In 1838 the Army moved back into the old military post near Belle Point , and expanded the base . They used troops to escort Choctaw and Cherokee , from their ancestral homelands in the Southeast ; they were the last of the tribes to leave . Remnants of the Five Civilized Tribes remained in the southeast , and their descendants in some cases have reorganized and been federally recognized . The Cherokee called the forced march the Trail of Tears , as many of their people and African-American slaves died along the way . The army enforced the removal of these peoples to the reserved Indian Territory , where the federal government granted them land . Many displaced Native Americans fell out of the march and settled in Fort Smith and adjoining Van Buren , Arkansas on the other side of the river
Trail of Tears
Trail of Tears
Fort Smith, Arkansas