April 10 2014
Julia Coates, a member of the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council, discusses The Trail of Tears.
The Trail of Tears devastated the Cherokee people and cast a shameful shadow on American history. In the winter of 1838, the Cherokee began the U.S. government-forced thousand-mile march with scant clothing and far too inadequate supplies. Cherokees were forced to take an arduous journey to an unfamiliar destination, the Indian Territory or what today is known as Oklahoma.