In 1830 President Jackson signed the Indian ROLE OF NEW ORLEANS & JACKSON BARRACKS In New Orleans, tribal members were under Removal Act forcing more than 60,000 military guard but allowed some freedom of Native Americans to leave their homelands IN INDIAN REMOVAL movement. Newspaper reports of the era east of the Mississippi River. The torturous describe chiefs and their families attending overland journey from the Carolinas is theatre performances and the French known as the Trail of Tears. Less well Market in the city. known, but no less tragic, was the Gulf of Mississippi River to Arkansas, then Mexico-Mississippi River route. The overland to Indian Territory, present day The steamboat trip up the Mississippi River Muscogee (Creek) call it “Nene estemerkv” Oklahoma. The tribal groups could spend had its own hardships and dangers. The or “The Road of Misery.” hours or months in New Orleans at Jackson boats were often overcrowded, sometimes Barracks or nearby Fort Pike, depending on short of supplies, and prone to accidents. Whether pressured to sign away their lands weather, availability of boats, and military When river levels were low, the passengers in unethical treaties or defeated in their decisions. Military records indicate that few were forced to disembark and walk, often for attempts to remain in their homeland, an provisions were made for the travelers who days. One of the biggest single disasters of estimated 7,500 Seminoles from Florida and seem to have set up their own camp sites. the Indian Removal era was in October 1837 10,600 Muscogee (Creeks) from Living conditions in New Orleans could be when the steamboats Monmouth and Alabama were put aboard ships between extreme given the dismal provisions, heat, Trenton collided at night on the Mississippi 1837 and 1859 and sent across the Gulf of dampness, insects, and the threat of River above Baton Rouge with a horrific loss Mexico to New Orleans on this “Southern disease. Deaths among the tribal groups of life. Of the estimated 700 Muscogee Route.” They were then transferred to occurred at the Barracks, though the exact (Creeks) onboard the Monmouth, more than steamboats that took them up the number is not known. 300 died from drowning or injuries.