Trail of Tears

After the death of Choctaw leader Pushmataha in 1824 and the signing of the Dancing Rabbit Creek Treaty in 1830, the U.S. government forcibly removed the Choctaw Nation from Mississippi. Removal occurred in three stages along multiple routes and dates. Poor and incompetent planning, extreme weather conditions, lack of food and shelter, insufficient transportation, and disease combined to take many lives. Of the 6,000 who started, only 4,000 had survived when they arrived in spring 1834. In 1831 the Arkansas Gazette quoted Choctaw Chief Thomas Harkins as saying that the removal was a "trail of tears and death."

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma · United States