The Trail of Tears refers to the forced relocation of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee Creek, and Seminole tribes from their southeastern homelands to Indian Territory between 1831 and 1850. This harrowing journey, marked by disease, exhaustion, and starvation, resulted in the deaths of over 16,000 Native Americans. The term is believed to have originated from a Choctaw chief describing this tragic event, which is one of many such relocations initiated by the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Notably, Cherokee Chief John Ross vehemently opposed this removal in his written protests.
Scholar John Ehle writes, "the Trail of Tears - or, as the Indians more often said, the Trail Where They Wept - was a trail of sickness" (385). Most Native Americans died of disease, exposure, exhaustion, and starvation on the forced marches from their lands east of the Mississippi River...
The originator of this simple phrase is not known for sure, but it is believed to have been used by a Choctaw chief, Nitikechi, to describe the effects of the Indian Removal Act.
The Trail of Tears was not a singular event but a series of forced relocations following the passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The marches began the following year...
Although the Trail of Tears is the best-known act of forced relocation of Native Americans, it is far from the only one.
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