Explore histories of migration, citizenship and belonging in Germany and the U.S. over the centuries.
1830
Trail of Tears: Forced Migration of Native Americans
In the 1830s, nearly 125,000 Native Americans were forced from their ancestral lands in the southeastern U.S. and made a perilous journey, the Trail of Tears, to designated "Indian Territory." This was the result of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, signed into law by President Andrew Jackson. Although the Supreme Court upheld the sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation in Worcester v. Georgia, Jackson ignored it. About 4,000 Cherokees died on the 1,200-mile trek in 1838-1839. Promises of permanent land in Oklahoma were broken, and the territory dwindled until Oklahoma became a state in 1907. The head of the Cherokee Nation remains in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
