Event

Trail of Tears

1830–1850 · 19th century

The Trail of Tears was the forced removal of Native American nations from their homelands in the south-eastern United States to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi under the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The name refers above all to the Cherokee removal of 1838 and 1839, when US troops drove some 16,000 people west, about 4,000 of whom died. The Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw and Seminole suffered similar removals.

Trail of Tears
Image: en.wikipedia.org · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 1 state history

Cherokee Nation

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Trail of Tears. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/trail-of-tears
MLA
“Trail of Tears.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/trail-of-tears. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Trail of Tears.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/trail-of-tears.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Trail of Tears’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/trail-of-tears (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