Trail of Tears
The Trail of Tears passed through Little Rock in the 1830s. The trail was precipitated by the forced removal of Native American tribes residing in the southeastern part of the United States under the 1825 Indian Removal policy. Native Americans who passed through Arkansas were resettled in the Indian Territory (Oklahoma).
In November 1832 six or seven thousand Choctaw and Chickasaw tribesmen migrated through the city. Many of the travelers on the route died of cholera and other diseases. The Arkansas Gazette interviewed one of the Choctaw chiefs - perhaps Nitikechi or Thomas Harkins - who said that the removal had caused "a trail of tears and death."
The other Civilized Tribes that passed through or by Little Rock were the Cherokee, Muscogee Creek, and Seminole.
Seven interpretive displays documenting the Trail of Tears are installed in North Little Rock's Riverfront Park.
References
- William F. Pope, Early Days in Arkansas (Little Rock, AR; F. W. Allsopp, 1895), 135-137.
