By 1819 the Cherokee lost control of the Kituwa area after being forced to make treaties and land cessions in this area to the United States. In the late 1830s most Cherokee in the Southeast were forcibly removed by the federal government, walking overland on the Trail of Tears to Indian Territory. Descendants of those who remained in this area later organized and were federally recognized in 1868 as the Eastern Band of Cherokee, based in Western North Carolina. They are the only federally recognized tribe in the state, and one of three Cherokee tribes. The other two are in what is now the state of Oklahoma.