The Cherokee people filed several lawsuits against the state of Georgia, but the most significant was the case of Worcester v. Georgia, in 1832. Under Georgia law, missionary Samuel Worcester and other non-Cherokees were threatened with prison for being on Cherokee land without a license. In a widely publicized case, the United States Supreme Court sided with the Cherokees. However, then President Andrew Jackson chose to ignore the ruling and expel the tribe anyway.

In 1835, the Jackson administration and the Cherokees negotiated the Treaty of New Echota, which gave the tribe two years to move to Indian Territory voluntarily. Only only a few members of the tribe actually moved west, though. In 1838, the U.S. government and state militias advanced on Cherokee tribal lands and began to move the Cherokees off those lands by force.

The Great Smoky Mountains presented the first serious obstacle to the Cherokees who were forced to move to Indian Territory. They were forced to walk through and over these mountains in winter.

At first the Cherokees were interned in camps in eastern Tennessee. By November of that year they had been organized into large groups for the journey to Indian Territory. In the depths of winter and without adequate cover or supplies, the Cherokees made the long journey from Tennessee on foot, mostly on foot. Many of the Cherokees had been forced from their homes quickly and not allowed to gather blankets or warm clothes. Surrounded by snow and frigid winds, elderly Cherokees and young children began dying of cold and pneumonia. There were no shovels to dig their graves, so they were left where they died along the route. Some 4,000 Cherokees died on the Trail of Tears.

President Andrew Jackson, the man who signed the law that would seal the Cherokee's fate, retired from politics in 1837 and lived out his life on his plantation, the Hermitage. With his wife, Rachel, dead, Jackson had only the large group of orphans they had raised to lean on his remaining years. Strangely enough, two of the orphans were Cherokee.

Jackson's legacy today is mixed. Some revere him as the hero of the Battle of New Orleans and a man who defied the odds imposed by poverty and loss to ascend to the Presidency. However, Jackson is also remembered as the primary architect and executor of the Trail of Tears—a series of events that most contemporary Americans view as tragic and unjust. Click the button below to explore a brochure about the Trail of Tears that was created recently by the National Park Service, which maintains numerous trails and historic sites related to the Trail of Tears.