Trail of Tears

in reference to the U.S. government’s brutally incompetent Cherokee removal of 1838-9, attested by 1908.

The route along which the United States government forced several tribes of Native Americans, including the Cherokees, Seminoles, Chickasaws, Choctaws, and Creeks, to migrate to reservations west of the Mississippi River in the 1820s, 1830s, and 1840s. Those on the march suffered greatly from disease and mistreatment.