Trail of Tears State Historical Marker

Trail of Tears State Historical Marker, New Echota State Historic Site, Gordon County, Ga.

(Text)

TRAIL OF TEARS

The New Echota Treaty of 1835 relinquished Cherokee Indian claims

to lands east of the Mississippi River. The majority of the Cherokee

people considered the treaty fraudulent and refused to leave their

homelands in Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

7,000 Federal and State troops were ordered into the Cherokee

Nation to forcibly evict the Indians. On May 26, 1838, the roundup

began. Over 15,000 Cherokees were forced from their homes at

gunpoint and imprisoned in stockades until removal to the west could

take place. 2,700 left by boat in June 1838, but, due to many

deaths and sickness, removal was suspended until cooler weather. Most

of the remaining 13,000 Cherokees left by wagon, horseback, or on

foot during October and November, 1838, on an 800 miles route

through Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas. They

arrived in what is now eastern Oklahoma during January, February,

and March, 1839. Disease, exposure, and starvation may have claimed

as many as 4,000 Cherokee lives during the course of capture,

imprisonment, and removal. The ordeal has become known as the

Trail of Tears.

064-33 GEORGIA HISTORICAL MARKER 1989

Photo: Ed Jackson

© Carl Vinson Institute of Government, The University of Georgia

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