In 1838, just a few years after the Indian Removal Act of 1830, 16,000 Cherokees were forced to walk the Trail of Tears, a thousand mile walk from their homeland to the West of the Mississippi. The Cherokees had signed treaties with the American government and had been promised their land, but were betrayed and lived in concentration camps before being forced on this fatal walk. 
The walk was over a thousand miles and was from Georgia to Oklahoma. The Indians spent the majority of their walk at gunpoint. As many as half of the Cherokees died. The march took place on what is now known as the Trail of Tears. 

Trail of Tears - Winter

Map of the Trail of Tears

---

Arkansas 

As seen in the map above, the majority of the Trail of Tears took place in Northern Arkansas. Thousands of Cherokee Indians died on Arkansas soil. Also, since the Mississippi River is the Eastern border of Arkansas, Arkansas state lines was a border for Cherokee Indians once the marsh was over. Their destination was West Oklahoma and the Western border of Oklahoma is the Eastern border of Arkansas. The state also has many Indian Burial Grounds because of the thousands who died while on the walk. 
Indians had also been settling in Arkansas in the late 1700s when Indian Removal really began. Here, Native Americans could hunt and grow crops because this unorganized territory. 

A sign in Helena, Arkansas to recognize the Trail of Tears

---

Though it is not completely related to the actual Trail of Tears that thousands of innocent Native Americans marched and died on, it is a similar emotional representation. Bill Ray Cyrus talks of "Broken hearts, broken promises." Jackson broke his promise to the Indians about their land and many hearts were broken along those thousand miles. 

legacy