The Trail of Tears refers to the forced displacement of what white American colonizers called “The Five Civilised Tribes”. Over twenty years between 1830 and 1850; somewhere around 60,000 to 100,000 Native Americans were forced from their homes into the land the new Government had decided would be “Indian Territory”. During their removal, countless died from exposure, disease, and starvation. Their unnecessary deaths are now seen as a near-genocidal event, and the route they walked and died upon is forevermore known as The Trail of Tears. Who were the Five Civilised Tribes? The five civilized tribes refers to the major Native American nations that originally lived in America’s Deep South. These were the Cherokee, Chicasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee Creek and Seminole tribes.