“I Will Laugh No More While Living”

In 1835, a small group of Cherokees traded the tribe’s land east of the Mississippi River for land in the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). Because the rest of the tribe hadn’t approved the trade, they refused to move from their homes. In the summer of 1838, the U.S. Army forced them out, herding the Cherokees west on what became known as the Trail of Tears. “Cherokees [were] arrested and dragged from their homes, and driven at the bayonet point into the stockades,” wrote Pr