Trail of Tears

Often associated with Cherokee removal, the term Trail of Tears, a rough translation of the Cherokee nunna dual tsuny, meaning “Trail Where We Cried,” refers to the migration route and the removal experience that members of the Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Choctaw, Muskogee/Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole) endured between 1831 and 1859 as they were relocated from their ancient homelands in the southeastern United States to Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma. The U.S. government's removal policy, which culminated in the 1830 Indian Removal Act, sought to open up Native American land in the east for settlement by European Americans while also providing permanent settlements for Native Americans on land west of the Mississippi River. Relocation, often by force and sometimes in chains, was undertaken on foot, by wagon, on horseback, and sometimes via steamboat. Most groups who made the difficult journey suffered incredible loss of life, as thousands died from disease, exposure, exhaustion, and starvation.

Although the Indian Removal Act of 1830 was passed during Andrew Jackson's presidency, the federal government's policy of Indian removal began with President Thomas Jefferson some 30 years earlier. Both presidents favored the idea of removing all American Indian tribes in the east to unoccupied land west of the Mississippi River in order to make way for European American settlements. To accomplish this, Jefferson and Jackson had to extinguish Native American claims to lands in the southeast, the ownership of which was guaranteed by existing treaties between the various sovereign American Indian nations and the U.S. government. This was often done through fraudulent treaties.

Moreover, Jefferson (and George Washington before him) was also an early advocate of “civilizing” American Indians, which required them to give up their culture, religion, and lifestyle in favor of European customs, such as Western-style education and dress, Christianity, and a sedentary, agricultural lifestyle. One anticipated outcome of the civilization process was that Native American tribes would give up their collectively owned ancestral homelands in exchange for smaller tracts of land and other necessities. This did not happen, and in the southeast, where the American Indian tribes embraced the “civilizing” process (resulting in their being dubbed the Five Civilized Tribes), they did not willingly cede their land. Some fought removal through legal actions and even war. Ultimately, federal and state authorities forcibly removed all eastern tribes that did not comply voluntarily. By 1837, 46,000 Native Americans were removed from their homelands in the southeast, opening up 25 million acres of land for settlement.