In 1838, the majority of the Cherokees, approximately 12,000, were forced onto the Trail of Tears. Only about 8,000 made it to the new Cherokee Nation, what is now called Tehlequah, Oklahoma. After being imprisoned for several months in stockades, many died or became ill from disease, exposure, and malnutrition. The Cherokees oversaw their own removal, forming detachments along the 800-mile journey west. It was the harshest of winters, disease was rampant, and food and shelter were scarce. Oo-loo-cha, widow of Sweetwater, recalled that soldiers surrounded their house, took their mare while they were at work in the fields, drove them out without permitting them to take anything, not even a second change of clothes, and drove them to a fort built at New Echota.