Trail of Tears Timeline

The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek ceded the remaining Choctaw country to the United States and was ratified in early 1831, paving the way for the first large-scale removal under the Indian Removal Act.

Image source: Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek

In 1831, the Choctaw became the first Nation to be removed, and their removal served as the model for all future relocations. General Gaines decided to remove Choctaws in three phases starting in November 1831 and ending in 1833; approximately 5,000–6,000 Choctaws remained in Mississippi after the initial efforts.

In 1832 the Seminoles were called to a meeting at Payne's Landing on the Ocklawaha River to discuss removal terms, following earlier conflicts that had already led to some Seminole removals.

Opothle Yohola appealed to the administration of President Andrew Jackson for protection from Alabama; when none was forthcoming, the Treaty of Cusseta was signed on March 24, 1832, which divided up Creek lands into individual allotments.

A delegation of seven chiefs who were to inspect the new reservation did not leave Florida until October 1832. After touring the area for several months and conferring with the Creeks already settled there, the seven chiefs signed a statement on March 28, 1833, that the new land was acceptable.

The Creek removal followed in 1834, part of the sequence of forced relocations of the Five Civilized Tribes ordered under the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

Some villagers in the area of the Apalachicola River were more easily persuaded than other Seminoles, however, and went west in 1834 as part of the early removal efforts.

On December 28, 1835, a group of Seminoles and blacks ambushed a U.S. Army column, igniting the Second Seminole War. An article published by the Virginia Enquirer on January 26, 1836, called the 'Hostilities of the Seminoles', assigned all blame for the violence to the Seminoles themselves.

With the Indian Removal Act of 1830 it continued into 1835 and after, as in 1836 over 15,000 Creeks were driven from their land for the last time and removed to the Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River.

In 1836, the Chickasaws had reached an agreement to purchase land from the previously removed Choctaws after a bitter five-year debate, securing a destination for their own removal west.

By 1837, 46,000 Indians from the southeastern states had been removed from their homelands, thereby opening 25 million acres (100,000 km2) for white settlement.

The first group of Chickasaws moved in 1837 and was led by John M. The Chickasaws gathered at Memphis on July 4, 1837, with all of their assets—belongings, livestock, and slaves—before traveling west to their new lands.

By the end of the decade in 1840, tens of thousands of Cherokee and other Indian nations had been removed from their land east of the Mississippi River. A local newspaper, the Highland Messenger, said July 24, 1840, 'that between nine hundred and a thousand of these deluded beings' remained.

The war ended, after a full decade of fighting, in 1842. After two wars, many Seminoles had been removed from Florida, though some bands remained in the Everglades.

Jackson chose to continue with Indian removal, and negotiated the Treaty of New Echota on December 29, 1835, which granted the Cherokee two years to move to Indian Territory (modern-day Oklahoma). When signing it, Major Ridge said 'I have signed my death warrant.'

Image source: Treaty of New Echota

The Cherokee National Council submitted a petition, signed by thousands of Cherokee citizens, urging Congress to void the Treaty of New Echota agreement in February 1836.

Despite this opposition, the Senate ratified the treaty in March 1836, and the Treaty of New Echota thus became the legal basis for the Trail of Tears, even though it was never accepted by the elected tribal leadership or a majority of the Cherokee people.

In the winter of 1838 the Cherokee began the 1,000-mile (1,600 km) march with scant clothing and most on foot without shoes or moccasins. These events have sometimes been referred to as 'death marches', particularly the Cherokee march across Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri in 1838.

Scott, Winfield issued orders in May 1838 directing the roundup of the Cherokee; on May 17, 1838, General Scott issued his formal order organizing the military enforcement of the removal, with assistance from state militias forcing most of the remaining Cherokees west.

The largest death toll from the Cherokee forced relocation comes from the period after the May 23, 1838 deadline, when government forces began rounding up and imprisoning Cherokees who had not left voluntarily.

After crossing Tennessee and Kentucky, the Cherokee detachments arrived at the Ohio River across from Golconda in southern Illinois about the 3rd of December 1838, continuing their grueling journey toward Indian Territory.

The resulting political turmoil from the Treaty of New Echota led to the killings of Major Ridge, John Ridge, and Elias Boudinot; of the leaders of the Treaty Party, only Stand Watie escaped death.

The Trail of Tears was the forced displacement and ethnic cleansing of about 60,000 Native Americans of the 'Five Civilized Tribes', including their black slaves, between 1830 and 1850 by the United States government, concluding with the removal of remaining holdouts.

A historical drama based on the Trail of Tears, Unto These Hills written by Kermit Hunter, has sold over five million tickets for its performances since its opening on July 1, 1950, both touring and at the outdoor Mountainside Theater of the Cherokee Historical Association in Cherokee, North Carolina.

Image source: Unto These Hills

Johnny Cash played in the 1970 NET Playhouse dramatization of The Trail of Tears, bringing the story of the forced removals to national television audiences.

In 1987, about 2,200 miles (3,500 km) of trails were authorized by federal law to mark the removal of 17 detachments of the Cherokee people, preserving the route as a National Historic Trail.