Image: nativeground.org In the 1830s, the United States deported eighty thousand Indigenous Americans from their homelands east of the Mississippi. UGA History and INAS faculty, Claudio Saunt, the Richard B. Russell Professor of American History, Regent's Professor, and co-director for the Center for Virtual History, led development of this Native American and US History project. Native Ground maps in depth and detail the Cherokee families who lost their homes in that decade, creating a virtual representation of the Cherokee Nation just before the U.S. Army rounded up its sixteen thousand citizens and forced them westward. Native Ground is an unparalleled research tool mapping Cherokee households that were surveyed and valued during the forced removal process of the 1830s. The website includes an interactive digital map, a searchable database of information from primary valuation documents, and access to digitized copies of primary sources. Along with the earlier Invasion of America map, Dr. Saunt has innovated the use of digital resources to facilitate a better understanding of the United States' Native American history. A project of the Center for Virtual History at the University of Georgia, Native Ground thanks the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts for their support. See Dr. Saunt's other projects and work at https://claudiosaunt.com/ Contact admin@ehistory.org or native-studies@uga.edu with questions or comments. Read More: native ground
