After passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the United States government forced tens of thousands of American Indians from the Southeast to leave their ancestral lands for Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma. They traveled over established land and water routes that led through Arkansas, and many groups who left in the fall to avoid summer disease instead endured treacherous winter weather. Thousands died during this ordeal, remembered as the Trail of Tears. 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 the southeastern United States. The policy provoked fierce debate, with supporters calling it benevolent and opponents condemning its inhumanity and tragic consequences, while removal also freed millions of acres of Indian lands for American settlers. Despite the hardships, the people of the five tribes of the Southeast established new lives in the West and today stand as successful sovereign nations preserving cultural traditions while adapting to the challenges of the 21st century.