USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The Cherokee people called this journey the “Trail of Tears, ” because of its devastating effects. The migrants faced hunger, disease, and exhaustion on the forced march. Over 4, 000 out of 15, 000 of the Cherokees died.

Detailed explanation-2: -In 1838 and 1839 U.S. troops, prompted by the state of Georgia, expelled the Cherokee Indians from their ancestral homeland in the Southeast and removed them to the Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma.

Detailed explanation-3: -With the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the U.S. Congress had given Jackson authority to negotiate removal treaties, exchanging Indian land in the East for land west of the Mississippi River. Jackson used the dispute with Georgia to put pressure on the Cherokee to sign a removal treaty.

Detailed explanation-4: -During the harsh winter of 1838-1839 over 15, 000 Cherokee Indians passed through southern Illinois on their Trail of Tears. Many hundreds perished from cold and hunger on this long and tortuous trek from their homeland near the Smokey Mountains to new government-designated lands in eastern Oklahoma.