After passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the United States government forced tens of thousands of American Indians to leave their ancestral lands in the southeast for new homes in Indian Territory, present-day Oklahoma. The government forcibly removed approximately 16,000 Cherokee, 21,000 Muscogee (Creek), 9,000 Choctaw, 6,000 Chickasaw, and 4,000 Seminole from their homes. They traveled over established land and water routes that led through Arkansas. Rather than risk disease and other hazards of summer travel, many groups began the journey in the fall and instead faced treacherous winter weather. Thousands died during the ordeal remembered today as the Trail of Tears. Some removal groups traveled over land, while others took the water route up the Arkansas River below Petit Jean Mountain. They would have looked up at the mountain’s towering cliffs, and for Cherokee travelers its visibility was especially meaningful because it signaled nearness to the western Cherokee settlements of the late 1700s.