Trail of Tears

Route traversed by 16,000 Cherokee in 1838 from their ancestral lands in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama to Indian Territory under the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Held initially in stockades by the US army, they were forced to march under military escort nearly 1,600 km/1,000 mi in winter with little food; over 4,000 died from disease, hunger, and exposure. The Trail of Tears became a national monument in 1987.