14,000 Cherokee in late 1838 and early 1839. During the forced removal,
approximately one-quarter of the Cherokee died from disease and starvation.
The tribe referred to the tragedy as Nunna Daul Tsunyi (“the trail where they
cried”), which whites translated as the Trail of Tears—a term sometimes used
generically to refer to any removal of an Indian group from its ancestral lands.
wampum Cylindrical white and purple beads made from quahog clam
shells that northeastern Indians strung on sinew to create beaded strings and
belts. Traditionally, wampum was used primarily in rituals and ceremonies.
After contact, it was also used as a medium of exchange in the fur trade in the
Northeast.
Wounded Knee An area on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota that
was the site of the massacre of approximately 300 Lakota Sioux women, men,
and children by the U.S. Army in 1890. As a symbolic act, activists of the Ameri-
can Indian Movement occupied Wounded Knee for 71 days in 1973 and used
the protest to attract worldwide attention to contemporary Indian issues.
Glossary