The Cherokee eventually moved south from the area now called Virginia . As European colonists spread into the area , the native populations were forcibly displaced to the south and west , including the Muscogee , Yuchi , Chickasaw and Choctaw peoples . Then , from 1838 to 1839 , the US government forced the Cherokee to leave the eastern United States . Nearly 17,000 Cherokee were forced to march from eastern Tennessee to the Indian Territory west of the Arkansas Territory . This came to be known as the Trail of Tears , as an estimated 4,000 Cherokee died along the way . In the Cherokee language , the event is called '' Nunna daul Isunyi '' — " The Trail Where We Cried "
Trail of Tears
Trail of Tears
History of Tennessee