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Welcome to the Missouri Trail of Tears Association. We hope you will explore our effort here to share and document what we know of the story of the Trail of Tears. We don’t know the full story, but we hope you will join us as we learn as much as possible about this dark time in our Nation and State’s history.

Looking West

An Act of Congress

In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, which required the various Indian tribes in today’s southeastern United States to give up their lands. This was in exchange for a promise of federal territory which was located west of the Mississippi River. Most Indians fiercely resisted this policy. But as the 1830s wore on, most of the major tribes – the Choctaws, Muscogee Creeks, Seminoles, and Chickasaws – agreed to be relocated to Indian Territory (in present-day Oklahoma). 

A very complex GIS map of the area near Rolla Missouri.
This is an image of GLO 38N 6W of the Sixth Principal Meridian (Rolla, Missouri) after being georectified and inserted into a Geographic Information System. This image shows known and potential new Trail of Tears routes, property owners from the early 1800’s, sites extracted from notations on the GLO, modern city boundaries, MoDOT roads, and terrain layers all geospatially aligned within the GIS.

Our Focus

This website, the Home of the Missouri Trail of Tears Association. This site represents a collaboration of many individuals and organizations. We believe it is important to increase awareness. To document these events. And to share all of our resources and discoveries about the Trail of Tears in the State of Missouri. No single site can claim to be authoritative, nor speak for the people involved. The goal of this effort is to share the information we have collected. Let us never forget these events. We hope others might benefit from our work. – Dr. William Ambrose, Jefferson City, Missouri, 2022

Follow These Links to Learn More

The Blog is where we post updates about our efforts.

The Library is where we host our monographs, thousands of curated documents, and digital maps.

The Resources page has links to interactive maps, videos, and many other curated resources.

Visit the National Trail of Tears Association


If you have any suggestions, comments, or critiques please email them to Chris.Dunn@GeoVelo.com