The Cherokee Nation once spanned Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama and was home to thousands of men, women, and children, but the 1830 Indian Removal Act required the Cherokee to surrender their land and move west. In 1838, more than 15,000 Cherokee began the trek from their traditional eastern homeland to Indian Territory, present-day Oklahoma, along what became known as the Trail of Tears, traveling by existing roads and rivers. Many groups departed in the fall hoping to avoid the disease and heat of summer travel, only to face treacherous winter weather, frozen ground, ice-filled rivers, hardship, and exposure. More than 1,000 died during the journey westward, and more than 4,000 died as a result of the forced migration. Federal Indian removal policy provoked fierce and bitter debate: supporters called it a benevolent measure to protect tribes east of the Mississippi River from being overwhelmed by an expanding American population, while opponents condemned its inhumanity and tragic consequences for Indian peoples. Removal also freed millions of acres of Indian land for white settlers. In the 1830s, the federal government forcibly removed approximately 16,000 Cherokee, 21,000 Muscogee (Creek), 9,000 Choctaw, 6,000 Chickasaw, and 4,000 Seminole from their ancestral homes in the southeastern United States. Despite the hardships, members of the five removed tribes established new lives in the West; Cherokee survivors of the Trail of Tears created a new sovereign nation in present-day Oklahoma, some Cherokee remained in North Carolina under a special exemption and formed the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and all five removed tribes continue as sovereign nations preserving cultural traditions while adapting to the challenges of the 21st century.