In 1838 citizens of the Cherokee Nation were driven from their native lands by the federal government. Before the Cherokee people traveled west toward Indian Territory, legal claims were filed by these citizens against the US Government. These claims have existed in microfilm for decades but over the last few years an effort has been made to digitize these documents and organize them into a database for research purposes.

Having worked with us before, the National Trail of Tears Association teamed up with Megaphone to create an online database complete with detailed accounts of claimants, witnesses, perpetrators, Cherokee Agents responsible for filing the claims and more. Each claim has a high resolution image of the claim itself.

You can visit the 1838 Claims database at https://claims.nationaltota.com.