Forced relocation of the Cherokee

Submitted by David Tucker

From 1818-1839, the U.S. Army militia units under General Windfield S. Scott moved into the remaining lands occupied by the Cherokee Nation located mostly in the Over Hill area of Eastern Tennessee and forced all the Cherokee Indians, at gun point, out of their homes with only the clothes on their backs.

The militia herded these people into compounds where they stayed for months before being forced to walk to Oklahoma to live. This forced move at the point of a gun is now called the Trail of Tears.

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