Following the passage of the 1830 Indian Removal Act, federal authorities forcibly removed approximately 60,000 Native Americans from their ancestral homelands in the Southeastern United States to the Indian Territory in what is today Oklahoma and western Arkansas. Among those compelled to relocate were the Cherokee, many of whom began the long, perilous trek in the winter of 1837.
After departing from northern Georgia and southeastern Tennessee with inadequate food and clothing, they traveled northwest overland through Kentucky and Illinois before crossing the Mississippi River into Missouri. The Missouri State Archives’ early State Road Surveys contain contemporaneous maps of the routes the Cherokee traveled through the state, also identifying the homes of Missourians that supplied them, aiding their survival during the epic tragedy.
Bill Ambrose, member and board secretary of the Trail of Tears Association’s Missouri Chapter, details his research using these previously overlooked records.
For more information about the Missouri Secretary of State's Office, visit www.sos.mo.gov.