<Tr> <Th> Deaths </Th> <Td> <P> Cherokee (4,000) Creek Seminole (3,000 in Second Seminole War - 1835 - 1842) Chickasaw (3,500) </P> Choctaw (2,500--6,000) </Td> </Tr> <P> Cherokee (4,000) Creek Seminole (3,000 in Second Seminole War - 1835 - 1842) Chickasaw (3,500) </P> <P> The Trail of Tears was a series of forced removals of Native American nations from their ancestral homelands in the Southeastern United States to an area west of the Mississippi River that had been designated as Indian Territory . The forced relocations were carried out by various government authorities following the passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830 . The relocated people suffered from exposure, disease, and starvation while en route, and more than four thousand died before reaching their various destinations . The removal included members of the Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw nations . The phrase "Trail of Tears" originated from a description of the removal of the Cherokee Nation in 1838 . </P> <P> Between 1830 and 1850, the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole, and Cherokee people (including mixed - race and black freedmen and slaves who lived among them) were forcibly removed from their traditional lands in the Southeastern United States, and relocated farther west . Those Native Americans that were relocated were forced to march to their destinations by state and local militias . </P>

Where did the name trail of tears come from