1987 - Trail of Tears NHT
This Trail also commemorates Indian removal. It was added to the National Trails System in 1987 at the 150th anniversary of the Cherokee Removal and retraces the routes used by the U.S. Army to forcibly remove the Cherokee and other Native peoples from their homelands in Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama to Indian Territory in present day Oklahoma. Nearly one-fifth of the Cherokee Nation died in the holding forts and during the journey. In 2009, 2,845 miles of additional route were added (after an appropiate feasibility study) to tell the fuller story of this complex and tragic chapter of American history. Today the Trail consists of an interstate skein of routes - some overland and a few by river - representing the many different routes used for this evacuation. The Trail is administered by the National Park Service in close cooperation with the Trail of Tears Association. Both parties, and many other partners along the way, are devoted to the protection, preservation, development and interpretation of the Trail. At many sites visitors learn of the effects of the U.S. Government's Indian Removal policy on Native peoples, including the Cherokee, Choctaw, Muskogee Creek and Seminole tribes.
(See websites for www.nps.gov/tota, the Trail of Tears Association, and the Cherokee Heritage Center.)