Cherokee removal
1838–1839 forced migration of the Cherokee people
The Cherokee removal (May 25, 1838 – 1839), part of the Indian removal, refers to the forced displacement of an estimated 15,500 Cherokees and 1,500 African-American slaves from the U.S. states of Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama to the West according to the terms of the 1835 Treaty of New Echota. It is estimated that 3,500 Cherokees and African-American slaves died en route.
The Cherokee have come to call the event Nu na da ul tsun yi (the place where they cried); another term is Tlo va sa (our removal). Neither phrase was used at the time, and both seem to be of Choctaw origin. Other American Indian groups in the American South, North, Midwest, Southwest, and the Plains regions were removed, some voluntarily, some reluctantly, and some by force. The Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Cherokee were removed reluctantly. The Seminole in Florida resisted removal by the United States Army for decades (1817–1850) with guerrilla warfare, part of the intermittent Native American Wars that lasted from 1540 to 1924. Some Seminole remained in their Florida home country, while others were transported to Indian Territory in shackles.
The phrase "Trail of Tears" is used to refer to similar events endured by other Indian groups, especially among the "Five Civilized Tribes". The phrase originated as a description of the involuntary removal of the Choctaw in 1831.
The public source identifies “Cherokee removal” as 1838–1839 forced migration of the Cherokee people. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Cherokee, removal and forced.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cherokee removal” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.