Trail of Tears was the forced removal of Cherokee people from their homelands in northwestern Georgia. The name comes from the Cherokee phrase nunna-da-ul-tsun-yi. The words mean the trail where they cried. This term is sometimes also used to refer to the removal of other tribes, especially those of the southeastern United States.
In 1829, white settlers discovered gold on Cherokee land. The settlers wanted the land for themselves. They asked for the removal of the Cherokee. President Andrew Jackson had been a famed Indian fighter. He doubted Indians and whites could live together peacefully. His supporters helped pass the Indian Removal Act of 1830 in Congress. The act called for the removal of all indigenous (native) people in the southeastern United States to a territory west of the Mississippi River. Their new land, in what is now Oklahoma, became known as the Indian Territory.
The Cherokee divided over the removal. In 1835, some agreed to move and signed a treaty with the government. But most, led by Cherokee leader John Ross, wanted to stay.
Beginning in May 1838, the U.S. Army forced the Cherokee into stockades to prepare for removal. The Army sent off the first group to Indian Territory on June 6, 1838. The last party arrived on March 24, 1839. They traveled nearly 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) in rain and other bad weather. Some groups walked or rode horseback. Their route took them through Tennessee, Kentucky, southern Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, and finally into Indian Territory. Others traveled by boat over the Tennessee and Ohio rivers, down the Mississippi River, and then up the Arkansas River. Many Cherokee became ill during the journey. Thousands died.
