Approximately 50,000 indigenous people in the Southeast were moved to Indian Territory, the dry plains west of the Mississippi River, but excluding Missouri, Iowa, and The Territory of Arkansas.
Thousands died en route.
This purge opened millions of acres of fertile land east of the Mississippi to white settlers.
Indian Territory was vast, however the government intended the Native Americans' destination to be a more confined area - what would become eastern Oklahoma.
Photograph © Larry F. Levenson.
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