The Trail of Tears was the forced displacement of approximately 60,000 Native Americans between 1830 and 1850 by the United States government. Five nations — the Cherokee, Muscogee, Seminole, Chickasaw and Choctaw — were removed from their ancestral homelands in the Southeastern United States and marched west of the Mississippi River to designated Indian Territory.
The removals followed the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The Cherokee removal in 1838, the last forced removal east of the Mississippi, was precipitated by the discovery of gold near Dahlonega, Georgia, in 1828 and the subsequent Georgia Gold Rush. Those forcibly relocated suffered exposure, disease and starvation during the marches. Thousands died en route or shortly after arrival in Indian Territory. Scholars have classified the Trail of Tears variously as genocide or ethnic cleansing of Native Americans. The displaced peoples included both tribal members and their enslaved Black populations.
