This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Cei.2ACEB/4154.1.1 Message Board Post: During the 1830's the so-called Five Civilized Tribes were forced by the administrations of Andrew Jackson & Martin Van Buren to abandon their homelands and move to the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). The Choctaws removed first & encountered a cholera epidemic; The Chickasaws (a small tribe) removed without too much trouble; the Creeks (under Army guard) were removed later. The Seminoles went on the warpath, and about half of the tribe were captured by the Army & sent west in shackles. The Cherokees were the last to remove, and resisted by hiring lawyers. They won their case before the U.S. Supreme Court (Worcester v. Georgia), but Pres. Jackson defied the court and sent in troops under Gen. Winfield Scott. The term "Trail of Tears" seems to have been a Choctaw phrase, and was not used by Cherokees until the 20th century. At the time, both government & tribal leaders used the term "Removal" to describe the Federal policy. Some Cherokees voluntarily went west financed by the Government; some were forced at bayonet-point onto boats at Ross' Landing, TN (now Chattanooga) in the Spring of 1838, but most of the tribe migrated during the fall and winter of 1838-1839 under control of Chief John Ross and tribal leaders. I have found no evidence that Cherokees lost 4000 died (or one quarter of the tribe) durning the Removal (as textbooks say today), but lost about 1100 from all causes. The Cherokee Removal, in my opinion, was the easiest and least brutal of the five removals of southern Indian peoples.