The history of European settlement in the continental United States is a story of the displacement of one group of people by another. Initially living side-by-side with their Indian1 neighbours, the Europeans came to this part of North America firstly as colonists and later became citizens of a new country. The United States of America began conflicts with the native people living among them. Treaty after treaty was made and broken. Gradually, the Native Americans were reduced in number by war, famine, disease2 and ultimately by forced relocation.
The relocation of the Cherokee Nation as a result of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 was one of the last steps in the process of ethnic cleansing that paved the way for total white domination of the eastern USA.
The Cherokee journey, known as the Trail of Tears, is one of many sad chapters in the history of US western expansion, though it did lead to the creation of a sovereign state within a state - the Cherokee Nation - with its own constitution, government, and democratic processes, all of which mirrored those of the US. Though it is now more widely-known, the story of the Trail of Tears was glossed over and ignored by American history textbooks for many years.
