Trail of Tears 

Trail of Tears National Historic Trail / Tennessee, North Carolina, 

Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, Illinois, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma 

National Park Service Offcial Map & Department of the Interior

Guide - Large Print 

Formatted for ADA standards at 11” x 17” print size. 

. . . the government 

might more mercifully 

have put to death 

everyone under a year or 

over sixty; rather it had 

chosen a most expensive 

and painful way of 

exterminating these poor 

people. 

—Missionary Daniel 

Butrick 

One will not hear the 

anguished voice of a 

forgotten and broken 

people. Instead one 

might hear the pride 

of people who faced 

overwhelming adversity 

and persevered. 

—Cherokee Nation 

Cherokee Nation 

A traveler through the southern 

Appalachians realizes that something is 

missing from the forested mountains and 

cascading streams. The people who once 

lived here no longer work the land or hunt 

the forests. Their spirits remain and their 

language is on the landscape, but most of 

them are gone. Where did they go? Do they 

survive? The answers are on the Trail of 

Tears. 

In the 1600s about 25,000 Cherokee lived 

on lands stretching from the Ohio River to 

northern Georgia. But European diseases 

devastated the Cherokee throughout 

the 1700s, and by 1819 Americans’ 

unquenchable thirst for land had whittled 

away Cherokee lands—down to 10 percent 

of their original territory. 

Still, they endured. Cherokee Sacred 

Fire—rekindled each spring in the New 

Fire Ceremony and the source of every 

home fre—shone over a unifed Cherokee 

Nation. Adopting many of the political and 

economic features of the United States, 

they drafted a constitution, established 

their own courts, and created a written 

language. As a symbol of their revival, 

their newspaper was named the Cherokee 

Phoenix, after the mythical bird reborn of 

fre. The Cherokee people had shaped a 

stable and prosperous life—one envied by 

their white neighbors. 

Rev. 02/06/13 
The Removal Act 

From the time Europeans arrived in the 

New World, they struggled with how to live 

alongside native people. In 1803 Thomas 

Jeferson became the frst president to 

publicly support removing Indians, and for 

the next 25 years eastern tribes were forced 

west. Some of the Cherokee (known as the 

“Old Settlers”) moved west on their own 

to distance themselves from the expanding 

American republic. 

Events accelerated after Andrew Jackson 

was elected president in 1828. In 1830 

Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, 

providing “for an exchange of lands with 

the Indians residing in any of the states or 

territories, and for their removal west of 

the river Mississippi.” Meanwhile the state 

of Georgia, home to the Cherokee, passed 

laws prohibiting them from conducting 

tribal business, testifying against whites, and 

mining for gold. 

The Cherokee Nation, though, had 

produced leaders well versed in the US 

legal system, leaders who fought back. 

In Worcester v. Georgia the US Supreme 

Court, headed by Chief Justice John 

Marshall, ruled in 1832 that the Cherokee 

held sovereign land rights. President 

Jackson openly dismissed the ruling. The 

Cherokee were running out of options. 

The Gathering Storm 

On the heels of the Indian Removal Act, 

government agents descended on the 

southeastern native peoples. One by one 

the tribes were removed. Agents coerced 

Choctaw chiefs in Mississippi to sign 

the frst removal treaty, and in late 1831 

the tribe was quickly moved to Indian 

Territory—present-day Oklahoma. 

The government removed most Muscogee 

Creeks, many in chains, from Alabama and 

Georgia to Indian Territory by 1836. The 

Chickasaw, whose homeland had once 

stretched from Tennessee to Arkansas and 

Illinois, were taken away by the end of 1837. 

The Seminoles fercely resisted removal 

from their Florida homeland but, after great 

losses in the Seminole Wars, some 4,000 

people were deported to Indian Territory by 

1842. 

The Cherokee resisted removal and 

looked to their leaders to sway American 

political opinion. Still, 20 tribal members, 

led by Major Ridge and acting outside the 

authority of the Cherokee government, 

signed the Treaty of New Echota in 1835. 

The conditions for removal were set: In 

exchange for $5 million the tribe would 

relocate to Indian Territory. Though 

the majority of Cherokee protested the 

agreement, by May 1836 Congress made it 

law. The treaty gave the Cherokee two years 

to voluntarily move. 

Cherokee Trail of Tears 

Most Cherokee refused to recognize the 

Treaty of New Echota; few had moved 

after two years. In the spring of 1838, 7,000 

soldiers under Gen. Winfeld Scott moved 

against the Cherokee Nation. The removal 

efort began in Georgia, where Cherokee 

families were uprooted and driven— 

sometimes at bayonet point—to “round-up” 

camps, then concentrated in larger removal 

camps. 

