This presentation examines the mass deportation of Cherokee Indian citizens from their eastern homelands in 1838-'39, and considers the role of removal in the formation of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Federal Indian removal policy forced more than 15,000 Cherokee men, women and children to traverse the infamous Trail of Tears to Oklahoma, and thousands perished in the process. This traumatic episode of American history still haunts our national conscience after 170 years.
In the North Carolina mountains, the army arrested and deported more than 3,000 Cherokee citizens, yet several hundred fugitives eluded the military dragnet and remained in the region after the troops withdrew. These "runaways" formed their own communities after the removal, then ultimately united with the independent Qualla Cherokees (of present-day Cherokee, NC) to form the nucleus of the modern-day Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, one of three federally recognized Cherokee tribes.
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