One of the saddest pages in the history of American Indians is "The Trail of Tears" a cruel and inhuman deportation. This shameful journey began in the winter of 1831 and continued until about 1840 in which five nations, which occupied the sub-eastern area of the United States, experienced the pain of being forcibly driven from their lands and then deported thousands of miles away in a territory designated for them by the Federal government.

The American Indians belonging to the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, Creek and Cherokee nations lived on millions of acres of land east of the Mississippi River, homeland that their ancestors had occupied and cultivated for generations. The ever-increasing number of white settlers who had moved westward in the area since 1790, formed the states of Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida, and their borders crossed the lands of Indian nations. This desire for settler expansion westward had an obstacle in American Indians, a problem that soon became "The Indian Problem". For them, the American Indians were a foreign and unknown people who occupied the land they desired and believed they deserved. Some officials in the early years of the American republic, such as George Washington and Thomass Jefferson thought that the best way to solve the "Indian problem" was simply to "civilize" Native Americans. Jefferson believed they were tired of their "savage" habits and therefore, encouraging them to convert to Christianity, learning to speak and read English, adopting European-style economic practices, such as individual land ownership and in some cases, in the South, having African slaves, they could be quickly integrated into the system. This "civilization" campaign had its results, at least in part, as many members of the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, Creek and Cherokee nations embraced these customs and became known as the "Five Civilized Tribes".

President Andrew Jacson signed the Indian Removal Act which became law on May 28, 1930. It required the government to negotiate treaties of removal in a fair, voluntary and peaceful manner. It did not allow the president or anyone else to force the native nations to give up their land. However, President Jackson and his government frequently ignored the law and forced the Native Americans to liberate the lands on which they had lived for generations. In the winter of 1831 the Choctaw were the first nation to be completely expelled from their land. They made the journey to Indian territory on foot, some tied up with chains and made to march in rows of two, without food, supplies or other help from the government. Forced to withstand flooding and temperatures below zero. About 4,000 died of cholera and hundreds of malnutrition, due to the weather and accidents due to corruption and the incompetence of the federal government. Arriving at their destination, a Choctaw chief said to an Alabama newspaper, "It was a journey of tears and death."

In 1832 it was turn the Seminole from Florida. But these decided to resist! They fought the American armed forces in two wars. Many Seminoles were killed in the two conflicts and some were tracked down by hounds and piled on ships bound for the new assigned territory, others managed to evade capture and remained in Florida. In 1834, were displaced from their territories 15,000 Creek and forced to march towards Oklahoma. About 3,500 of them died along the way. In the winter of 1838 it was the turn of the Cherokee who were brutally displaced from their homes by armed soldiers and forced to march over 1,200 miles. Pertussis, typhus, dysentery, cholera and hunger have been epidemic along the way. Historians estimate that more than 5,000 Cherokee died because of that trip. In 1840, tens of thousands American Indians were expelled from their lands in the southeastern states and forced to move across the Mississippi. The federal government promised that their new land would remain unchanged forever but instead, the "Indian country" contracted progressively. In 1907, Oklahoma became a state and Indian territory disappeared for good.