Hollywood has left the impression that the great Indian wars came in the Old West during the late 1800's, a period that many think of simplistically as the "cowboy and Indian" days. But in fact that was a "mopping up" effort. By that time the Indians were nearly finished, their subjugation complete, their numbers decimated. The killing, enslavement, and land theft had begun with the arrival of the Europeans. But it may have reached its nadir when it became federal policy under President (Andrew) Jackson.

In 1830 the Congress of the United States passed the "Indian Removal Act." Although many Americans were against the act, most notably Tennessee Congressman Davy Crockett, it passed anyway. President Jackson quickly signed the bill into law. The Cherokees attempted to fight removal legally by challenging the removal laws in the Supreme Court and by establishing an independent Cherokee Nation.

Ever read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee?

I live right next to the Qualla Boundary in North Carolina. The "Trail of Tears" is still news around hear. Nothing forgotten about it.

I live within an hour of Cape Girardeau, MO, one of the crossings into Missouri on the Trail of Tears. I have a distant relative who was abandoned on the trail, my relative found her and nursed her back to health and later she became his common law wife. The Trail of Tears is not forgotten around here, either. There is a very nice Mo. state park just north of Cape Girardeau where a princess of the Cherokees is said to have died and is buried.