Trail of Tears: The Cruel Forced Displacement of 60,000 American Natives

Summary

The Trail of Tears was a harrowing series of forced relocations that took place between 1830 and 1850, impacting approximately 60,000 American Indians from the so-called "Five Civilized Tribes." These tribes, which included the Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw nations, were driven from their ancestral lands in the Southeastern United States to designated areas west of the Mississippi River, an event orchestrated by the United States government. The forced removal was the culmination of a decades-long process of ethnic cleansing that occurred gradually, as tribes were stripped of their homelands, cultural identities, and livelihoods. Alongside them, thousands of African American slaves owned by these tribes were also relocated, compounding the tragedy.

The Indian Removal Act, passed in 1830, paved the way for the systematic relocation of these tribes. It was during this period that the Cherokee removal in 1838—often considered the most infamous and final forced relocation east of the Mississippi—occurred. This event was largely triggered by the discovery of gold in Dahlonega, Georgia, in 1828, which sparked the Georgia Gold Rush. The prospect of wealth led state officials and settlers to covet Cherokee land, ultimately resulting in the forced march to the newly designated "Indian Territory" in what is now Oklahoma.