In June the army loaded Cherokee onto 

fatboats that traveled the Tennessee, Ohio, 

Mississippi, and Arkansas rivers to Indian 

Territory. The frst boat reached its goal 

in 13 days, but desertions and fatalities 

plagued the next two groups. Diseases 

raged through the cramped, poorlysupplied boats. 

To save his people, Principal Chief John 

Ross petitioned General Scott to let the 

Cherokee control their own removal. Ross 

organized detachments of about 1,000 each, 

and the Cherokee traveled by foot, horse, 

and wagon for 800 miles, taking up to eight 

months to reach Indian Territory. Despite 

prearranged supply points, they sufered 

terribly during the hard winter. Of about 
15,000 Cherokee forced from their homes, 

many hundreds died in the camps or on the 

journey. The Cherokee Nation remained 

alive though, in the spirits of the people and 

in the ashes saved from the Sacred Fire they 

carried along the trail. 

A Nation Renewed 

Weak and traumatized, 17 detachments of 

Cherokee arrived in Indian Territory in 1838 

and 1839. The treaty strife and the harsh 

removal had also divided the Cherokee into 

three factions: pro-treaty, anti-treaty, and 

the “Old Settlers.” 

Despite the political discord, the Cherokee 

reconstructed their lives. In September 1839 

delegates signed a constitution. The tribe 

reelected John Ross as Principal Chief and 

Tahlequah became the Cherokee capital. In 

1844 the Cherokee Supreme Court building 

opened its doors. The Cherokee Advocate, a 

bilingual newspaper, began publication. By 

1846 the three factions had signed a treaty 

that addressed many of their diferences. 

The Sacred Fire of the Cherokee Nation 

burned again. 

Meeting other challenges as they rebuilt 

their nation, the Cherokee proved resilient 

in the ensuing years. Today the Cherokee 

and other removed tribes endure as 

vigorous Indian nations. The Trail of Tears 

story is one of racial injustice, intolerance, 

and sufering. But this is also a story of 

survival, of a people thriving in the present 

while remembering the past—not only 

in Oklahoma, but in the homelands of 

southern Appalachia. 

[map caption] 

Far left: Lands of the Cherokee people were 

steadily reduced in the 100 years before their 

removal. NPS map 

[photo caption] 

Left: Sequoyah (George Gist) completed 

an 86-character Cherokee syllabary in 1821, 

enabling many Cherokee to become literate. 

© Museum Of The Cherokee 

[photo caption] 

Above: Their newspaper, the Cherokee 

Phoenix, was bilingual. American Antiquarian 

Society 

[photo caption] 

Far left: Deed for Cherokee land transferred 

in 1832 to a white settler in Georgia’s land 

lottery. © Georgia State Archives 

[artwork caption] 

Center left: Andrew Jackson, president 

1829-37, was determined to remove the 

southeastern tribes. US Senate 

[artwork caption] 

Left: John Ross, Cherokee Principal Chief 1828-

66, led the resistance to his tribe’s removal. 

© Woolaroc Museum 

[photo caption] 

Left: Blocked by icebound rivers, many 

Cherokee endured weeks of harsh winter 

weather without adequate clothing. 

© Sam Watts-Scott 

[photo caption] 

Right: The fve “Civilized Tribes” were 

removed from their homelands in the 1830s. 

NPS map 

[artwork caption] 

The Trail of Tears, by Max D. Standley, 

portrays displaced Cherokee on the long road 

from their old home in Appalachia to their 

new one in Indian Territory. 

© Max D. Standley / R. Michelson Galleries 

[photo caption] 

The Appalachian Mountains in eastern 

Tennessee and North Carolina were home and 

hunting grounds to countless generations of 

Cherokee people before they were forcibly 

removed. © Dan Triplett 
February 4, 1846 

First wagons leave Nauvoo and cross the 

Mississippi River. 

1721 

The Cherokee sign the frst of several 

treaties that, over the next 70 years, force 

them to cede over half their lands. 

1791 (July 2) 

The Treaty of Holston places the Cherokee 

under US protection. 

1828 

The discovery of gold in northern Georgia 

leads to the “Georgia Gold Rush” the 

following year, much of it on Cherokee 

lands. 

1830 (May 26) 

Congress passes the Indian Removal Act; 

President Andrew Jackson signs it into law 

two days later. 

1832 

Lotteries are held for appropriated 

Cherokee lands in Georgia. 

