When members of the eastern Indigenous nations were forcibly removed by the United States from their traditional homelands in the American southeast during the 1830s, they were driven west to what was then referred to as the Indian Territory, present-day Oklahoma.
The forced removal began in 1830 with Congressional passage of the Indian Removal Act and affected the five large nations of the southeast: the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee Creek and Seminole.
During 1838 and 1839, three detachments of Cherokee families passed through Fayetteville on their way to the territory. Two of the detachments came across southern Missouri and then southwest from Pea Ridge, passing through the Mount Comfort community and then turning west.
A third detachment, led by John Benge, passed through the south side of Fayetteville along present-day Huntsville Road and Martin Luther King Boulevard.
They camped overnight near the present-day campus of Fayetteville High School and the southern part of the university campus.
A small city park northwest of the intersection of MLK Boulevard and Stadium Drive commemorates their presence in Fayetteville.
The paved Tsalagi Trail loosely parallels their route on the west side of town.