Trail of Tears
The Trail of Tears was an ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of approximately 60,000 people of the "Five Civilized Tribes" between 1830 and 1850 by the United States government. As part of the Indian removal, members of the Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw nations were forcibly removed from their ancestral homelands in the Southeastern United States to newly designated Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River after the passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830. The Cherokee removal in 1838 (the last forced removal east of the Mississippi) was brought on by the discovery of gold near Dahlonega, Georgia, in 1828, resulting in the Georgia Gold Rush.
| Trail of Tears | |
|---|---|
| Part of Indian removal | |
The Trail of Tears memorial at the New Echota Historic Site in Georgia, which honors the Cherokees who died on the Trail of Tears | |
| Location | Southeastern United States and Indian Territory |
| Date | 1830–1850 |
| Target | "Five Civilized Tribes" of Cherokee, Muscogee, Seminole, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Ponca and Ho-Chunk/Winnebago nations |
Attack type | |
| Cause | Indian Removal Act signed by President Andrew Jackson |
| Deaths | Total: 13,200–16,700
See: |
| Victims | 60,000 Indigenous Americans forcibly relocated to Indian Territory. |
| Perpetrators | |
| Motive |
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The relocated peoples suffered from exposure, disease, and starvation while en route to their newly designated Indian reserve. Thousands died from disease before reaching their destinations or shortly after. Historians have said that the event constituted a genocide, although this label has been rejected by others and remains a matter of debate.