<P> It is with considerable diffidence that I attempt to address the American people, knowing and feeling sensibly my incompetency; and believing that your highly and well improved minds would not be well entertained by the address of a Choctaw . But having determined to emigrate west of the Mississippi river this fall, I have thought proper in bidding you farewell to make a few remarks expressive of my views, and the feelings that actuate me on the subject of our removal...We as Choctaws rather chose to suffer and be free, than live under the degrading influence of laws, which our voice could not be heard in their formation . </P> <P> United States Secretary of War Lewis Cass appointed George Gaines to manage the removals . Gaines decided to remove Choctaws in three phases starting in 1831 and ending in 1833 . The first was to begin on November 1, 1831 with groups meeting at Memphis and Vicksburg . A harsh winter would batter the emigrants with flash floods, sleet, and snow . Initially the Choctaws were to be transported by wagon but floods halted them . With food running out, the residents of Vicksburg and Memphis were concerned . Five steamboats (the Walter Scott, the Brandywine, the Reindeer, the Talma, and the Cleopatra) would ferry Choctaws to their river - based destinations . The Memphis group traveled up the Arkansas for about 60 miles (100 km) to Arkansas Post . There the temperature stayed below freezing for almost a week with the rivers clogged with ice, so there could be no travel for weeks . Food rationing consisted of a handful of boiled corn, one turnip, and two cups of heated water per day . Forty government wagons were sent to Arkansas Post to transport them to Little Rock . When they reached Little Rock, a Choctaw chief referred to their trek as a "trail of tears and death". The Vicksburg group was led by an incompetent guide and was lost in the Lake Providence swamps . </P> <P> Alexis de Tocqueville, the French philosopher, witnessed the Choctaw removals while in Memphis, Tennessee in 1831: </P> <P> In the whole scene there was an air of ruin and destruction, something which betrayed a final and irrevocable adieu; one couldn't watch without feeling one's heart wrung . The Indians were tranquil, but sombre and taciturn . There was one who could speak English and of whom I asked why the Chactas were leaving their country . "To be free," he answered, could never get any other reason out of him . We...watch the expulsion...of one of the most celebrated and ancient American peoples . </P>

Who led the cherokee on the trail of tears