them.

10. Then I will select a few of you to read your letters in front of the other fourth grade classes. Those of you who do not get their letters chosen will be working with the rest of the class to create a movement activity to re-enact the Trail of Tears as the other students read their letters. This is important because we want to advocate and inform the other classes on what the Choctaw Indians went through.

11. After I have assigned your roles, I would like the people who are reading their letters to rehearse. The students who have been assigned roles need to work together to create a re-enactment of the Trail of Tears. Think very carefully about the role you have been assigned and how that person would have behaved. This re-enactment will involve no talking and will occur in steps that are in the correct order that they happened. High and low movement will need to be incorporated. Here are the steps of the Trail of Tears that should be followed in your movement activity:

• Andrew Jackson enforcing the Indian Removal Act with military assistance.
  
• The Choctaw Indians traveling by foot from Mississippi to Oklahoma in harsh winter conditions.
• Many Choctaw Indians suffered and/or died from the awful conditions.
• The Choctaw Indians arriving in their new territory in Oklahoma.

12. Be sure to practice all together several times to prepare for the other classes to come and watch you.

13. Perform for the other classes and advocate for and inform them about the suffering of the Choctaw people.