1832 (March 3) 

In Worcester v. Georgia the US Supreme 

Court confrms that the Cherokee Indians 

are a nation holding distinct sovereign 

powers. 

1835 (Dec. 29) 

Twenty “treaty party” leaders sign the Treaty 

of New Echota, which leads to Cherokee 

removal. 

1838 (May) 

Cherokee are forcibly removed from their 

homes and marched to nearby temporary 

camps and forts. 

1838 

A group of North Carolina Cherokee avoid 

removal because they live on land ceded to 

them by earlier treaties. These Cherokee 

are the basis for today’s Eastern Band of 

Cherokee Indians. 

1838 (Aug. 23) 

Cherokee Hair Conrad leads the frst 

land route detachment out of Fort Cass, 

Tennessee. Twelve more detachments 

depart over the next two months, most 

traveling by the northern route. 

1838 (Sept. 28) 

Cherokee leader John Benge leads a 

detachment out of Fort Payne, Alabama. 

1838 (Oct. 11) 

John Bell, a white man married to a 

Cherokee woman, leads 660 pro-treaty 

Cherokee to Indian Territory. 

1839 (Jan. 4) 

The frst land route detachment, led by 

Cherokee Elijah Hicks, arrives in Indian 

Territory; fnal detachments arrive in late 

March. 

1839 (Sept. 6) 

Cherokee delegates sign a constitution for 

the reunited Cherokee Nation. 

1987 

Congress establishes the Trail of Tears 

National Historic Trail. In 2009 more routes 

are added. 
[Side 2] 

Retrace the Trail 

The sites of Trail of Tears National 

Historic Trail, stretching 5,043 miles 

across nine states, together form a journey 

of compassion and understanding. The 

National Park Service administers the 

trail in partnership with the Trail of Tears 

Association; the Cherokee Nation; the 

Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians; federal, 

state, county, and local agencies; interested 

groups; and private land-owners. Trail sites 

are in private, municipal, tribal, federal, or 

state ownership. Please ask for permission 

before visiting any trail sites on private 

lands and check with public sites for visiting 

hours and regulations. At www.nps.gov/trte 

click on Plan Your Visit for in-depth travel 

planning. 

[photo caption] 

George Murrell married a Cherokee woman 

and journeyed with her to Indian Territory. In 

1845 he built this house near Tahlequah. 

Friends Of The Murrell Home 

[photo caption] 

Elkhorn Tavern (reconstructed) at Pea Ridge 

National Military Park, Arkansas, witnessed 

thousands of Cherokee passing by. 

© Jeannette Mcguire 

[photo caption] 

Camp Ground Cemetery near Anna, Illinois, is 

said to contain the graves of Cherokee who 

camped nearby. © David G. Fitzgerald 

[photo caption] 

Hikers retrace a portion of the original 

northern route where it winds through the 

Crabb-Abbott Farm near Grantsburg, Illinois. 

© Joe Crabb 

[photo caption] 

Blocked by the icebound Ohio, some 1,700 

Cherokee camped near Mantle Rock in 

Livingston County, Kentucky. © David G. 

Fitzgerald 

[photo caption] 

Cherokee James Vann built his house near 

what is now Dalton, Georgia. © David G. 

Fitzgerald 

[photo caption] 

Brainerd Mission was a stopping point and 

hospital during removal. For many Cherokee, 

its cemetery is their fnal resting place. 

© David G. Fitzgerald 

[photo caption] 

Tennessee’s Red Clay State Historic Area 

near Chattanooga has a reconstruction of 

the Cherokee Council House. © David G. 

Fitzgerald 

[map caption] 

Look for offcial national historic trail signs. 

The Auto Tour Route signs along highways, 

streets, and backcountry roads guide you to 

offcial trail sites and segments. The Original 

Route signs tell you that you are retracing the 

exact or nearly exact historic route taken by 

the Cherokee during the removal. Maps, NPS 
More Information 

National Park Service 

National Trails Intermountain Region 

PO Box 728 

Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504-0728 

505-988-6098 

www.nps.gov/trte 

Trail of Tears Association 

1100 North University, 

Suite 143 

Little Rock, AR 72207 

501-666-9032 

www.nationaltota.org 

Trail of Tears National Historic Trail is 

administered by the National Park Service 

as a component of the National Trails 

System. Visit www.nps.gov and www.nps. 

gov/nts to learn more about national parks 

and national trails. 

Protect the Trail 

To foster trail preservation, do not use 

metal detectors, dig at sites, collect artifacts, 

or remove anything. Please respect these 

historic places.