The trail commemorates the forced removal of Cherokee from their homelands; the paths that 17 Cherokee detachments followed westward; and the revival of the Cherokee Nation. Taking place in the 1830s, the Trail of Tears was the forced and brutal relocation of approximately 100,000 indigenous people (belonging to Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole, among other nations) living between Michigan, Louisiana, and Florida to land west of the Mississippi River. The Trail of Tears was a trail between nine states that was used to force the Native Americans from their lands. What was the Trail of Tears? Thousands of people died on the Trail of Tears, and the Trail of Tears was one of the worst human rights abuses in American history . The Trail of Tears is over 5,043 miles long and covers nine states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Tennessee. The sites on Trail of Tears National Historic Trail, stretching 5,043 miles across nine states, together form a journey of compassion and understanding. The physical trail consisted of several overland routes and one main water route and, by passage of the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act in 2009, stretched some 5,045 miles (about 8,120 km) across portions of nine states (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Tennessee). The Trail of Tears National Historic Trail commemorates the removal of the Cherokee and the paths that 17 Cherokee detachments followed westward. In the 1830s, the Cherokee people were forced from their land by the U.S. government and forced to walk 1,000 miles. Today the trail encompasses about 2,200 miles of land and water routes, and traverses portions of nine states. Under the command of General Winfield Scott, over 600 wagons, steamers and keel boats moved about 16,000 Cherokee by land and by river. So began the "Trail of Tears," a 1,200 mile journey to unfamiliar land. Today, the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail is run by the National Park Service and portions of it are accessible on foot, by horse, by bicycle or by car. The story of the Trail of Tears is pretty simple. A considerable force of the U.S. Army—more than 7,000 men—was ordered by President Martin Van Buren , who followed Jackson in office, to remove the Cherokees. Cherokees Forced Along Trail of Tears Despite legal victories by the Cherokees, the United States government began to force the tribe to move west, to present-day Oklahoma, in 1838. The Trail of Tears was a series of forced relocations of approximately 60,000 Native Americans in the United States from their ancestral homelands in the Southeastern United States, to areas to the west of the Mississippi River that had been designated as Indian Territory.