Each year, a group of young members of the Cherokee Tribes gets on bikes and retraces the Trail of Tears their ancestors traveled when relocated by the U.S. government almost 100 years ago. They hope to bring more understanding and acknowledgement of the tragic event.
The Trail of Tears was a government ethnic cleansing that forced displacement of five indigenous tribes from their homes in the southeastern U.S. to reservations in current-day Oklahoma from 1830 to 1850. The federal government made 60,000 people march hundreds of miles, and many died along the way.
Young members of the Cherokee Nation and Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians take a three-week bike ride each year, retracing their ancestors' steps. The Remember the Removal ride is currently going through southern Missouri.