Remembering The Trail of Tears

Like many other Indigenous groups, Cherokees have lived in what is now the U.S. for thousands of years. But by the 1800s, white settlers had taken over most Native homelands in the east and were pushing west.

In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act. The goal was to force Indigenous groups in the Southeastern U.S. to move west of the Mississippi River.

At that time, Cherokees had made several treaties in which the U.S. government recognized them as their own country. The Cherokees did not believe the U.S. had the right to force them to move. In 1832, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in their favor.

But, in 1838, U.S. Army soldiers burst into Cherokees’ homes anyway. They herded the Native people like animals into camps. More than 16,000 Cherokees were forced to abandon the homeland of their ancestors.

They marched more than 900 miles to present-day Oklahoma. Along the way, about 4,000 Cherokees died from starvation, disease, and exposure to the bitter cold.

Members of four other Native nations were made to follow their own Trail of Tears. In all, about 100,000 Indigenous people were forced off their land in the Southeast in the 1830s. 

Despite the Trail of Tears, the Cherokees rebuilt their lives in Oklahoma. Today, Chuck Hoskin Jr. is the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. He says it’s important to learn about this sad chapter in history.

“Any young person would benefit from thinking about what our people went through, whether you’re Cherokee or not,” Chief Hoskin says.

Roach agrees.

“The ride brings awareness to others that Cherokee people are still here,” she says. “We’re still striving, and we’re strong.”

1. Who is Whitney Roach, and what details does she add to the article? 

2. What effect did the Indian Removal Act have on the Cherokee people when it was enforced in 1838?

3. What is the purpose of the map on page 5?