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Why was the Cherokee Nation forced to walk the Trail of Tears?

In 1838 the U.S. government forced the Cherokee Nation (a Native American tribe) to move from the Southeast to present-day Oklahoma in a mass migration known as the Trail of Tears. The march was given that name because the Cherokees were being relocated against their will, and thousands died along the way or suffered subsequent hardship. This was the government's solution to conflicts that had increasingly arisen when white setters expanded westward and claimed land occupied by Native Americans. With the approval of U.S. President Andrew Jackson (1767–1845) and under the direction of General Winfield Scott (1786–1866), federal troops escorted as many as 20,000 members of the Cherokee Nation from their tribal lands in Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. On treks lasting between 93 and 139 days, the Cherokees walked along an 800-mile...

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