The Trail of Tears is a name given to the forced relocation and movement of Native American

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 nations from southeastern parts of the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 following the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The removal included many members of the Cherokee

Cherokee

The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...

, Muscogee (Creek), Seminole

Seminole

The Seminole are a Native American people originally of Florida, who now reside primarily in that state and Oklahoma. The Seminole nation emerged in a process of ethnogenesis out of groups of Native Americans, most significantly Creeks from what is now Georgia and Alabama, who settled in Florida in...

, Chickasaw

Chickasaw

The Chickasaw are Native American people originally from the region that would become the Southeastern United States...

, and Choctaw

Choctaw

The Choctaw are a Native American people originally from the Southeastern United States...

 nations, among others in the United States, from their homelands to Indian Territory

Indian Territory

The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...

 (eastern sections of the present-day state of Oklahoma

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

). The phrase originated from a description of the removal of the Choctaw

Choctaw

The Choctaw are a Native American people originally from the Southeastern United States...

 Nation in 1831.