Trail of Tears

Trail of Tears National Historic Trail

The Trail of Tears National Historic Trail spans nine states and hundreds of kilometers via land and sea routes in Republic, MO.

Over 16,000 Cherokee men, women, and children were forcefully relocated from their homes in the southern Appalachian Mountains to stockades and internment camps in 1838 and 1839, following which they traveled hundreds of miles to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). The severe conditions caused widespread sickness, desertion, and hundreds of fatalities.

The Trail of Tears National Historic Trail was established to preserve the stories, pathways, and associated places commemorating the Cherokees' forced exodus.

History

The Indian Removal Act, approved by Congress in 1830, compelled different Indian tribes in today's southeastern United States to give up their territories in return for federal territory west of the Mississippi River. Most Indians fought this strategy vehemently, but as the 1830s progressed, the majority of the main tribes — the Choctaws, Muscogee Creeks, Seminoles, and Chickasaws – consented to be transferred to Indian Territory (in present-day Oklahoma). The Cherokee were compelled to relocate after a small group of the tribe signed the Treaty of New Echota in late 1835, which was confirmed by the United States Senate in May 1836. This move – the signing of the treaty and its subsequent Senate ratification – divided the Cherokee into two irreconcilable factions: a minority of those who supported the “treaty party,” and the great majority who were vehemently opposed to the treaty signing.

The Cherokee deportation began in May 1838. More than 16,000 Cherokee Indian people were forcibly expelled from their homelands in Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, and Georgia by US Army troops and different state militia. They were initially transported to “round up camps,” and then to one of three emigration camps. Once there, the Cherokee were given instructions to go west by the US Army. Three detachments departed southwestern Tennessee in June 1838 to go by water to Indian Territory. Difficulties with such deployments, however, prompted talks between Principal Chief John Ross and U.S. Army General Winfield Scott, and later that summer, Scott issued an order directing Ross to be in command of any future detachment movements. Between August and December 1838, Ross coordinated the movement of fourteen detachments, the majority of which traveled via existing routes.

The resulting Cherokee "Trail of Tears" had a catastrophic impact. More than a thousand Cherokee, primarily the elderly, young, and infirm, died on the journey west, hundreds more deserted from the detachments, and an unknown number — maybe several thousand – died as a result of the forced migration. The terrible transfer was finished by the end of March 1839, and tribe people were quickly resettled in Oklahoma. In the years that followed, the Cherokee tried to reestablish themselves in the new, unknown territory. They are now a strong, independent tribe, and its members realize that, despite difficulties, they are resilient and invest in their future.

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